For anyone who’s stopped Scott Crabbe on the street with a suggestion or idea about the Jasper Folk Fest, here’s your chance to ensure your thoughts are heard.

The Jasper Heritage Folk Festival Society will host an open forum regarding the future of the Jasper Heritage Folk Festival on Nov. 5 at the old firehall. 

Artistic director Scott Crabbe would like to see as many bodies there as possible. “I’d like people who are curious as to what’s been happening over the past few years to attend,” he said. “I also want to get people interested in volunteering their time, people interested in planning and helping with events over the year.”

The society is open to ideas regarding the execution of the biennial festival, Crabbe said. “I have my ideas and I’m certainly aware of ideas other people in town have,” he said.

“I’m certainly hoping those people will come out and share those ideas.”

There are a number of things that must be addressed when it comes to the planning. For one, Crabbe said, the bigger the festival, the longer each job takes. “Right now, we’re looking for a core group of volunteers willing to give approximately 20 hours a month of their time.”

One hurdle is that as more area folk festivals pop up, the volunteer pool for Jasper gets smaller and smaller. “We’ve lost a volunteer base in Hinton, not due to lack of interest, due to the fact they can put on their own festival,” Crabbe said. 

Holding the festival is important to Crabbe, who describes his interest as an unbridled passion for live music. “If it wasn’t for venues in Jasper and other small towns, these artists wouldn’t be able to do what they do,” he said. It’s not difficult to convince performers to come to town and it’s not expensive, but there are a number of logistics involved. 

“Those logistics are what we need help volunteering with,” Crabbe said, adding that positions on the executive board are available. 

It can be a lot of work helping out with the festival, but the experience is worth it, Crabbe said, especially when it comes to giving struggling artists the chance to be heard.

“One of the larger shifts in focus has been to start aiming towards the more grassroots-oriented artists, up-and-comers who don’t necessarily have a lot of notoriety in the music industry,” he said. 

The folk fest society has brought five such shows to town since January, including most recently Sheena Grobb, Penelope Swales and Rae Spoon, as a way to show the general public that the festival has a presence. 

“Even though traditionally it’s been a festival that’s been held every two years, that doesn’t necessarily mean in the year in between we have to stop bringing music into the town,” he said. 

All ideas are welcome, Crabbe said. “We’re not limiting ourselves to a specific festival in Centennial Park on Heritage Day long weekend,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of people say maybe we should start doing something different, and it’s those ideas and those people who I’d like to see at the meeting.”

The forum will be held Nov. 5 at  at 7 p.m. in the Brushfire Gallery at the old firehall.