Schedule

Saturday August 12th

  • 9:30 am Jake Kaehne, traditional Ojibwe flute
  • 10:30 am Dave Virnala, ballads and story songs
  • 11:30 am Paulino Brener, Battle of the Giants
  • 12 noon Boots & Needles, original songs and traditional music
  • 1:30 pm Curtis & Loretta, original songs and traditional music
  • 2:30 pm John Gorka, original songs

Sunday August 13th

  • 9:30 am Jake Kaehne, traditional Ojibwe flute
  • 10:30 am Paulino Brener – Battle of the Giants
  • 11:00 am Leane Flynn, singer/songwriter
  • 12 noon Caitlin Robertson with Alex Sandberg, singer/songwriter
  • 1:30 pm Curtis & Loretta, original songs and traditional music
  • 2:30 pm Kelley Smith, singer/songwriter

Workshops – preregistration recommended

  • Pre-register by email to info@oldwadenarendezvous.org, or, if workshop seats remain, at the Rendezvous
  • Saturday, 9:30 am to 4:00 pm – Barn Quilt workshop with Lisa Kajer and Mary Noska (12 seats, $20 material fee)
  • Saturday and Sunday 10:00 am to 11:00 am – Ukulele workshop with Curtis & Loretta (10 seats, no fee)
  • Saturday & Sunday 11:00 am to noon – Traditional Ojibwe flute workshop with Jake Kaehne (10 seats, no fee)
  • Saturday and Sunday 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – Puppetry workshop with Margo McCreary (10 seats, no fee)
  • Saturday and Sunday 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm Songwriting workshop with Loretta Simonet (10 seats, no fee)

REGISTER FOR WORKSHOPS BY EMAILING US AT: info@oldwadenarendezvous.org

Artisan Demonstrations – Saturday & Sunday 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

  • Wheel thrown pottery – Lowell Bayerkohler
  • Jewelry and pit fired pottery – Cheryl Bannes
  • Build a birdhouse – Jon and Darlys Hamberg
  • Making Bread – TBA
  • Making maple syrup – Les Schwartz
  • Face/hand painting – Beth Kern
  • Bees and honey – Dan Kern
  • Horse drawn wagon rides – Gregor Wegscheid (Sunday only)
  • Blacksmithing – Mike Hoffman
  • Geology and ecology of Old Wadena – Dick Oehlenschlager
  • Birchbark canoes – Ray Boessel
  • Plein air painters – Shanna Cramer (Saturday) and Susan Seaborn (Sunday)
  • Additional artists/artisans TBA

Welcome to Old Wadena

The Old Wadena Society sponsors the annual Old Wadena Rendezvous and Folklife Festival every August in the Old Wadena Park as part of its mission to share information about the natural environment and history of this area of north-central Minnesota. The park is situated on the banks of the Crow Wing River, one of the best canoe rivers in Minnesota. The festival showcases two days of great acoustic music, storytelling for all, Anishinaabe dance and drum, Rendezvouers demonstrating 1840s skills and living coniditions, and artists and artisans displaying their work. In addition the Society carries out other educational and interpretive work about the environment and history of the region.

Our location

A map and directions to Old Wadena County Historic Park will help you get to the park. Its location on the Crow Wing River between the Crow Wing's confluence with the Partridge and the Leaf Rivers in north-central Minnesota was an important hunting and trapping area for Indians and later for the French. Today the park is the centerpiece to a string of parks with campsites along the Crow Wing River in Wadena County. The Park is north and west of Staples and north and east of the city of Wadena in Wadena County.