Employees laid off as Regina Folk Festival prepares for future

This year’s Regina Folk Festival (RFF) went fairly well, but the organization is still dealing with financial troubles.

Although the festival had a bit of a bounceback year in terms of attendance, its staff will be down to just two people heading into the fall. Four people have been laid off.

“We had a really positive response to our festival this year and we had a good turnout,” said artistic director Amber Goodwyn.

“We’re still in a financial crisis. Sadly, in early July, we let staff know that they will be laid off and the only staff that will be remaining into the fall are the artistic director, myself, and the executive director, Leo Keiser.”

Keiser stepped into the role of executive director this year.

“The two of us will be working with our board of directors and partners and funders and supporters, to make sure that the festival is able to exist into the future, but we don’t know what our plans are for 2024 yet,” Goodwyn said. “It’s too soon to say.”

There are 10 members on the festival’s board, according to its website.

The Regina Folk Festival asked for community support after announcing it was struggling in June. Goodwyn said the festival is still on its way to its $50,000 fundraising goal.

“We haven’t met it yet and so we’ll be inviting the public to support the organization this fall,” Goodwyn said. “We’re also going to be engaging in a strategic review of the last couple years of the festival and determining the path forward so that we can put on more festivals in the future.”

Despite the difficulties, Goodwyn said she remains optimistic about the future of the festival.

“We’re deeply appreciative of the outpouring of support we’ve received when we announced our news in June,” she said.

Goodwyn said the organization saw its number of volunteers go up as there was an inflow of support from sponsors, donors and other funders.