WADENA-The 27th annual Wadena Rendezvous and Folklife Festival is scheduled Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 12-13, at Old Wadena Park, north of Staples.
The event features a mix of re-enactors staging an authentic gathering of trappers or muzzle-
loading "buck skinners" along with a variety of folk music and demonstrations of folk arts, including a blacksmith, wreath making, rope braiding, pottery and several other
similar crafts.
This Old Wadena entertainment lineup includes several favorites from past years. Headlining the Old Wadena stage are John Gorka on Sunday and Dawn and Gary Timbs on Saturday.
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Gorka, a veteran singer/songwriter with 11 well-received albums, he's performed on stage for Austin City Limits and Mountain Stage. The Timbs have performed on numerous stages around
Staples and surrounding area and perform country, bluegrass, gospel favorites and original songs. Each morning will begin with an hour-long concert of traditional Ojibwe flute music from
Jake Kaehne. The Barley Jacks, a foursome offering fiddle, guitar, bass and drum, feature both
original vocals and a mix of traditional bluegrass, Celtic, R&B and Bebop.
Other performers at the event include the duo of Curtis and Loretta, the Erik Koskinen Band and the Margo McCreary Puppet Show.
New this year for those coming to the Rendezvous will be free bus rides by the Wadena
County Friendly Rider bus service on both Saturday and Sunday. Starting at 10 a.m., anyone in Staples can have a bus pick them up by calling 218-631-5730. In Wadena, pickups will be on the hour at the Humphrey Manor and the Wadena Depot (with ample parking available). Return rides to either Staples or Wadena will be made every half hour starting at 10:30 a.m.
Wadena County native Dick Oehlenschlager, an assistant curator at the Minnesota
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Science Museum in St. Paul, will be offering guided tours with interesting information
about the biology of Wadena County at three different times each day.
There will be opportunities for kids to participate in making a birdhouse to take home,
playing games from the 1800s with the Crow Wing Muzzleloaders members, and run
after candy from their Candy Cannon.
Admission for adults 12 and over is $10 for the weekend. Kids 12 and under are free.
There will be a maximum $25 admission for family. The Rendezvous and Folk Festival
is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
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The Rendezvous is made possible, in part, by support from Five Wings Arts Council,
Staples Host Lions, Wadena County, Arvig, First International Bank and Trust, Mid-
Central Federal Savings Bank, Mid-Minnesota Federal Credit Union, Verndale Lions
and StarBank, Verndale. Members of the Old Wadena Society provide both volunteers
and funding.
Old Wadena Park is situated on the banks of the Crow Wing River. The park is north
and west of Staples and north and east of the city of Wadena.
