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![\"Photos](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4383736_web1_260709-Folk-Fest-00025.jpg\")
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Photos by MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
Stephanie Norris (left) and Logan Leclerc with their Mystery Machine-themed Boler camper in the festival campsite; the couple created a Scooby-Doo-themed site.<\/p>\n
Others brought a little more than the basics.<\/p>\n
Logan Leclerc and Stephanie Norris packed a 5-by-10-foot projector screen to add some extra fun to their Scooby-Doo-inspired site. The theme started when Leclerc painted his Boler camper to look like the Mystery Machine \u2014 the van used by the animated crime-fighting team\u2014 which drew much attention and many photos from passersby.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt became a big hit, so we were like, why not make it a full thing where people can come and hang out, rather than just a photo op?\u2019\u201d Norris says.<\/p>\n
The couple has since added a life-size Scooby poster, strings of colourful flowers and a board where people can vote for the daily midnight movie. Leclerc estimates 200 people stopped by Wednesday\u2019s screening of Shrek and is looking forward to hosting Super Smash Bros. contests throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really wanted people to see it from Pope\u2019s Hill,\u201d Leclerc says of the large white screen stationed on the fence line facing the mound that was once visited by Pope John Paul II and which becomes a campground gathering place during the festival.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n The folk festival encourages creativity in the campground with a decoration contest.<\/p>\n Leclerc and Norris slept in their car Tuesday night to snag the primo camping spot.<\/p>\n It was worth the discomfort, especially for a chance at winning the annual campground decoration contest.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first year I came to folk fest \u2026 I was in awe of everything,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a magical experience walking through the campground, there was so much to see and do. I got jealous and wanted to be a thing to do and a place to be, so I put in the effort.\u201d<\/p>\n The festival launched the contest in 2023. Campers vote for their favourite installations and the winners receive tickets for the following year.<\/p>\n Nearby, Kateesha Wai was helping her friend craft an elaborate tinfoil hat.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Alexa Stockl (centre) gets help with her tinfoil hat from friends Shea Hunker (left) and Kateesha Wai at their alien disco-themed site in the festival campsite.<\/p>\n \u201cAt folk fest, there\u2019s always these lovely artists that come in and build wonderful artistic structures and so we took inspiration from that,\u201d Wai says while pulling another strip of foil from the half-dozen rolls she and her friends brought camping.<\/p>\n The crew of 20 campers was unaware of the contest, but had spent many hours leading up to the festival crafting decor to turn their treed site into an \u201calien disco\u201d \u2014 a cardboard spaceship, a telescope, UFOs, hanging planets.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s for the joy of the game,\u201d Robyn Chow says of the group effort. \u201cYou walk around and see so many amazing sites and you want to be part of that community.\u201d<\/p>\n The festival gates opened with the traditional tarp run, after which the sellout crowd settled in for a muggy, buggy night of music. Single tickets and weekend passes sold out prior to Thursday\u2019s opening night for the first time in festival history.<\/p>\n The sky was overcast and punctuated by the smell of kettle corn and bug spray while Grandmother Chickadee Richard delivered the opening blessing.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Annie Hollander hustles to set up a tarp near the front of the stage as the Winnipeg Folk Festival kicks off.<\/p>\n Brandon-born indie rocker Fontine followed, performing the title track of her 2025 album, Good Buddy, to a rapt audience. The set included cameos from musical friends Taylor Jackson and Lauren Dillon.<\/p>\n Wearing a trucker hat emblazoned with the words \u201cBig Rig\u201d and strumming a pink electric guitar, Fontine soaked up the chance to headline in front of a hometown crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an evening I\u2019ll never forget,\u201d she said after thanking the crowd.<\/p>\n The clouds had parted in advance of American indie-pop artist Father John Misty\u2019s closing main-stage performance.<\/p>\n The festival wraps Sunday night with 15,000 visitors expected daily.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Lauriane Bellefeuille, 5, hangs out in a hammock as music gets underway on the main stage.<\/p>\n eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Sydney Kaminski walks to the main stage to set up her tarp.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n A whimscial marker helps campers find their site at the festival campground.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Local singer-songwriter Fontine opens the main stage at the Winnipeg Folk Festival on Thursday.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Eva Wasney Eva Wasney has been a reporter with the Free Press Arts & Life department since 2019. Read more about Eva<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Eva produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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