This is my first issue as editor of the Broadside. For those of you who are regulars back stage at the folk festival, I have not been packed up with the performers’ tent or returned with the rented truck: I am sitting in my black folk festival chair even as I type this!

I’ll say up front that my editorial hand for this, my first issue has been tightly held by Marnie Parsons, who has done more than her share of editing, whip cracking, encouraging and generally leading me through the editing process. Thanks, Marnie – I’ll try to be more effective next time.

As usual, in this issue we’ll be celebrating some of the people and events that keep the folk tradition alive in Newfoundland and Labrador. We have a piece on Conception Bay fiddle teacher Rendell Mercer; we have some reflections on the Accordion Revolution by our fearless leader (a.k.a. Dave Penny); we have pieces on the Storytelling Festival and Young Folk at the Hall and, of course, on our weekly Folk Night. And we’ll have other bits and pieces of news from our members and beyond.

So here I sit, keeping my festival chair warm in anticipation of the 30th annual Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival on August 4th, 5th and 6th, 2006. Members of our festival family from all over the world have been making plans to come home for the big celebration. My family will be there – if it weren’t for the festival we wouldn’t exist, since I met my husband backstage – and I hope that you and your family will be there too. Mark your calendar!

Mary Ellen Wright