Friday at the Winnipeg Folk Festival is always the first full day, with daytime workshops and concerts taking place at the various smaller stages throughout the festival grounds. While the workshop idea isn't completely unique to Winnipeg, for many artists, it's not only a new idea but in some cases, even intimidating.

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The comics call him 'Sensational', 'Spectacular', and even 'Astonishing' at times, but none more fitting than his long standing title of 'Amazing' for his latest trip to the silver screen.

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Not wanting to repeat the mistakes of the previous day -- especially with our Thursday choice for "Artist of the Day", Good Old War, leading off the night -- we arrived to Bird's Hill Park for Day 2 of the Winnipeg Folk Festival before the first notes chimed off the main stage.

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Arriving to Bird's Hill Park and the Winnipeg Folk Festival grounds a bit late on the first night of the festival unfortunately meant missing some very talented artists in Snowblink and James Vincent McMorrow (luckily this wasn't our only opportunity to hear either of them, as they'll both be part of the "Your Indie Heart" workshop on Friday afternoon).

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2012 Winnipeg Folk Festival Coverage:

• Introduction to the 2012 Winnipeg Folk Festival
• 2012 Winnipeg Folk Festival: Wednesday Photo Gallery & Round-Up
• 2012 Winnipeg Folk Festival: Thursday Photo Gallery & Round-Up
• 2012 Winnipeg Folk Festival: Friday Photo Gallery & Round-Up

ShowbizMonkeys.com tries to bring you loads of coverage from festivals and cultural events, both from our own back yard (Winnipeg Comedy Festival) and around North America (San Diego Comic-Con, Montreal's Just for Laughs Festival). Each festival has its unique charms, and besides hopefully providing interesting things for you to read, listen to, or watch, it's also insanely fun for us. But it's been no secret on these digital pages which festival excites us the most: The Winnipeg Folk Festival -- with its genre-bending (but generally fairly rootsy) line-up of musical acts, the great landscape and climate of the Canadian prairie in July (with a hot sun, and hopefully mosquitoes kept at bay by some friendly dragonflies), and the friendliest group of volunteers and festivalgoers you'll find anywhere -- is the best five days we spend every year.

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During his TD Jazz Lab at the Manitoba Music Conservatory, Lucky Peterson played to the people. Taking requests and telling tales, the Buffalo bluesman gave a preview of his storied career. Joined by his wife Tamara, Peterson encouraged audience participation through a number of classics and standards.

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A quiet evening watching the folks in Bon Temp as True Blood's adventurous side takes a Sunday night off from their bread and butter 'blood & sex' routine, to have another plot prepping episode. "We'll Meet Again" may have not dazzled any audience members this week but it did open up some new storylines.

Okay, quick recap.

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"Jazz is not just a genre of music," announced Steve Kirby.

The Manitoba bassist had Juss Jazz packed elbow-to-elbow while his hot quartet ended their set. As the evening unwound, venues facilitated genre-spanning performances all under the Jazz Festival banner.

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"Apparently, it's bring your stalker to work day."

The failure of Pucks was being noticed by everybody. It was not just that Pucks was a poor show, it was because the network had rejected a low-brow talking dog show which ended up becoming very successful on a rival network.

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"I'm so sorry, this is not jazz," proclaimed a flustered patron to his table.

It was midway through Larry and His Flask's set. The man was in a suit and accompanied by two women in fancy dresses. Everyone else in The Pyramid Cabaret was dressed casual, in vests or had facial hair. After killing another shot, the trio departed.

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