Music review: Main Stage highlights from Day 1 of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival
Stellar sets from Aysanabee, Hazlett, and Sahra Halgan got the 49th annual fest off to a great start, and the weather certainly didn’t hurt
Sahra Halgan
The Vancouver Folk Music Festival continues at Jericho Beach Park to July 19
THE WEATHER WAS looking iffy earlier on Friday, but the outdoor-concert gods decided to smile upon the first day of the 2026 Vancouver Folk Music Festival. It was a damn-near perfect evening, the azure sky dotted with white clouds that turned cotton-candy pink as the sun slowly set on Jericho Beach.
We watched all the action on the Main Stage, which included three full sets and two shorter in-betweeners. Here are the highlights, along with info on when to catch the performers during the remaining two days of the fest.
First up, at 6 pm, was Aysanabee. For a folk fest, this was a pretty rock ’n’ roll way to get the Main Stage started. Yes, the Oji-Cree singer-songwriter from Ontario did perform a semi-unplugged version of his breakthrough hit, “Nomads”—similar to the version heard on Timelines, his acoustic EP from earlier this year—and he displayed a prodigious two-handed tapping approach to the acoustic guitar when he played solo.
Aysanabee
When joined by his full band—backing vocalist Kyla Charter, keyboardist-singer Konstantine Aivaliotis, guitarist Adam Hanney, and drummer Miles Gibbons—Aysanabee made it clear why he is most often slotted into the “alternative rock” genre. With Gibbons bringing the rolling thunder, and Hanney dialling the overdrive up to 11, “Somebody Else” ignited with a primal energy a band like Kings of Leon would trade their crowns to recapture. (By the time you read this, Aysanabee will also have performed on the South Stage on Saturday as part of Eastern Sunrise.)
Tina Dico and Helgi Jónsson are sort of like the Nordic Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, in that they are both highly accomplished solo artists in their own right but have such a musically symbiotic relationship that each often plays in the other’s band in addition to their work as a duo. (Unlike Welch and Rawlings, who are strictly musical partners, Denmark’s Dico and Iceland’s Jónsson are also a married couple.) Dico, who has a beautifully fluid guitar style and a sure hand with a melody, got top billing here, but Jónsson almost stole the show when he pulled out his trombone. No, that was not a euphemism. (Tina Dico will participate in Stories From Across the Pond on the South Stage at 4 pm on Saturday.)
Hazlett
Your correspondent (that’s me) has seen Hazlett once before, performing an absolutely mesmerizing solo acoustic set last year at Seattle venue Neumo’s (which might have actually been packed beyond capacity, but you didn’t read that here). For his Folk Fest appearance, the Australian-born singer-songwriter (who is now based in Sweden) brought along a three-piece backing band, which brought new depth and atmosphere, to say nothing of a not-unwelcome country-rock feel, to signature tunes like “Blame the Moon” and “Missionary Feelings”.
Hazlett (a.k.a. Mitchell Lewis) jokingly apologized several times for killing the festival vibes with his sad songs, but no one seemed to mind. The crowd certainly appreciated the nod to Canadiana when he performed The Band’s “The Weight”—even if he did forget the words in the second verse and skipped the remaining three verses entirely. (Hazlett has no remaining Vancouver Folk Music Festival appearances.)
His almost comically common name and guy-at-the-pub-with-a-guitar look were quickly forgotten as soon as in-betweener John Smith stepped to the microphone. Good lord, does this guy have a voice; confident, a little gritty around the edges, but mostly just plain huge. Combine that with his stellar acoustic-guitar work, which finds a happy zone between percussive rhythm and ringing melodies, and it’s little wonder that Smith is already a firmly established star on the U.K. folk scene. The Englishman noted that his only previous attempt to play Vancouver, in 2022, went awry when a positive COVID-19 test forced him into quarantine at the Holiday Inn downtown. Here’s hoping he’ll be back. (On Saturday at 4 pm, John Smith hosts Stories From Across the Pond on the South Stage, and performs a full set there on Sunday at 12:10 pm.)
(Left to right) Vancouver Folk Music Festival Main Stage; Sahra Halgan
Her uniquely keening vocals were at the centre of her headlining set, but Sahra Halgan’s backing band—comprising French musicians Aymerci Krol (drums and percussion), Maël Salètes (electric guitar), and Régis Monte (keyboard)—were a perfect match for her outsized talents. As Halgan carried the flag of Somaliland, the self-declared and only partially recognized republic in the Horn of Africa from which she originated, Krol and Monte brought forth surprisingly muscular Afrobeat rhythms. Salètes was the real revelation, though, his playing evoking not only North African music, but also raw funk and wiry indie rock. (Sahra Halgan has no remaining Vancouver Folk Music Festival appearances.) 
Related Articles
