Canadian Folk Music Awards to go ahead March 31 to April 2 in PEI – finally!
The 2022 Canadian Folk Music Awards (CFMA) are returning to Prince Edward Island to host the 17th annual awards celebrations in Charlottetown. Following two years of virtual events, the CFMA board is pleased to be bringing back live performances to in-person audiences for its 2022 edition.
The three-day celebration will bring Canada’s finest folk musicians to the red shores of Prince Edward Island from March 31 to April 2, with two sets of showcases and two nights of award concerts, including performances by several 2022 CFMA nominees. This year, 20 awards will be presented during the two awards events at Charlottetown’s, The Guild.
The scheduled showcase events are titled The Songs and Stories — Songwriters Nominee Showcase and Tradworks — Traditional Music Nominee Showcase.
“These past two years have presented so many challenges for all of us,” said CFMA Board Member and Music PEI executive director Rob Oakie. “The music industry has been particularly hard hit and the thought of bringing a national event like the CFMA’s here in 2022 is thrilling to say the least.”
Music PEI has created an export buyers program for the CFMA performers to assist in creating new business opportunities with support from FACTOR, ACOA and the Province of PEI. The goal is to showcase as many CFMA nominees as possible to music industry professionals around the world. The nominees’ performances during the festival will be used as showcases to delegates who include festival and venue programmers, agents, promoters and other music industry professionals. Through this partnership, Music PEI is responsible for recruiting the delegates, presenting the showcases online and organizing one-on-one business meetings.
This year, PEI garnered two of the 11 award nominations going to Atlantic Canadian musicians, with nominations for Alicia Toner (Solo Artist of the Year) and the East Pointers (Single of the Year).
Alicia will perform at the Saturday night awards concert on April 2 starting at 7:30 p.m. ADT. Tickets to the awards concerts are $40 each, plus taxes, and are available for purchase online here: https://bit.ly/3I9IToy
