2023 Peace Valley Folk Fest to move forward one weekend

HUDSON’S HOPE, B.C. – Peace Valley Folk Festival co-founder Ben Waechter says that next year’s event is coming to audiences sooner than they think.

The change of date is to avoid running the event on the same dates as the Energetic County Fair and Ribfest, both of which occurred on the same weekend as this year’s festival.

Despite other events running simultaneously, Waechter says this year’s festival was well attended with a turn out of about 586 people, 66 of whom were artists and an additional twelve were event facilitators.

Waechter says the big difference between this year’s event and the inaugural 2021 festival is that organizers knew what to expect.

“We worked out a lot of the bugs from last year, like how to get people through the gate conveniently, how many food vendors we needed and how to make it a better experience for the artists,” Waechter explained.

He adds that the event also pulled performers from further in the province, allowing the event to diversify its lineup.

“What we heard back from some of the attendees was that they were shocked at some of the bands weren’t all just folky country-style music,” Waechter said.

The festival’s 2022 lineup included artists such as Half/Asian with Amy the Coda, Last Horse Standing, The Mechanical Botanicals, and the Doig River Drummers.

For next year’s event, Waechter says he wants to build an additional stage, attract unique food vendors, and increase the capacity of the festival.