Winnipeg Folk Fest 2025

Since the Folk Fest started cracking down on professional looking cameras in, this post will be limited to iPhone snapshots only. I also took a few on film, but those are still waiting on development and not included here.

There was a lot of smoke in the air this year (from the wildfires, not the people), which was not ideal, but otherwise, the weather worked out well. It only stormed at night and only got exceedingly hot during our partial days on Thursday and Sunday.

It felt unusual -- although not a bad thing, necessarily -- that it was just the four of us there this year. R's family of origin usually joins in one form or another, but they had some other things going on.

 

It was the festival's 50th anniversary!

Gillian Welch was my highlight of the year:

Hippies:

Stilt-walker and my tarp shuffle ticket:

Sooooo many people in attendance this year...

The Gustavo show in the kids' tent (left) and a sleepy show at Shady Grove (right):

We made a point of getting a good spot for this show because Ani DiFranco was on the roster, but her plane was delayed and she missed it entirely. We likely would have been able to get her autograph too :-(.

Our camping spot had a lot of shade for a change. Cheeseballs have become a tradition!

Photo by R (thanks for getting me in the frame):

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Glamping getaway

R and I had a really nice weekend staying in a Getaway cabin up in Willow River, MN.

The place was tiny, but it had a big bed and a big window:

We hiked in Banning State Park:

It was chilly outside, so downtime in the cabin was a welcomed retreat.

We also went out for a couple of dinners, we had a campfire, and I explored the area with my film camera a bit. It was wonderful. Thank you to Grandma Linda for watching the kids!

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Ver-mom-ica at a waterfall

The ladies went camping at Minneopa State Park last weekend with their Girl Scout troop. Here is a selfie they took along a hike:

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Afton State Park camping weekend

We've been on a good run of camping with this crew every August:

This year we considered it "glamping," although the only difference was we slept in a rustic cabin rather than a tent.

We hit the trails on Saturday...

...And found a nice beach along the St. Croix, where we spent a large chunk of the day playing and swimming.

Dragonfly on Omri's head:

Making new memories with old friends:

Relaxing in the hammock back at the site:

This girl always has the wild eye when attacking a s'more.

Not a great photo, but I wanted to capture the breakfast scene. Everything tastes so good while camping!

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William O'Brien state park

We went on our annual August camping trip with friends, this time at William O'Brien State Park, which is conveniently close to the Cities.

Pie iron pizzas for dinner:

Camp dog:

These are some of Veronica's oldest friends... I'm glad they continue to keep in touch:

Based on my limited photos, it would appear we did a lot of eating on this trip. S'more were a must:

We took a long bike ride Saturday morning and went swimming in the afternoon, but somehow I didn't manage to capture any photos from these activities.

The park is located along the St. Croix river. Omri enjoyed exploring the river's edge.

I'm mixing in a few iPhone photos. Love this one:

Veronica's fire starting skills have come a long way:

The girls did a little song and dance:

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