About us
The Back Forty is a volunteer run, non-profit charitable organization that aims to “Keep Homemade Music Alive” in southern Manitoba.
Our Festival features an excellent blend of local and Manitoba musicians who share their talents through various workshops and on the Main stage.
The Back Forty Festival has a vision to elevate homemade music in Southern Manitoba. To provide world-class developing and performing opportunities to local musicians and to attract the nation’s finest artists into Southern Manitoba to perform in our backyard!
The Seventies Show is this Saturday, April 20th!
The annual Back 40 Seventies Show returns to the P.W. Enns Centennial Concert Hall at 7:30 on Saturday, April 20th! This year’s lineup features some your favourite artists of the 70s, covered by some of your favourite musicians from the Pembina Valley! Check out the poster for details! Tickets are still available, but they are going fast! Click here to buy your tickets online! See the poster below for details!
April 20th, 2024! Save The Date!
The annual Back 40 Seventies Show returns…Stay tuned for details!
Lightfoot and Prine!
The Back 40 Festival will present a tribute night to two stellar and sorely missed singer songwriters- Gordon Lightfoot and John Prine! This free coffeehouse event takes place at the Winkler Arts + Culture Gallery on Friday, January 19th at 7:00 p.m. Confirmed performers include Bill Dowling, Scott Bell, Steve Dueck, Jenessa Kehler, Karl Redding, Dennis Wood, Dave Stobbe, Jerry Dykman, Donovan Giesbrecht, Ed Wayne and Back 40 Festival founder Linda Hiebert! This will be a fine night of some of our best local musicians playing brilliantly written songs!
Blues Night!
The Back 40 Festival is excited to present a Blues Night at the P.W. Enns Centennial Concert Hall on Friday, November 17th at 7:30. This event features Link and the Moustaches, J.P. LePage, and Jayme Giesbrecht and her Soul Revue Band! This stellar local lineup played a fantastic show at the Blue Note Park this past summer, and now ate bringing the show home to Southern Manitoba! Tickets for this event are available at winklerconcerthall.ca, the Meridian Exhibition Centre Box Office, and at the door on the night of the show. Beat the early winter blues with some stellar local blues!
Autumn Coffeehouse!
The Back 40 Festival in partnership with Winkler Arts and Culture present an Autumn Coffeehouse to start the 2023/2024 Back 40 performance season! We hope to see you there! All interested performers are welcome to come and sign up at the event for the open mic! The Autumn Coffeehouse starts at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, September 29th. The doors of the Winkler Arts + Culture Centre open at 6:30. Admission is free! There will be a cash bar for refreshment. Come out and experience live music in a comfortable, friendly setting!
The 2023 Back 40 Folk Festival!
The 2023 Back 40 Folk Festival will return to the Morden Park Bowl on Sunday, June 4th from noon until dusk! Advance tickets are $25.00, available at the Coop Gas Stations in Morden and Winkler, Rendezvous Taproom in Morden, and online at this website, www.back40folkfest.com. Tickets can be purchased at the gate on Sunday, at a price of $30.00 for Adults, $20.00 for youth aged 13-17, while admission is free for children 12 and under. Below you can reference a schedule for the Back 40 Festival’s excellent musical entertainment.
Happy New Year! The Back 40 has planned several exciting events for the upcoming months. Unfortunately. The Last Waltz Show was cancelled due to illnesses affecting several performers. The good news is that the aforementioned performers are fully recovered and fit as fiddles! Isn’t it great that folk instruments are the standard of comparison for people’s well-being? Expect to see the Last Waltz tribute become a part of a future Back 40 event.
The next event will be on Friday, January 20th! The 2023 Winter Coffeehouse will be at the Winkler Arts + Culture Centre. Doors open at 6:30, and admission is free. Performers will include Mason Weselowski, Talladega Gregg, Derek Helps and Joey McNair! Performers can also sign up at the event for an open mic opportunity.
The Seventies Show!
Want to hear some good news? You are going out on the evening of Saturday, April 22nd to see an amazing show at the P. W. Enns Centennial Concert Hall! The 2023 edition of the Back 40 Seventies Show features a stellar lineup of high-caliber local talent playing the hits of the 70s just for you! This year’s lineup features Bill Dowling and the Even Breaks as Van Morrison, Link and the Moustaches as George Thorogood, Jenessa Kehler as Leonard Cohen, The Monochromatics as The Clash, Duane Hiebert as David Bowie, Big Robbie G as Eagles, The Committee as AC/DC, and BK and the Bad Habits featuring Steve Keys as The Rolling Stones! Doors open at 6:30, the music starts at 7:30, and the good times start as soon as you arrive! Get your tickets for twenty bucks at winklerconcerthall.ca, at the Meridian Centre Box Office, or at the door. The Seventies Show has assigned seating, so the sooner you get your tickets, the better your choice of seating will be. Tickets will be available at the door the evening of the Seventies Show, and a cash bar will be open to keep you refreshed! Let the good times roll!
2023 Has Arrived!
Happy New Year! The Back 40 has planned several exciting events for the upcoming months. Unfortunately. The Last Waltz Show was cancelled due to illnesses affecting several performers. The good news is that the aforementioned performers are fully recovered and fit as fiddles! Isn’t it great that folk instruments are the standard of comparison for people’s well-being? Expect to see the Last Waltz tribute become a part of a future Back 40 event.
The next event will be on Friday, January 20th! The 2023 Winter Coffeehouse will be at the Winkler Arts + Culture Centre. Doors open at 6:30, and admission is free. Performers will include Mason Weselowski, Talladega Gregg, Derek Helps and Joey McNair! Performers can also sign up at the event for an open mic opportunity.
Tribute to The Last Waltz
The music from the greatest concert film of all time, Martin Scorcese’s The Last Waltz, will be performed by an exciting lineup of performers on Friday, November 18th at the Winkler Arts and Culture Gallery in Winkler, Manitoba! Legendary musicians The Band, accompanied by some of their musical friends, including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Emmylou Harris and Van Morrison, captured their final performance on film, and the Back 40 wants to bring some of the magic of that concert to you! Musicians scheduled to perform include Karl Redding, Bill Dowling, Steve Dueck, Loretta Thorliefson, Derek Helps and Paul Bergman! The doors open at 6:30, showtime is 7:00, and admission is free! Coffee and a cash bar are available.
Back 40 2022-2023 Season Set To Begin!
The Back 40 Folk Festival runs public musical events throughout the year, and to kick off this new season, the Back 40 is holding a Coffeehouse on Friday, Sept. 30th at the Winkler Arts + Culture Gallery! The Coffeehouse will run from 7:00-10:00, featuring a stellar lineup including Bill Dowling, Warren Friesen, Taladegga Gregg, Jenessa Kehler, Ian Krochak and Joey McNair! There will be a cash bar, and event admission is free!
EVENTS CALENDAR
