B.C.’s largest bluegrass and old-time music festival returns to Laketown Ranch Music Park June 17-19 with 30 performances on four stages featuring some of Canada’s top acoustic music stars.
=0D=0A=Among the headliners are multiple Juno winners Pharis and Jason Romero, whose appearance opening night coincides with the release a new album on the prestigious Smithsonian Folkways label. Other headliners include Toronto international touring artists The Lonesome Ace Stringband, Eli West, rising Toronto bluegrass stars The Barrel Boys, Victoria’s Country Squall, Vancouver traditionalists the Lonesome Town Painters and more.
=0D=0A=“We combine bluegrass, classic country, Appalachian old-time music and Americana to create a unique West Coast bluegrass vibe,” says artistic director Bob Remington.
=0D=0A=With most patrons camping on site to sing, play, jam and share music, the festival gives rise to a special community with a village-like atmosphere. “Bluegrass festivals have a unique feel,” says Remington. “There is no wall between artists and the fans. Music is shared and played by everyone in the oral tradition from which it began.”
=0D=0A=In addition to a main stage, the all-ages, family-friendly festival has intimate interactive workshops and tiny concerts at locations around the site including Fiddle Frenzy, a super jam with all the fiddlers on site, and Women in Bluegrass: 3 Generations with Pharis Romero, Tammy Fassaert and Ella Korth. There’s also a “crankie concert” with a small hand-cranked theatre-in-a-box known as a crankie, a pre-cinema art form making a comeback in the old-time music community.
=0D=0A=The festival also has its signature Saturday Night Square dance with caller Paul Silveria and music by the Lonesome Ace Stringband
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