38th Winnipeg Folk Festival Comes to a Close

Jeff Tweedy of Wilco performs on the final day of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Sunday, July 10, 2011. (TED GRANT / CHRISD.CA)

The 38th annual Winnipeg Folk Festival wrapped Sunday, drawing in an estimated 60,000 people throughout the five-day event.

On Saturday, Tim Robbins and Imaginary Cities were the big acts, followed by Oh My Darling, Sierra Noble and Jeff Tweedy on Sunday to round out the festival.

One of the newest ways to get people connected and talking at this year’s event was to utilize social media. The Folk Festival launched an official iPhone app to let attendees have easy access to the show’s schedules, view photos, find out more about their favourite artist, and connect with other revellers at the park. The app also includes Facebook and Twitter integration, which was used throughout the festival for special prize giveaways and tweet-ups with fellow users. The app reportedly received more than 3,000 downloads. BlackBerry users, however, were left to use the old fashioned paper program.

View the photo gallery below from Day 4.

View the photo gallery below from Day 5.

2011 Winnipeg Folk Festival statistics

• Cumulative paid attendance was 59,553, approximately 5,400 more than last year with its biggest crowd on night on Friday, July 8 with 13,383 paid attendees
• Over the course of five days, the total cumulative attendance including paid patrons, 2,600 volunteers, and performers and guests was 81,320.