The
Canadian Pacific Railway Festivals, usually simplified to
CPR Festivals, were a series of music and folk arts festivals sponsored by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) between 1927 and 1931. The festivals were organized by the writer and publicist John Murray Gibbon who was the publicity agent for the CPR. The first of these festivals was the
Canadian Folk Song and Handicraft Festival which was held in
Quebec City in 1927. That festival was revived in Quebec City in 1928 and then moved to
Winnipeg in 1931. The CPR sponsored the
Sea Music Festival which was held first in
Vancouver in 1929, and then in Victoria, British Columbia in 1930. Other festivals sponsored by the CPR included the
Highland Gathering and Scottish Festival, the
Old English Yuletide Festival, the
Great West Canadian Folk-Dance, Folk-Song and Handicraft Festival, and the
English Music Festival.
The festivals were unusually progressive for the period in which they occurred.
