The Best Entertainment Deal in Town

Rogue Folk Club Staff

Artistic Director

Steve Edge

Publicity & Fundraising

Paul Norton

Admin Assistant

Brooke Bennett

Volunteer Coordinator

Kate Semple

Bookkeeper

Jill Baryluk

Board of Directors

Chairperson

Dan Bowditch

Vice Chair

Morris Biddle

Treasurer

Phil Gray

Secretary

Doug O'Neill

Directors At Large

Monica Dare

Bill Hooker

Tom Nesbit

Ian Robertson

Andrew Smith

The Rogue Folk Club is a registered non-profit Society in the Province of British Columbia. It was formed in the Spring of 1987 to present concerts of Celtic, Folk and Roots Music in Vancouver. The Club is a founding member of the North American Folk Music and Dance (formed in 1989), and has been a member of the Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture since its inception.

The Rogue Folk Club provides a unique approach to concert presentation, offering audiences the opportunity to see and hear some of the most accomplished musicians and singers in the world in a relaxed, intimate setting.

The vast majority of our shows take place at the Mel Lehan Hall at The St. James (3214 West 10th Avenue, in Kitsilano) and we also co-present several shows per year with the Blueshore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts in their CapU Global Roots Series. The St. James Community Square building was saved from the wrecking ball in early 2016 when it was purchased by the City of Vancouver. Since then, the city has made many improvements including a new roof, a new floor and new washrooms. More upgrades are planned. 

Our Mission Statement

Who Can Join

Membership of the Rogue Folk Club is open to anyone interested in Celtic, Folk and Roots Music.

The benefits of membership include: voting at the AGM, discounts on admission to our concerts and dances, discounts on merchandise at our events, discounts on tickets for events such as the Vancouver and Mission Folk Music Festivals, discounts at selected record stores and restaurants in Vancouver, and regular emailed newslters detailing Club events, festivals, concerts, etc. Pacific Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Society members also get discounted entry to events.

What Makes the Rogue Folk Club Unique?

The Rogue Folk Club presents at least 50 concerts, 12 Roguelele Nights, and 10 dances per year in Vancouver. No other volunteer-run concert series does this much.

Our mandate is to entertain, educate and inform our audience by presenting internationally-renowned performers of Celtic, Folk & Roots music in an affordable, accessible, friendly, comfortable, smoke-free setting. We regard the quality of sound reproduction to be extremely important at our events.

Our principal venue is St James Hall, which has seating at tables and chairs as well as some pews. It is a beautiful - de-sanctified - church, with a vaulted wooden ceiling, a dance floor, and a balcony. All our events are open to folks of all ages, and we offer discounts to seniors, children, and people with disabilities.

We encourage participation through volunteering, dancing, workshops, and interaction with the performers.

We make every effort to work with other folk music organizations in Vancouver and Victoria to minimize date conflicts, increase awareness about all folk music related events in the vicinity, and to offer incentives to our members to support them.

We are committed to cooperating with our neighbours with respect to minimizing noise levels outside the venue before, during and after our events.

Our booking policy is determined to a large extent by the availability - and affordability - of touring performers. These performers will be renowned for their abilities as instrumentalists, singers, entertainers - or preferably all three.

We are committed to presenting local performers as often as possible (within the above guidelines for headliners). We are also committed to presenting local performers as opening acts whenever we have concerts on a Friday or Saturday night (in order to keep the running time of our events at a reasonable level).