Butchart Gardens Summer Festival presents: Spirit of the West

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Thursday, August 20th, 2015
7:30 PM

The Butchart Gardens' summer festival presents Canadian legends, Spirit of the West.

This open-air concert takes place on the Concert Lawn stage. Come sit on a bench, or bring a blanket and sit on the lawn.

The summer entertainment program is part of your general admission ticket.

Nearing the three-and-a-half decade mark, Spirit of the West continues to rock audiences with their original and potent blend of Folk, Celtic, Rock, Pop and Punk.  The band that began in 1983 as an innocent trio of acoustic guitar, flutes and bouzouki is now a musical and performance powerhouse that features 6 musicians and dozens of instrument changes in a night’s worth of timeless and beloved songs.

With 13 albums to their credit, five of them gold and three platinum, a history of extensive touring throughout the western world, and the authorship of a drinking song (”Home For a Rest”), so well known and loved that it is often called ‘Canada’s unofficial national anthem’, Spirit of the West’s legacy has grown to legendary status.

Fan favourites such as ‘And if Venice is Sinking’, ‘Save This House’, ‘Puttin’ Up with the Joneses’ and the quintessential drinking song ‘The Crawl’ have etched themselves into the soundtrack of youth of several generations of Canadians.

In recognition of Spirit’s long career they have been inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Western Canadian Music Association, have received the National Achievement Award from the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, and were, in 2014, presented with a star in Vancouver’s ‘Starwalk’, located on Theatre Row on Granville Street.

The band consists of John Mann (vocals); Geoffrey Kelly (vocals, guitar, flutes, whistles, bodhran); Hugh McMillan(vocals, basses, nearly all other stringed things on Earth); Tobin ‘The Gull’ Frank (basses, accordion, keyboards); Matthew Harder (vocals, guitars) & Vince Ditrich (vocals, drumkit, percussion, management, refreshment coordination).  http://sotw.ca