12
Wednesday, September 9, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Sisters Folk Festival has deep roots
By Jodi Schneider
Correspondent
An Indian poet once said,
“The greatness of a culture
can be found in its festivals,”
and here in Sisters you don’t
have to look far to find that
greatness.
Birthed 25 years ago,
Sisters Folk Festival (SFF)
had humble origins as a one-
day music event with just a
few hundred people attend-
ing at the Sisters Middle-
High School (now the mid-
dle school).
In 1995 the seed for
the festival was planted
when two local musicians,
Dick Sandvik, then owner
of Paulina Springs Books,
and Jim Cornelius, then an
employee at the bookstore,
started kicking around ideas
of how to figure out a way
to extend the shoulder sea-
son by having an event that
would bring people to town.
Cornelius said, “There
wasn’t a lot happening in
Sisters after Labor Day and
the tourist traffic dried up.
The idea was to enhance
economic vitality by bring-
ing people to town later in
the season. Originally the
first couple of folk festi-
vals were held at the end of
September.”
Cornelius and Sandvik
found common ground in
their taste for music.
“Jim and I discovered
we liked the same kind of
music,” explained Sandvik.
“And we were not find-
ing that kind of music any-
where here. You’d have to go
to Portland to find it. It was
what they call Americana
now, but it was a blend of
folk music and country and
bluegrass and gospel. We
played guitar together quite
a bit and decided that we
wanted to come up with a
music event that served as
a cultural purpose too. We
thought a modest folk festi-
val might have a chance to
succeed.”
Cornelius added, “We
both really believed strongly
in the power of music to
bring people together.”
They ran SFF out of the
office of Paulinas Springs
Books with Sandvik’s wife
Diane Campbell at the helm
behind the scenes.
“We probably would have
never succeeded, but for her,”
Sandvik said.
Sandvik said, “We pur-
posely started very small
because in part we didn’t
know much, and we didn’t
have a huge budget. We
couldn’t bring in much
Sisters Folk Festival co-founders
Dick Sandvik and Jim Cornelius.
talent of national or even
regional claim. So, we settled
on a handful of artists.”
Cornelius noted, “It was
a one-day deal, and it was all
regional artists.”
The Sisters Sound Check
Band, which inc luded
Cornelius and Sandvik,
along with Doug and Phyllis
Sokol, opened the first event
and Peter Yates, an Irish
balladeer from Vancouver,
Washington, was the head-
liner and closed the festival.
Sandvik said, “We mud-
dled along trying to get
What’s Cooking?
TAPAS, FLATBREADS
& DINNER SPECIALS…
TRY OUR PAELLA!
Camp Sherman
Dine-In, Outdoor Seating
Tues.-Fri., 3 to 8 p.m.,
Sat., Noon to 8 p.m.
391 W.
W Cascade
C
d Ave.
A
| 54
541-549-2675
4 1 549 2675
corkcellarswinebistro.com
Open Wed.-Mon.,
1 to 9 p.m.
541-595-6420
sponsors and talked to Ed
Fitzjerral of Metabolic
Maintenance — he still owns
Metabolic Maintenance —
and he said he would give
us a thousand-dollar spon-
sorship for our festival if it
would be used for a song-
writing contest.”
SFF incorporated a song-
writing contest, publicized it
and sent 200 flyers to music
PHOTO BY LYNN WOODWARD
stores throughout the region.
The festival received over 40
entries. Brad Tisdel, now the
creative director for SFF, was
one of the top-10 finalists.
Sandvik said, “After the
first festival, I got together
with some friends, and they
said ‘It was so simple, small
and intimate, don’t change a
thing.’ So, Jim and I changed
everything the next year.”
See DEEP ROOTS on page 13