Festival Hall in Inglewood houses the headquarters of the Calgary Folk Music Festival, known for its indie, roots and world music performances and for featuring stars such as kd lang, Bruce Cockburn and Blue Rodeo to thousands of festival goers each summer.
The building's modern, minimalist exterior is unassuming. Step through its gleaming main doors though, and you’ll find an elegant but very intimate performance space. And a super-flexible venue highly equipped to host a broad range of curated programming as well as art, community and private events.
The spark for Festival Hall's creation ignited in 2004. There had long been pressure from festival fans to extend the festival's summer programming throughout the year. The festival had a small surplus at the same time it lost its office space to an oil company. There was every reason to stop renting and buy a permanent home. With a wry smile, festival artistic director Kerry Clarke recalls how a two-year construction plan turned into eight. “We knew nothing about buildings," she says.
