Folk Music Ontario proudly presents Sarah Harmer as our Keynote Speaker this year.
Sarah Harmer possesses one of the most distinctive voices of the Canadian rock and folk music scenes. In just over a decade, she has established herself among the pantheon of legendary female songwriters this country has produced, her name spoken in the same breath as Joni Mitchell, Sarah McLachlan, Sylvia Tyson and Kate & Anna McGarrigle. Sarah is an environmental activist who, in 2005, co-founded PERL (Protecting Escarpment Rural Land), an organization which campaigned to protect the Niagara Escarpment from a proposed gravel development which would see some parts of wilderness near the escarpment removed. To support the organization, she and her acoustic band embarked on a tour of the escarpment, hiking the Bruce Trail and performing at theatres and community halls in towns along the way. A documentary DVD of this tour was released in 2006 as Escarpment Blues.
The Keynote Address will take place on the evening of Friday, October 18th. Sarah will be speaking about her involvement as an activist in the environmental movement in Canada. Past Keynote Speakers include Jowi Taylor (2012), Eric Baptiste and Loreena McKennitt (2011), Mike Stevens (2010), Bob Ezrin (2009) and Elijah Wald (2008).
