The 39th Annual Woodstock Folk Festival 2024

The 39th Annual Woodstock Folk Festival is on the way Sunday, July 21, 2024. We’ll gather from noon to 6:00 pm on the historic Square in Woodstock, Illinois, 47 miles northwest of Chicago.

About the Festival

Each year, the Woodstock Folk Festival delights young and old with outstanding performers on its Main Stage on the Square. Additional events include:

• an Open Mic Stage across the street at Stage Left Cafe
• a music Workshop
• the Festival’s hallmark All-Sing Finale to end the day

In 2024, for our 39th Annual Woodstock Folk Festival co-hosts are Chuck VanderVennet and Marilyn Rea Beyer. Connie Kaldor will receive the Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award and Annie Capps its “Woody” Award.

Connie Kaldor, Our 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner

Folk icon Connie Kaldor is a Canadian singer-songwriter, entertainer, tv personality, and women’s music pioneer who celebrates 45 years in show business with her 18th recording titled, “Keep Going!” And Connie certainly does keep going with tours around the world since the 1980s and numerous online shows during the pandemic.

Connie’s enormous stage presence, her unforgettable melodies, and her emotional depth as a songwriter established her as a headline act on the festival circuit and in concert halls over decades. The Boston Globe described Connie as “a masterful performer, wildly funny one moment, deeply personal the next.”

An Illustrious Music Career

Connie received three Juno Awards, the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy Awards in the U.S. She also won a Parents Choice Award for Lullaby Berceuse; received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal; was made a Member of the Order of Canada; and hosted the very first Canadian Folk Music Awards.

Originally from Regina, Saskatchewan, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Regina, an Alumni Association Honor Award from the University of Alberta, and was the first songwriter to receive the Western Literature Association Distinguished Achievement Award.

Before starting a full-time music career in 1979, Connie performed with various theatre groups. She started a full-time music career in 1979 and continues to write and perform. In 1980 the Winnipeg Folk Festival selected her to be part of The Travelling Goodtime Medicine Show with Sylvia Tyson, Stan Rogers, and Jim Post (the late Jim Post received the Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007). She played with the legendary Stan Roger several other times including at a Canadian Workshop at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas in June 1973. Stan tragically passed away in a plane crash while returning home from that Festival. She was featured in the Woodstock Folk Festival’s Woodstock Wednesdays series.

Connie also wrote and recorded children’s CD books and recently published a cookbook. She often performs with her husband and two sons, and we hope they will join her at the Woodstock Folk Festival this summer.

The Lifetime Achievement Award

We honor Connie for her songwriting and performance skills, her ability to touch both children and adults with her songs, and her leadership as a woman in the international folk music community for almost half a century.

You can read more about Connie at conniekaldor.com.

Annie Capps, Our 2024 “Woody” Award Winner

The Woodstock Folk Festival’s “Woody” Award generally honors someone who may be a musician but whose major contributions have been outside the performance area.

Annie has done it all, though, so she will also perform at the Festival along with her husband Rod and their mandolin player Jason Dennie.

Musical and Other Achievements

While touring regularly in Michigan, this group also toured nationally from California to Maine and recorded many albums. Annie is a singer-songwriter performing folk, musical theater, and even hard rock. In the 80s and 90s, she and Rod split their time between original projects and cover bands, including “Foolish Mortals,” who performed extensively in the Detroit area.

Annie’s most recent album was Folk Radio’s #3 album in January 2023. Melissa Clarke of Americana Highways said, “Annie Capps’ vocals shine with the energy befitting a Broadway musical, and the acoustic compositions are enchanting, all the while the lyrical tales make the best of the human experience.”

In addition to her songwriting and performances, Annie also presented a concert series. Perhaps her biggest impact, though, comes through her service as Conference Director and President of the Folk Alliance Region Midwest (FARM). Through her work with FARM, she not only elevated the status of the organization, but her work also benefitted countless musicians from the Midwest and beyond. During the pandemic, she was the guiding force behind weekly virtual networking meetings, online Tech Talks, and online performances sponsored by FARM. She continues to be active in the organization.

The Woody Award

We honor Annie for her musical talent, her organizational skills, and her ability to not only bring people together but to elevate them individually and as a group.

More information is at annieandrodcapps.com.

Watch for More Festival News and Announcements

In the coming months, we will announce more performers in our monthly emails and on Facebook. If you do not already receive our emails, please subscribe using the short form on the right side of every page of our website, woodstockfolkfestival.org.

The Woodstock Folk Festival Thanks …

Radio Partners WDCB/90.9FM, WFMT/98.7FM, and WNUR/89.3FM, the City of Woodstock, and Real Woodstock made this year’s Festival possible in part.

Donations

Donations of any amount to the Woodstock Folk Festival are welcome throughout the year. Just use the yellow “Donate” button on the right side of each page of the website woodstockfolkfestival.org.

Friends of the Festival (donations of $100-499) receive mention in the Festival program. Sponsors (individuals, companies, or organizations who make donations of $500 or more) are listed in the Festival program, press releases, and on the Festival website. If desired, they may also have a small banner on each part of our site that links back to their own site. We realize that not everyone can donate at the Friend or Sponsor level, so please know we greatly appreciate donations of any amount!

The Festival is an Illinois 501(c)(3) non-profit, all-volunteer organization.

A Few More Facts Of Interest

The Festival was founded in 1986. It brings quality folk music — local, national, and international — to Northern Illinois and in the process builds community through music. It occurs each year on the third Sunday of July.

The Festival also presents periodic concerts, including one coming up on Sunday, April 21, 2024 (details elsewhere at woodstockfolfestival.org).

The Festival is on the land where the Ho Chunk, Illini, Miami, and Potawatomi Peoples lived. Woodstock is one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Distinctive Destinations. It was the film location for the movie, “Groundhog Day”.

More information about the Festival including its history is at woodstockfolkfestival.org.