For many, music festivals are the crowning jewel of summer. There’s not much better than getting a group of friends together to go camping and listen to your favourite music. For prairie residents this often means travelling a few hours though — but this isn’t necessary when your town throws its own festival.
This is what has been happening in Minnedosa for the last couple of decades. Locals don’t have to travel far to attend Rockin’ the Fields of Minnedosa (RFM). This music festival run by a co-op lights up this town for one weekend each year. This festival pulls names like April Wine, Collective Soul, Tom Cochrane, and others these days but at its beginning this festival was a group of locals that wanted to enjoy some shows.
Vaughan Boles, one of the directors for RFM, talked to us about the beginnings of the festival. He said that, before the co-operative, two separate companies tried to get a festival to take off in Minnedosa but were unsuccessful. Not wanting to miss out on the fun, Vaughan and a group of others decided they would make a go of it.
As Vaughan explains, a co-operative model was their only option to make the festival work.
Not only has the festival kept up a good relationship with the community, but it’s gone on to benefit the community. Vaughan tells me that the festival space is used for community events like charity walks or the highschool’s safe-grad.
Monetarily, the festival has sponsored a scholarship for a student in Minnedosa looking to pursue music. The added traffic over the weekend also supports the local economy. Economic development officer Chantelle Parrot explains.
RFM is held in a hilly field on the edge of Minnedosa. The stage looks out at this steep hill (for the prairies at least) that serves as a natural amphitheatre. The festival takes advantage of this hill with permanent bleachers. Truly a prairie festival, the camping area is wide open, making it optimal for a mixed use of trailers and tents.
While we were there, Tanner and I saw and chatted with some very interesting people. Festival-goers are usually quite open to meeting new people and RFM is no different. To give an example, I thought I saw someone waving to me and I waved back only to find out they were waving at the person behind me (a classic blunder I know).
This turned out to be a friendly, rather than awkward, encounter as they said “hello” to me. This person even called out to me “Welcome to friendly Manitoba!” — a play on the provinces license plate slogan.
The festival venue is right beside Lake Minnedosa and, while swimming is not allowed, Tanner and I did see someone cross the lake in a boat to get to the festival. We both agreed it seemed to be a great idea given the traffic festival entrances often experience.
Minnedosa itself is a beautiful town. With plenty of trees amid the rolling hills as you drive in, it feels like a hidden gem. There’s plenty of amenities and I would recommend exploring the town! Be it for the rowdy time you can have at RFM or to experience a beautiful, slow-paced, prairie town checking out Minnedosa is definitely worthwhile!