Rosemarie Keough, founder of the Salt Spring Island Folk Dance Festival, reflects on how the event began in 2004, flourished for a decade, and was eventually passed on to the Burnaby International Folk Dancers (BIFD). Since then, BIFD has carried the tradition forward through the Lyrids Festival, which Dale Adamson and a dedicated committee have organized each spring.

As the festival prepares for its final gathering in April 2026, Kathy Sandstrom invited Rosemarie to contribute this wonderful article on the festival’s origins, which was published in the NFO News, in December 2025.

Click here to download this article.

Salt Spring Article from 2025_12_NFO_News