Come folk festival season, the flow on Hwy. 2 is usually northbound.

That's because, for the past decade or so, the Edmonton Folk Music Festival has built a reputation as one of the country's best, by booking some big-name mainstream crossover acts such as Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell and Sinead O'Connor.

As a result of the natural -- though probably unfair -- tendency to compare, Calgary's annual event always seemed to not quite stack up.

Until now.

On a number of levels and because of numerous factors, this appears to be the year the Calgary Folk Music Festival, which runs tomorrow through Sunday, has come of age and stepped out of the shadows of its sister to the north.

"I think what this year does is it starts to define our direction and solidify it," says Calgary's associate producer Kerry Clarke.

"I think David Byrne and Billy Bragg really help.

"They kind of put us into that special category ... We haven't had that kind of 'wow' artist like Edmonton's had, so this is ours."

Byrne, the former Talking Heads frontman who has carved out a lengthy and illustrious solo career for himself, definitely qualifies as a 'wow' artist.

Add his name to the list of other headlining performers such as Bragg, Cowboy Junkies, the Tragically Hip's Gord Downie, Spirit of the West, Kathy Mattea, Eliza Carthy and Buckwheat Zydeco, and Calgary's lineup is arguably the best it's ever been.

For its part, on top of Downie and the Cowboy Junkies, Edmonton is offering as headliners Joe Henry, Joan Osborne, Baaba Maal, Great Big Sea and Jennifer Warnes -- solid, but no 'wow.'

"One thing I do notice that sometimes frustrates me," Clarke says, "is people concentrate on the headliners, and if they think the headliners are good they say it's a strong lineup.

"But they don't look at the rest of the lineup.

"They don't say, 'Oh there's some artists that I've never heard of that are going to surprise me.' "

Well, on that level, Calgary's fest gets even more impressive.

From local performers such as Jenny Allen, Tom Phillips and the Men of Constant Sorrow, and the Rembetika Hipsters to American artists The Handsome Family, Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys, Howe Gelb and Victoria Williams to global acts The Waifs (Australia), Njava (Madagascar), Oysterband (England) and Wimme (Finland), it's hard to find any holes.

Not surprisingly, Clarke says because of that -- as well as factors such as Edmonton's hosting of the World Track and Field Championships -- the interest in what's happening on Prince's Island from music lovers outside of Calgary is at an all-time high.

Clarke, though, is quick to point out that even with the almost assured success of this year's Calgary fest -- it's close to breaking even, even before the gates open tomorrow night -- there is a lesson to be learned from the reversal of festival fortunes.

True, Calgary's reputation will undoubtedly be furthered by the 2001 event, hopefully attracting larger crowds and even bigger artists down the road, but there are some definite drawbacks.

"More artists want to come, but it also makes your life tough in the sense that there's an expectation and some times you can't live up to those expectations despite how big your budget is," Clarke says.

"It does help us, but it isn't a guarantee."