At the Vancouver Folk Song Society, we share great homegrown music.
Come join the longest-running folk club in Canada!
We welcome singers, players, and listeners from all cultures and at any level. We love to sing for and with each other in our inter-generational community. We welcome you.
The mission of the Vancouver Folk Song Society is to encourage the study and appreciation of folk music. We do this through our many musical activities, in a warm and welcoming way that values learning, sharing, and social purpose. See more about our Values here.
We welcome all kinds of folk music, and we especiallly love to share our legacies:
Singing together in harmony, from raucous sea shanties to mellifluous love songs
Songs of our place–BC and Canada
Songs and actions of solidarity, justice and healing
Since 1959, the VFSS has been interwoven with Vancouver’s musical and activist communities, and has made significant contributions to folk music in Canada. See more VFSS history here.
For its many members and friends, “The Folk” provides a warm and enduring home for the evolving folk tradition in this particular place and time.
Membership in the VFSS
Membership is open to anyone interested in singing, playing, listening to, or learning about folk music.
Yearly membership is $30 for an individual and $40 for a family.
Benefits
- Free admission to all year-round VFSS events: the Wednesday Night Folk, Song Circles, and 5th Wednesday specials
- Reduced price for the annual VFSS Retreat
- A free copy of the VFSS shanty crew’s CD Blow The Man Down
- Becoming part of a great musical community!
History–Overview
It’s 1959. The early wave of the folk revival is sweeping North America, and a group of friends has started singing together in Vancouver. Phil and Hilda Thomas, Al Cox, Jeannie Moss and Rolf Ingelsrud have found common cause through their dedication to singing, activism, and traditional music. Something new is born.
At those early Folk Song Circles, the music was great, and the enthusiasm contagious. On the first and third Wednesday of every month, members of the group sang for and with each other. They joined their voices in harmonies raucous and delicate by turn. They played banjos, guitars, Appalachian dulcimers… Read More
Click on image to read the rest of the Overview.
Click on image for a personal account of VFSS history (1968-2002) by Jon Bartlett.
Click on image to read Rika Ruebsaat’s reminiscences (1960-1968).
Values of the VFSS
We are warm and welcoming.
The VFSS community is inclusive and supportive. People tell us they feel at home here. We embrace diversity, and believe that folk music is accessible to everyone, of any age, cultural background, or musical experience. We welcome your participation, however that looks for you.
We value learning and sharing.
We enjoy sharing our knowledge of folk traditions through group singing, musical collaborations, presentations, and community participation. We appreciate the rich and varied stories of our human experience as reflected in folk music, and the sense of connection it creates to a deep and living tradition. We are learning all the time.
We sing for social purpose.
We sing to build a sense of community, spark conversation, and encourage cooperation. Folk music has always been linked to struggles for social justice. We sing to keep those links alive while we sing to today’s social issues. And we know we sing with other voices, all around the world.
Governance
The VFSS is a Society incorporated in the province of British Columbia. It is governed according to its Constitution and Bylaws by a volunteer Board of Directors, elected from the membership annually.
Current Board of Directors
| Jim Edmondson (President) | Christina Ray (Vice President) |
| Steve Deering (Treasurer) | Lynn Applegate (Secretary) |
| Bevan Bartlett | Dylan Brown |
| Barb Coward | Janet Dempsey |
| Ian Edwards | Maureen Hannah |
| Jeremy Kashkett |