What We’ve Done

Phase One Completed October 31, 2011

Phase One of the Site Redevelopment Plan included a number of improvements to back-of-house operations with a focus on health, safety and service while reducing the festival’s environmental footprint.

Highlights of Phase One include:

• The Award Winning La Cuisine
• New Emergency Access Road
• New Site Office
• Backstage Bus Loop
• Electricity Upgrades

The Winnipeg Folk Festival is thrilled to announce that Syverson Monteyne Architecture Inc. has won an Award of Excellence at the 2012 Prairie Design Awards for their design of the festival’s new backstage kitchen – La Cuisine.

Not your typical kitchen, this eco-friendly facility is designed to accommodate the preparation and serving of nearly 10,000 meals a day to volunteers and performers during the festival. The building also functions as a working space pre-festival, and closes down to a secure, weather-protected storage facility to dry and store tents for the remainder of the year. Working in the spirit of the Winnipeg Folk Festival’s environmental policy, Syverson Monteyne designed La Cuisine using repurposed and recycled materials including components from an existing steel industrial complex that was slated for demolition, salvaged hydro poles, and reclaimed cedar decking. The design also incorporates deliberate use of festival iconography – the front façade of the building features different colours of sheet metal to symbolize the memorable way tarps are used at the festival each year.

 


Photo: Bert Luit