All things MicroGrants! Tune in for a group discussion about MicroGrants – the history of the granting program, event highlights, application tips, and more! This conversation features Connie Quayle, Mark Vonesch, Francis McKenty, Immanuel McKenty, Jemma Hicken, and your host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie.
Continue reading Folk U: All Things Microgrants
Lovefest 2025 was at Linnaea Farm on Saturday August 9th.
Cortes Currents arrived early and wandered through the crowd asking people about the festival and why they kept coming back. In the process, I also recorded a few short clips of music, asked one of the principal organizers about this year’s program and some people shared their recollections of the festival’s beginnings
Continue reading Gleanings from Lovefest 2025
The Awakeneers are still living in Willow Point and have just released a new single. Cortes Currents interviewed them over ZOOM and we had our cameras turned off to preserve bandwidth.
Isa McKenty explained how he came to write ‘December in the North’:
“It was the day before one of our concerts in the Acoustic Matinee Series. I was supposed to be practicing for that, but it started snowing and I looked out my window. It was so pretty that I wrote ‘December in the North’ instead of practicing. It was actually a year to the day between when I started writing the song and when we recorded most of the tracks that you’ll hear on the recording.”
Continue reading The Awakeneers New Single: December In The North
Behind Lovefest’s ongoing success, and the success of so many festivals and community events around the province, is a dedicated corps of volunteers.
According to Amy Robertson, who oversaw this part of the festival, “We had about 60 volunteers this year. They were doing everything from making sure that parking is safe out on the road and that the blue bus has a good place to park. Volunteers sell tickets, help the vendors and they’re setting up. They do a lot of decoration for this event, help promote it, sell T- shirts, and just ensure that everybody has a good, safe time.”
Continue reading Behind the Scenes: The 60 heroes of Lovefest
The McKenty family’s first public performance was in the outdoor section of the Mansons Farmer’s Market in 2006. After leaving their rental home at Smelt Bay in 2018, they have lived in Vancouver, at Hollyhock and for the last year and a half in Willow Point.
“We can see Cortes across the water,” explained Immanuel.
To which his father, Robert added, “We’re looking straight across at a place where we lived for 10 years. When we go for a swim, are gardening, or anytime we look out of the window: we’re looking at Cortes. So we’re not actually gone, in our own perspective, we’re still displaced Cortesians.”
Continue reading The Awakeneers (P2): Lost in the Goat Trails
