Bigger, More Diverse Festival

The fifth annual Whoop and Hollar Folk Festival happened over the weekend, just south of Portage la Prairie.

Festival goers had ideal weather for the event held for the first time in September, instead of August.

For organizer Linda Omichinski, what stands out about this year's edition, is more diversity and inclusiveness.

"Volunteers and artisans -- not only different ages, but different races, different capabilities," she says, "Visons of Independence are a big part of this year's festival for example. And they did Creative Corner. And we have food, with Kay and Cravings, and that also went over very well."

Omichinski adds diversity and inclusiveness extended to performers at the Red Barn venue.

"We had hip hop (with Andrew Chiponski), and they had the young band, Thin Connections, so we had, again, diversity, and we had a blues duo, so the music also went up another level of diversity."

She says while getting bigger was a good decision, it's also a bigger undertaking, so they'll be looking for more volunteers for 2018.