TORONTO, July 5, 2010 -- Fifty years after the Mariposa Folk Festival began, the Hilroy Spiral Note Book that started it all has been preserved by York University − digitally.
Filled with jotted-down notes from Mariposa founder Ruth Jones McVeigh, the diary has been transferred from Library Archives Canada to join the holdings of the Mariposa Folk Foundation, held by the Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections at York.
To mark Mariposa’s 50th anniversary, York is launching an online exhibit of a selection of photographs, festival programs and sound recordings from the festival, highlighting historical documentation from the 1960s and 1970s. The exhibit, funded by a matching grant from the Ministry of Heritage, appears at this link: http://archives.library.yorku.ca/exhibits/show/mariposa.
The Mariposa Folk Festival began in Orillia on August 18-19, 1961 then moved to various other Ontario locations before returning home to Orillia in July, 2000. It helped to launch the careers of some of Canada’s most notable musicians, including Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Cockburn, Ian and Sylvia Tyson and Murray McLaughlan. The 50th anniversary festival will be held from July 9 to 11.
Jones McVeigh was a 33-year-old mother of four in Orillia in 1961. She was inspired to create the festival after hearing radio personality John Fisher tell the local Chamber of Commerce that every community in Canada should have a hook for tourism.
“A day or two later, I came down with the flu. As any mother knows, quiet time alone is rare. It gave me time to think. I loved folk music. Orillia, at that time, was pretty tame. So I decided to bring a folk festival to Orillia,” says Jones McVeigh, whose photographs and scrapbooks have also been moved to York.
“Jones McVeigh's diary captures the essence of the creativity and hard work required to launch a community festival,” says Anna St. Onge, the York University archivist in charge of digital projects and outreach. “She documented many of the moments that led up to the first Mariposa, from speaking to enthusiastic Ian Tyson and Sylvia Fricker at the Toronto Clef Club in the early weeks, to booking Orillia’s community centre a couple of weeks later, for $150.”
The daily notes also reveal how far and wide Jones McVeigh reached to promote the festival: “June 6 - Wrote letters and sent brochures the other day to Newsweek, Life, Nat Geographic, New York Times and Barrie T.V.”
Other examples of Mariposa history, now in the online archive, include:
The first festival program, from 1961: http://pi.library.yorku.ca/dspace/handle/10315/2970
Photograph of audience members dancing, from 1975:
Link to permanent location in institutional digital repository, YorkSpace: http://pi.library.yorku.ca/dspace/handle/10315/3797
(If used, please credit York University Libraries, Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, Mariposa Folk Foundation fonds, F0511, image no. ASC05925.)
Photograph of Festival-goers with guitar, from 1965:
Link to description and thumbnail:
http://archives.library.yorku.ca/exhibits/show/mariposa/1965/item/1342
Link to full image: http://archives.library.yorku.ca/archive/fullsize/httppilibraryyorkucadspacebitstreamhandle103153593asc05658_fa325f9bf9.jpg
(If used, please credit York University Libraries, Clara Thomas Archives
& Special Collections, Toronto Telegram fonds, F0433, image no.
ASC05658. Photographer: Pete Geddes.)
Link to early radio jingle:
http://archives.library.yorku.ca/exhibits/show/mariposa/mariposaorigins/item/2065
Link to excerpt of a 1975 workshop hosted by Enoch Kent, featuring an introduction by him and a recitation of the song "Willie's Rare":
http://archives.library.yorku.ca/exhibits/show/mariposa/1975/item/2066
York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 200,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 Faculties and 28 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
-30-
Media Contact:
Janice Walls, Media Relations, York University, 416 736 2100 x22101 / wallsj@yorku.ca
