A torrential downpour and satanic mosquitoes couldn't wipe the smiles off of the swarms of folkies enjoying the 33rd annual Canmore Folk Music Festival at Centennial Park on the weekend.

"It's been an average crowd for us with about 5,000 people a day," Ken Rooks, artistic director, said. "We sold out on Sunday. I think it's been great and I am totally impressed with it all. I have never seen the band Te Vaka before and Zachary Richard was outstanding."

Vieux Farka Touré, a fiery guitar player on stage with his band from Mali, couldn't speak much English but he certainly connected with the crowd on Saturday night. Vieux performed at the 2010 FIFA World Cup celebration concert in Johannesburg, South Africa, and since then has had a huge following.

Rooks is thankful that he played at the Canmore concert.

"This year's lineup is quite international in flavour," Rooks said. "With Te Vaka, from the South Pacific, for example."

Rooks started with the folk festival 25 years ago, and he has no plans of stopping now. When asked if he would run for mayor, he said that is for someone else.

"Mr. Casey is going to take care of that," Rooks said, referring to the municipal election set for October 18.

The U22 concert on Friday night at Communitea and the Saturday workshop, both new this year, were a hit, he said.

The folk festival has grown significantly since its inception in the late '70s, but no one could be more pleased than Judy and Michael Vincent, two of its originators.

"It's just fabulous," Michael said. "There are more coordinators now in the brochure than there were volunteers at the first festival."

They never thought it would get this big, he said.

"We worried that charging $1.50 was too much," Michael said. "It's a solid festival, year after year now. I can't see it ever fading, it's so well established. I'm still surprised when we get people like Buffy Sainte-Marie here."

It's helped that it has always been a dry festival, (with no liquor), Judy said.

"I think it's maintained the same atmosphere, being family oriented," Judy said. "From day one, that's the way we wanted to keep it."

After a sunny day and warm Saturday night, the inevitable rains that have plagued the festival for the past few years came on Sunday. It seemed like it would hold off, but at about 5 p.m. the clouds opened up and the water came down with such force it filled rain barrels within two hours. The audience sitting before the main stage was prepared, though, and they pulled on rain ponchos and peaked out from under plastic tarps.

A similar downpour occurred late Saturday night but most people, excluding wary volunteers like Norm Neil, head of the recycling Green Team, even noticed it.

"I came to the concert grounds at 4 a.m. because I was worried about the tent. It was a deluge," Neil said. "The weight of the water was so heavy that it kept the tents from blowing away. There was a lot of water."

The standing water in the Bow Valley from heavy rains the past month are probably to blame for our unusually annoying mosquito population that we have had to endure, he said.

"The mosquitoes are ferocious," Neil said. "It's the worst I have ever seen in the 18 years that I have lived here. And I grew up in Winnipeg. It has been worse than it was there."

Both Safeway and Sobey's sold out of mosquito spray by Sunday, but Neil managed to find 20 bottles of the spray for his volunteers at Shopper's Drug Mart, he said.

Besides a brief respite from the rain, stage manager Vic Bell was once again sweeping water off of the main stage at 8 p.m. Despite the cold and discomfort, the diehard crowd danced as the Sojourners heated them up with their soulful gospel music.

Many of the concertgoers stayed until Canadian icon Buffy Sainte-Marie played her set to end the evening. "When you live in Canmore, you always have a shell or something in your truck in case of rain," Marques Belmonte said. David Lertzman of Canmore was having a great time despite the downpour. "The festival is fantastic," Lertzman said. "It's the climax of the summer." And it was nice to have a Morley presence at the festival with a tipi set up on the concert grounds for people to visit, he said.

"I cried during the workshop this afternoon with Buffy Sainte-Marie, Zachary Richard and Te Vaka," Moe Clark, from Montreal said. "It was really beautiful. It was about identity and strength. And they each sang in their native languages."

The rain came back for Monday night's final performance and it will likely show up for some part of next year's festival, but that won't stop the crowds of folk music fans from coming back, Rooks said