Annie Patterson will headline Gil’s Hootenanny 2024, bringing her powerful voice and incredible song knowledge and repertoire to the 15th Annual May Day sing-along.
Annie is a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and master song interpreter with an infectious stage presence that can entice “a roomful of store mannequins to break out in song”. Annie has performed and led music retreats at folk festivals, coffee houses, schools, and camps around the globe for over 30 years. She carries with her a suitcase of over 2400 songs from many genres, including Americana, contemporary folk, ballads, and gospel. She is well known as one of the creators, along with her long time partner Peter Blood, of the popular songbooks Rise Up Singing and Rise Again. We are delighted that Peter will accompany Annie at Gil’s Hootenanny.
Annie spent her life working for justice through music. An award-winning documentary, We Begin to Sing, is about Annie and Peter’s lifelong commitment to foster communal singing and their friendship with the late Pete Seeger.
As Annie says, “Singing can knit communities together and touch people’s lives in a unique and amazing way. It has been an enormous privilege to lead groups together in song and feel the power of hundreds of voices singing in harmony.”
Gil’s Hootenanny will take place at 7:00 pm on May Day, Wednesday, May 1, at 30 Cleary Avenue, the campus of the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa. The venue is accessible, has ample parking and is serviced by OC Transpo.
Tickets for the hootenanny will be $20; kids can attend free of charge.
Stay tuned for further information about ticket sales.