r s Entertai ment T HEIGAN DAILY
Pictured are scenes from the Mariposa Folk Festival 1976, held in Toronto, Ontario June 25-
27. Clockwise, from above, are festivalgoers on their way to Toronto Island via the ferry, guitar-
ist and violinist in unusual pose, Taj Mahal, Morris dancers, and Steve Goodman with cameo
appearance by his son.
Ma iposa 9 6
By JOAN BORUS
TXEE YEAR in late J a a ,
hundreds of Ann Arborites
make the annual pilgrimage up
to Toronto to attend the Mar-i-
posa Folk Ftestival, one of the
most influential and highly ac-
claimed events of teh folk music
world. This year's festival, held
last weekend, once again creat-
ed the kind of memorable exper-
iences that keep people coming
back again and again.
Mariposa is one of the few
ventures which succeeds in try-
ing to be all things to all peo-
ple. Each year sees a subtle
change in either the program-
ming or festival-site layout
which reflects an ever-increas-
ing responsiveness to audiences'
changing needs and tastes. In
the best sense of the word, Mari-
posa tries to provide an over-
view of the rich and varied folk
music scene. Although it f e a-
tures several well-known artists,
(Steve Goodman and Taj Mahal
appeared this year) the festival
tends to dowvgrade individual
performances, stressing their
relationship to the music scene
as a whole.
Instead, Mariposa utilizes a
workshop approach, which takes
a topical approach toward the
music and allows the individual
to pick and choose what sort of
sounds assail his ears. This
year's festival-goers had a
choice of six different festival
sites, including a special child-
ren's area and the popular Na-
tive People's site, stressing the
folklore of Canadian Indians and
Eskimos - one of the more nov-
el offerings was Eskimo throat
music; not everyone's cup of
tea, but a definite learning ex-
perience, which, ultimately, is
the whole point of the festival.
WITH THIS sort of set up
and with such a wide variety of
programming - this year fea-
tured French Canadian f i d d I e
music, country blues, jug band
music, gospel singing, and the
ubiquitous blue-grass music
which never seems to lose pop-
ularity. Part of the festival's
magic lies in that each individ-
ual has a uniquely personalized
experience. Depending upon his
or her orientation and where he
tr she happened tobe at any
giveni moment, every person
who went to the festival w ill
have a different set of memor-
ies. Whether they laughed their
way through Gamble Roger's
tales of Southern rednecks
"fraught with horn," crowded up
to see Steve Goodman, clapped
and stomped to the electrifying
rhythms of Sweet Honey in the
Rock, a black gospel group, or
wore out their dancing shoes at
the square dances, no two per-
sons' experience of Mariposa
is quite the same.
However, if nothing else, the
weather lent a common denom-
See FOLK, Page 7
Photog ra phy
by
Ken Fink