How the Winnipeg Folk Festival got out of debt in 1987

It was supposed to be a one-time event to mark Winnipeg's centennial in 1974. But 44 years later, the Winnipeg FolkFestival is still going strong, drawing thousands of music fans to a provincial park outside the city for four days of music from acts across Canada and around the world.

But the festival's future was not always secure. After a run of bad weather and low attendance for several yearsin the early 1980s, the festival was $140,000 in debt and desperate to turns things around.

Enter Rosalie Goldstein, anew artisticdirector determined to shake things up by going beyond the traditional folk acts that had been a staple of the festival.

Not just folk anymore

For the 1987 festival, Goldsteinbooked acts as diverse as South Africa's Ladysmith Black Mambazo, an all-male chorus, the 1940sswing throwbacks The Canadian Aces, and gospel group The Barrett Sisters from Chicago. On opening night that year, her plan was off to a good start, drawing a record audience of 5,000.

In later years she would book such wide-ranging acts including the Barenaked Ladiesin 1992 just as they were becoming one of the most popular bands in Canadaas well as Jump Sister Jump, a team of women from New York who skipped rope, double-dutch style, for enthralled audiences.