The Martlet

The 2010 Olympic Games events have been saturated with mainstream media coverage. But one Victoria event is making sure local independent media gets a go at the Games, too.

FOLK OFF, hosted in the Solstice Café on Nov. 7, was a riotous evening of rebellion in classic folk tradition. One favourite whiskey-soaked outlaw folk poster boy, Joey Only, was a feature of the evening. Zoe Blunt, of Guerilla News Network and an organizer of No-2010 Olympics Victoria, decided to call the event a “Victory Party” to remind people of the events and protests that took place on Oct. 30 during the Olympic Torch Relay.

Victoria’s own spoken word act, the Outspoken Wordsmiths, organized the event to benefit those independent media keeping a watchful eye on the Games and protests surrounding them.

According to the International Folk Music Council, folk music is defined as “the product of a musical tradition that has been evolved through the process of oral transmission.”

In the Canadian Journal for Traditional Music, Isabelle Mills writes that folk songs are one of the most intimate possessions of the so-called poor.

For the most part, she explains that folk songs evolve to suit the ways and conditions of working-class life. They reflect the hopes and aspirations that rise from those ways and conditions. Folk songs range in subject matter from war, work, civil rights and economic hardship to nonsense, satire and, of course, love songs. They are songs about struggle and hardship, but also of hope and are usually shared down through an oral tradition.

“In resistance movements, the folk singer was a weapon in the battle for knowledge; the folk singer was a person who kept the stories alive,” said Only. He recounted that the songs galvanized the people and gave them hope. “Song was a method to rally the troops into action.”

Hailing from Vancouver, Only claims folk activism is a lot harder to do these days with such a multitude of music at everyone’s fingertips. The tradition of folk music has been in danger of being misplaced and lost thanks to recent technology.

“Music was not a commodity to be bought or sold and stored on shelves or in iPods,” he said. “There was only one way to make music back in the not-so-distant past [and] that was to physically create it.”

Blunt expressed her delight in hosting Only.

“Many of his songs are histories of people taking action against repression,” she said. 

Among many artists who shared songs that night, Only played music showcasing the “realities of living in B.C. under the Campbell government, homelessness and injustice to native people.”

Strong Cottonwoods of the Outspoken Wordsmiths claims his inspiration for the event came from listening to Joey Only and Geoff Berner.

Vancouver-based accordionist and folk artist Berner’s Olympic song, “The Dead, Dead Children Were Worth It,” exposes how the B.C. government “cost-cut out the office that investigates children’s deaths” in order to pay for the Olympics.

“The intention of the event was to rally support for the movement in opposition to the Olympics and to help them have their voices be heard,” said Cottonwoods.

“The decidedly pro-Olympic corporate media hoopla has been in full force since Vancouver won the Olympic bid,” said Cottonwood.

Vancouver 2010 Official Suppliers include The Vancouver Sun, The Province and CTV. Cottonwoods believes these media outlets are “flexing their sizable media muscles to rally public support for a gross squandering of public funds.” He says critical voices have been lost in the flood of pro-Olympic sentiment.

The event itself served as a forum for Rose Henry and Zoe Blunt (both outspoken social justice advocates) to address the audience and share their views on the Olympics. It also afforded musicians a chance to perform to a receptive and supportive audience.

Blunt believes that protest songs are the conscience of the people.

“They are rallying cries and anthems for social movements,” she said. “They tell our stories and keep our histories and inspire whole movements.”

The modest funds raised by the event went directly to Rose Henry (Victoria Street Newz), Zoe Blunt (Guerilla News Network), Submedia.tv and B-Channel News to help them meet their material expenses needed to continue doing the work they do.