Mariposa in Concert | Mariposa Folk Festival

More Music Beyond the Summer

The Mariposa Folk Festival produces concerts throughout the year usually held in Orillia. These intimate affairs often feature artists that have played the Festival.

See below for Lance Anderson’s The Organ Summit, November 21st at the Orillia Opera House

Tickets Here

Joel Plaskett, October 20th at St Paul’s Centre

Tickets available at this link

Mariposa Folk Festival is excited to present Joel Plaskett at St Paul’s Centre in Orillia on October 20, 2026, in partnership with Noisemaker Presents. Joel last played the Festival in 2018, so this is a long overdue reunion with his Mariposa and Orillia and area fans! Tickets are available at the link above. If you have difficulty purchasing tickets online, phone the Mariposa office at 705-326-3655 for assistance.

For over three decades, Joel Plaskett has proven himself a spinning wheel of reinvention. The Nova Scotia songwriter’s eclectic body of work reveals a restless and playful spirit, always transforming and expanding.

While continuing to celebrate — and be celebrated for — his regional ties and embrace of East Coast musical traditions, Joel’s omnivorous appetite for new sonic horizons is an integral part of his work. His discography includes heavy riff epics, like Thrush Hermit’s now-classic swansong Clayton Park (1999); low-fi and wide eyed solo records like In Need of Medical Attention (1999)
and La De Da (2005); lean, loose and lyrical rock and roll with the Emergency on Down at the Khyber (2001) and Truthfully, Truthfully (2003); and a father-and-son nod to English folk traditions with Solidarity (2017). Then there are the endeavours that push the envelope further: the Emergency’s romantic epic concept album Ashtray Rock (2007); the months-long songwriting challenge Scrappy Happiness (2012); and Three (2009) and 44 (2020), Joel’s sprawling, multi-record ventures exploring love, loss, and existential investigation. For his latest release, the 4-track project One Real Reveal (2024), Plaskett strips his songwriting down to its raw materials, allowing everything in—all the human touches the tape could pick up—and letting (almost) everything out.

Coast-to-coast and the world ’round, Joel has rocked crowds at clubs, festivals and grand old theatres with longtime Emergency bandmates Dave Marsh and Chris Pennell as well as drawn audiences close with intimate acoustic shows, both solo and with his father, Bill. Then there are the special events that have really allowed Joel to reach the rafters, like headlining Toronto’s Massey Hall with everyone in tow, playing the NAC in Ottawa backed by the national orchestra, and warming up huge stages for artists like The Tragically Hip and Paul McCartney. Joel and the Emergency have also been roundly celebrated within the music industry for their work, racking up awards and nominations from the JUNOs, the Polaris Music Prize, the EastCoast Music Awards, Music Nova Scotia, and numerous others.

While Joel’s songs are beloved far beyond the community that helped forge his sound, his creative heart is still found at home in Nova Scotia. At 45 Portland Street in Dartmouth there’s Fang Recording, the studio where he’s made many of his albums and produced records for other great artists like Mo Kenney, Steve Poltz, Shotgun Jimmie and Jimmy Rankin.

And through the door to the front of the building lies Taz Records, Morley’s Coffee and Friction Books. Since 2023, Joel has used the space to present Window Inn Wednesdays, a monthly, no-phones-allowed variety show that pushes back—like most of his projects—against the speed and din of modern life, making space for real engagement between art, artist, and audience.

Mariposa In Concert Presents The Organ Summit, with Musical Director Lance Anderson, Saturday November 21st at the Orillia Opera House

Saturday November 21st at the Orillia Opera House. Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 7:30pm, with an intermission.

TICKETS HERE and at the Orillia Opera House box office

This will be an EVENT!

Featuring: Matt Weidinger (The Tonewheels), Cole Mendez (from the Free Label) and Lance Anderson (Matchedash Parish) on B3 organs with The Tonewheels rhythm section of Chris Latta (guitar) and Mike Rajna (drums).

Your favourite songs by Booker T. Jones, Stevie Winwood, Traffic, Billy Preston and more. Two organs!! AND four Leslie speaker cabinets.

MATT WEIDINGER is a rising star in the Roots and Blues community. His incredible voice and soulful rendering of these classics will take your breath away. Matt has been ‘kickin’ pedals’ (playing bass with his feet on the Hammond organ) and has become one of the best players in the world at this almost lost art form.

LANCE ANDERSON and Matt play in the Matchedash Parish together and in The Last Waltz – A Musical Celebration of the BAND that closed out the Mariposa Folk Festival a few years back. Lance is musical director for the popular MIC ‘An Evening of Blues and Gospel’ now in its 14th year. Dr. Anderson is an internationally known producer and Hammond organ specialist. His recording of 2B3 The Toronto Sessions is a landmark recording and is credited with creating a Hammond organ revival in the 2000’s.

COLE MENDEZ from the amazing and popular group The Free Label will be our special guest artist for this version of the Organ Summit. Cole has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from U of Toronto in Jazz performance and is involved in many facets of the business. In 2015 Cole co-founded art collective and record label Nomadic Family. Cole works across funk, soul, R&B, jazz, and pop—genres that shape his harmonic language and the samples he creates for trap, hip-hop, and modern R&B.
With the Free Label he has toured extensively across Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

Lance Anderson says:

Imagine two 450 lb Hammond organs, built 70 years ago with 4 world-famous Leslie rotating speakers to send the sound out in 360′ degrees. The doppler effect creates the slight motion in the sound. That is an acoustic phenomenon. A phenomenon that you can only experience, LIVE.

It is a very rare occurrence to have two Hammond B3’s on stage.

If I sound passionate about this, it’s because I am. I was moved from the first time I heard these majestic instruments. I have three Hammonds and nine Leslies but Matt raised the bar as he has 10 organs !!! (OK maybe we are obsessed). The sound of one organ is magnificent; with two it becomes stupendous.

If the digital world is driving you nuts …. come down and let this incredible analog electro-acoustic instrument bathe you in the warmth of The Tonewheels.

This is the real deal.