The Mariposa Folk Festival was founded in 1961 by Ruth Jones, her husband, Dr Crawford Jones, and Pete McGarvey. The festival’s name was taken from Stephen Leacock’s book Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. The town in the work was Mariposa, a thinly disguised Orillia. In 1964 the festival relocated to Toronto after being banned from Orillia.

A collection of images from the festival’s fifty plus years is available online at the Clara Thomas Archives on the York University Libraries’ website. We found some fantastic images from the early Toronto years that we wanted to share:

Mariposa Maple Leaf Stadium – 1964 | Loek

 Joni Mitchell Mariposa Festival 1973 | Peter Williams

Joni Mitchell and David Rea – Mariposa Festival 1967 | William Smith

Bruce Cockburn – Mariposa Festival 1974 | A. Rengendanz

Bonnie Dobson – Mariposa Festival 1969 | Leo Harrison

Bessie Jones – Mariposa Festival 1974 | Jim Mys

Joan Baez – Mariposa Festival 1969 | Towers

 Audience to see Joan Baez – Mariposa Festival 1969 | Towers

John Allan Cameron – Mariposa Festival 1969 | Harrison

Buffy Sainte-Marie – Mariposa Festival 1964 | McFadden