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Let the music take you to another place at the 31st annual Calgary Folk Music Festival, July 22-25, at Prince’s Island Park. It’s a collective sound salvation with a cool vibe where 68 different groups from 14 countries perform to 52,000 people on 7 stages.

This year’s program runs the musical gamut from indie darlings and bluegrassers The Avett Brothers and folk/punkster Frank Turner to sultry global electronica diva Natacha Atlas; from the effortless soul of the legendary Roberta Flack to the wit and grit of acoustic songsmith Greg Brown. 2010 Festival marquee artists include: The Avett Brothers and Stars (Thursday), The Swell Season and Michael Franti and Spearhead (Friday), Corb Lund and The Cat Empire (Saturday) and Roberta Flack and St. Vincent (Sunday).

Indie singer-songwriters, roots and country veterans and blues masters rub sonic shoulders with global electronica divas, Latin rhythm-meisters, Ukrainian rockers and Congolese hipsters. On-the-fly collaborations create once-in-a-lifetime magic in a verdant urban village that grounds a laidback, ecologically astute community-for-a-day with cool wind power and a hot main stage, an interactive family area, an international craft market, global culinary delights, a record tent and tree-shaded beer garden.

The Festival creates a dreamlike balance of urban and bucolic, friendly and far-out, superfly and earthy. From pioneering godfathers and grandmothers to the rebels, romantics and revolutionaries of the current decade, it’s Calgary’s annual journey into the heart and soul of the roots and evolution of the music we like to call folk, with an edge.

This year, the Festival expands its programming to Friday afternoon. From 3:00 – 6:00 pm, three stages come alive with sessions and concerts. Mainstage concerts take place each evening, with the twilight stage also in operation Friday and Saturday nights. On Saturday and Sunday between 10:30 am and 5:30 pm, musicians collaborate in exquisite songwriter-in-the-round and themed sessions on 6 stages.

The 5th annual Folk Boot Camp at Cantos offers an unparalleled opportunity to learn from the festival’s favourite guitar heroes, vocalists and songsmiths as they teach students July 21-23 among collections of rare and curious keyboards, organs and Theremins. A special evening showcase features Jesse Thorn of the popular podcast The Sound of Young America.

Tickets are on sale now. Call 403-233-0904 or visit the website for the full line-up.