EASTEND — Eastend Arts Council hosted the annual Stegner House Celebration on Saturday, Feb. 8. Despite continued freezing temperatures, a supportive crowd came to enjoy an Asian-inspired dinner prepared by Eastend Kinettes along with entertainment, silent auction and raffle draws, all in support of the arts council’s ongoing commitment to operating the Wallace Stegner House and artist in residency program.
A traditional component of the evening has been a reading from one of Wallace Stegner’s works. Artist in residence at the house, Hannah Davis from New Westminster, B.C., did the honours and shared a passage from one of Stegner’s books. “Charms,” a musical duo featuring husband and wife Denis and Meg Dufresne, entertained with their vocal and multi-instrumental talents. Several silent auction items, many by local artists, were available to bid on in addition to a door prize and raffle basket of locally grown food items.
There was great anticipation for the evening with the promised announcement of the lineup for the second Big Flat Folk Fest. The inaugural festival held on July 13, 2024, featured Colter Wall, Blake Berglund and Belle Plaine along with many other performers.
“The festival was so well organized that it seemed like a 10-year festival rather than a first year,” Berglund commented.
Casey Ziegler, last year’s MC for the event, took to the microphone to congratulate the arts council on the success of 2024 and to encourage the community to once again embrace the festival and the many visitors who would be coming to Eastend on July 11 and 12 for this year’s expanded, two-day event.
The artist roster was then revealed with Corb Lund headlining Big Flat Folk Fest 2025, along with Jake Vaadeland and The Sturgeon River Boys who, just this past week, received their first Juno nomination for Traditional Roots Album of the Year with Vaadeland’s “Retro Man … More and More (Expanded Edition).”
Other artists include Kyle McKearney, The Local Honeys, Kenny Feidler, Willy Tea Taylor, Ellen Froese, Bryce Lewis, Morgan Klaiber, Carter Felker, Last Birds, Mary Liv and The North Sound.
The 2025 festival features two days of entertainment. Adult tickets are $140 and youth ages six to 18 are $75. There are no single-day ticket options. Tickets for the event were available at the Stegner celebration, followed by a local ticket blitz on Feb. 12 and general sales opened on Feb. 14. Visit https://bigflatfolkfest.ca/ for all the details and link to online ticket purchases at www.showpass.com/bigflatfolkfest.
