70Deschênes: La Transmusicalité Electric picking, Ethnic Spinning: (Re)Defining the "folk " at the Winnipeg Folk Festival1

Abstract: The old debate "What is folk music? " carries a fresh face at the Winnipeg Folk Fes-tival, where it is embodied in a web of considerations regarding economic concerns, availability of mainstream and "world " music artists, and the growing cultural and stylistic diversity of artists who identify as Canadian. Founded in 1974, the festival has produced 35 years of public discourse surrounding the way in which the term "folk music " should be defined. Using media coverage and ethnography, this paper explores how the programming changes at the WFF have helped alter public conceptions of folk music over the past three decades. "Well, you can go to another stage if you want! Here we are play-ing music inspired by Jamaica, where I was born!" During a sunny afternoon at the 2002 Winnipeg Folk Festival, dozens of audience members (including myself) watched with interest as Simon Twitchin, the vocalist of Horace X, shouted defensively from the workshop stage at a fellow who had heckled, "This is not folk music! " Though I had never seen such an argument take place during a performance at this event, the "what is folk music " debate had indeed made appearances in local media, usually in the summertime when the festival was fast approaching or already in progress