Look above and press play for a quick mini-movie of this year's festival.Remember 2003? Bush was president, Friends still reigned king on NBC and I was just a wee sophomore in college still trying to decide what the heck I wanted to do with my life. That year, my mom had the summer off between jobs and asked me if I wanted to go to the Winnipeg Folk Festival with her. At the time, I was a HUGE Ani DiFranco fan, so I jumped at the opportunity for my mom to buy my ticket. Without knowing what the heck we were doing, we packed up our tent and camping things and headed up north to go see some music.We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.That first year was awful. We camped in festival camping right in the middle of the party kids (and next to the stinkiest porta-potties). I'm pretty sure I was dying from heat exhaustion, the mosquitoes created a steady haze in the air, and the party kids were, well, party kids. All-n-all it was not a pleasant experience, but we knew there was something special about this festival. The next year we returned with my dad and brother, my future husband and a few awesome friends. We had the time of our lives.That was 15 years ago and I've been to the festival 13 times since. We've met some of our best friends at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, witnessed the most amazing music, danced under stunning northern lights and ate more poutine than should be legal. These days we are better at avoiding the party kids and I'm now watching my own kids discover their folk-fest selves.Many of you know me as the evangelist for the Winnipeg Folk Festival and it's true... I want you to go, and you, and you too. It's not for everyone, but if you LOVE music and LOVE people and LOVE LOVE, then there is no better place on earth to spend your second weekend in July. See you next year.