August 15th – 17th, 2025

matt_anderson_photo1webSUMMERFOLK is turning forty. The Georgian Bay Folk Society is throwing a party to celebrate and you are invited. The festival you know and love will start one day earlier in 2015 in honour of our 40th anniversary. This year, we’ll kick off with a Birthday Bash featuring Matt Andersen on Thursday, August 20th. We’ll break in our new Down by the Bay tent with a night of blues and brews with the gates opening at 7pm. But, we can’t do it by ourselves so we need help.

Matt Andersen is a JUNO-nominated blues powerhouse from New Brunswick, known for his soulful vocals and stellar guitar riffs. The last time Matt was at Summerfolk  he sold more CDs than any other act. Folks were eager to take his music home and the GBFS was eager to have him back. With over 2 million views on YouTube, independent sales over 30,000 albums, a 2013 European Blues Award, and winning Best Solo Performer at the Memphis Blues Challenge, it appears that the entire world is now discovering Matt Andersen. A powerhouse performer with a giant soul-filled voice and commanding stage presence, Matt has built a formidable following the old fashioned way – touring worldwide and letting the converted audiences and Andersen devotees spread his reputation through word of mouth.
Also on the bill, Ottawa blues juggernaut MonkeyJunk.They pile a mix of musical influences on to a solid bedrock of blues to put on a show that gets audiences moving. Since 2010, MonkeyJunk has brought home awards on both sides of the border including the 2010 Blues Music Award for Best New Artist, the 2012 Juno for Blues Album of the Year, and a 2014 Canadian Independent Music Award for Blues Artist/Group of the Year. 
You can turn your 3-day weekend pass into a 4-day musical adventure for just $35. If the Birthday Bash is all you want, tickets are $40 in advance and $45 at the door. We’ve got 40 years worth of memories and music to celebrate and we’ll need all the help we can get. Hope to see you there.

MonkeyJunk
MonkeyJunk

3 Responses

  1. Hey I’m excited to see Matt Anderson coming. Growing up in NB just down the road from Matt and having lived and raised our family in Owen Sound since 1970 and our first son born in 1975, the start up of Summerfolk and having volunteered several years there we were definitely planning to return this year to celebrate the 40th of our son and of Summerfolk. Since those days I have become a reverend with the United Church of Canada and I had the thrill of a lifetime last July when my new church, St Paul’s United here in Perth, ON hosted a SRO Matt Anderson concert in our church. I’m a big fan for so many reasons least of all having first discovered him at Stanfest in Canso, NS when I lived there in 2008. What a great choice for old folkies like me who love the blues! See you at Summerfolk40!

    1. I am looking forward to being at Summer Folk. It is a special year for my husband and I too. We will be celebrating 30 years together and it started at Summer Folk around 11: am on the Saturday morning at main Stage with O.J. Anderson on stage. I still have the T-shirt. I will bring it. I have been coming to Summer Folk since It’s beginning although at the time I don’t recall it being its first. It has always been my favourite folk festival. My husband, Arnie Dyck, and I have many wonderful memories there and our daughter was raised going to folk festivals and still attends them.
      See you soon,

      Vy

  2. A buddy of mine dropped by the farm the other day and dropped off a 1979 Summerfolk volunteer shirt– Still sealed in its original bag. Seems back in 1979 we had a bunch of shirts left over so I took them to work and sold them for fifty cents a piece. Think I am gonna stash it in the closet till we hit the big Summerfolk 50 , bring it down to the site and let the folk society raffle it off to raise funds for our young musicians. Don’t worry folks I told my wife about what I am up to because I will probably forget what I did with it. Having kicked around the festival for the past forty years this was a neat surprise. Thanks BJ for dropping by .

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