First ever Bobs Lake Folk Festival bodes well for the future

Craig Bakay | Sep 20, 2019

The story of Bobs Lake Cottages & Escapes is all on their website, www.bobslake.com. It’s all about coming to the old Morters Cabins until being told they could no longer bring their dog.

“So we bought a little island which was close enough so I could swim here,” said Marla Isaac, who along with husband Larry Hirschhorn, now owns and operates the sprawling resort.

“In 2006, we heard that Morters had been cut in half and half of it sold,” Isaac said. “In 2010, Chuck Morter gave us a mortgage to help us buy it and fixing it up became a labour of love.”

And now, they have a number of cabins, including rather large central one that’s suitable for weddings and is also completely accessible to accommodate older anglers that still want to come and fish.

And then Isaac got this idea.

“I found Celtic Kitchen Party’s video of Amazing Grace,” she said. “And I said, ‘I want them.’”

For a folk music festival, of course.

“I love folk music and I love Bob’s Lake,” she said.

So they decided to take a risk, build a stage, and invite some other performers and make a weekend of it.

They also invited vendors such a Trudy Knapp (Algonquin crafts) and Shelley and Joe Languedoc (baked goods and and handmade knives), Leah Evans and Jes Sousa (tarot readings, crystals), Earthbarn farms with their goats Lucifer and Memnoch, and Sherri’s lavender smudging sticks grown in gardens on the property.

After dinner, there was a campfire singalong led by the Kitchen Party’s Andrew Vanhorn. Sunday was a yoga day with Pamela Vanhorn.

And now, she thinks this might morph into an annual event, as well as an ongoing platform for music.

“We’re open year-round for things like ice fishing but we’d love to make it a place where people can come and play music,” she said. “We’re thinking of having a folk song weekend and we’d love it if people would come every Sunday to jam.”

It could happen.

“There are tons of folk bands out there,” said the Kitchen Party’s Colin Skinner. “But there are like little nuggets of places to play.

“There are like 40 people in the audience today but I’m guessing next year it will be more like 75 and then . . . who knows?”