The Edmonton Folk Music Festival has been running since August 1980. With the festival lasting over 40 years, quirky traditions are bound to pop up around the Gallagher Park Grounds.
The Folk Fest plate kids are the funniest, yet most dedicated group of children at the festival over the weekend.
The kids, some as young as four-years old, spend the majority of the festival gathering the reusable plates that attendees receive from the food stands around the grounds, taking them back to the plate return booth, in exchange for a loonie per plate.
In previous years, the folk fest offered a toonie per plate, but for 2026, the festival organizers had to drop it down to a loonie. “There were too many kids coming,” says volunteer Nikolai Shadeck.
This year, volunteers Emma Stoodart and Liam Turnell at the plate return tent estimate they exchanged over 3,000 loonies a day, and 15,000 over the four-day festival.
The strategy the plate kids have developed is quite a sight. They walk as far from the food vendors as possible, and hover around people who look like they’re almost finished eating — then ask for the plate. Sometimes they will simply grab it and run.
Some of the kids are so dedicated to the summer hustle that they can be seen with walkie-talkies, which they use to communicate with each other and their parents.
Former plate-kid and now volunteer Turnell says that three years ago, he made $400 in a single day just from scouring the grounds for plates.
“I woke up at like six a.m. and just went and looked on the hill” – Liam Turnell
The plate return tent has implemented a second line that allows kids to bring more than one plate at a time, making them first clean the plates before receiving their loonie.
If you’re looking for a quick side hustle next year, check out the plate economy at folk fest. You might make a lot of money! But be warned, those kids work hard.
