VANCOUVER—As a proud partner of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, CUPE BC continued a long-standing tradition at this year’s event (July 18-20) by co-sponsoring a progressive workshop at Stage 2, the Utah Phillips memorial stage.
Joan Baez was not able to attend the festival and participate in the workshop as planned. However, the Tribute to Pete Seeger on Stage 2 was a powerful celebration of the late folk music hero’s pro-worker, anti-corporate, pro-family, anti-war, pro-environment vision of how we can all do our part to protect the health of our planet and the dignity of civilization. Pete Seeger died on January 27 this year.
Eliza Gilkyson, Josh White Jr., Alejandro Escovedo and Karine Polwart illustrated the wide range of Seeger’s canon with songs both well-known and obscure such as “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” and “All You Fascists.” White roused the audience with his rendition of “He Was A Friend Of Mine,” while Alejandro Escovedo performed a chilling rendition of “Deportees,” Woody Guthrie’s song about Mexican migrants chased out of the U.S. once the crops have been harvested.
The CUPE BC ads in the Festival program once again reached more than 20,000 attendees. When Eliza Gikyson thanked the Unions for standing up for working people and fighting the corporate agenda, the audience responded with enthusiastic cheers. Regional Vice President Doug Sprenger was at the Jericho Beach festival site with his camera to capture the mood. See more of his photos in the Gallery.
