18th Annual Roots and Blues Festival

Janet and Glen have been going to the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival for several years. Many local folks volunteer at the festival, which brings between 20-40,000 visitors a year to the area. Next year, we are either wearing volunteer T-shirts, or are going to buy the early bird tickets like Glen and Janet. The Early Bird Pass costs $115, and gives you 2.5 days of fabulous eclectic music... singers and bands from all over Canada and the US. Alteratively, $70/day at the door. Janet and Glen are experts. They have the brains to get there early and lay out the tarp so no one takes their place. They have all the equipment: the tarps, the regulation size low chairs which enable you to sit close to the stage, the cooler full of drinks and snacks....

Every adult can take in a child (12 and under) for free. We took both kids for a few hours the second day. Alex, of course, looks like he is more than 12, so he got "ID'd", and then got given an adult band on his wrist, so no one else would challenge him. The festival caters to families during the day.... a kids area with a climbing wall, 5 small alternative stages, a sand pit, a painting tent, cool sprays of water to run through when the heat starts to get you down.

During the evening, there are still plenty of kids around, but there is additional action: clouds of smoke billowing skyward from various locations, tendrils of it carried on the winds. Alex wanted to know what the 'wierd smell' was. Arta had to tell him "marijuana, a remnant from your grandmother's generation." The music gets louder, and the light show a bit 'strobe-ish'. You can feel the throb of the bass guitar in your spine. Alex did ask if it was possible he might have a seizure. :-)

Arta was not the only one who thought she could see fireflies... from the stage, two spot lights pointed out above the crowd. It caught the silver in the wings of the moths as the floated through the beams of light. As beautiful as the meteor shower the night before. Where else in the world could the twilight capture the silhouette of Mount Ida and the stars as they began to emerge in the sky.

Bonnie got three backstage passes, so she, Arta, and Alex went backstage where they saw Fred Penner warm up... we was the act before Gord Downie (lead singer from Tragically Hip, out promoting his solo work). Penner looked out at the audience and said, "Hey, Look at you! You all grew up!" Arta is still laughing on reporting that. 75% of the audience could remember him from their youth, and they sung along with him as he strummed "The Cat Came Back", which morphed into another tune ("Hit the Road, Cat, and don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more..."). Alex reports that being back stage was not such a big deal (for free food, they had only nuts and dried fruit and pop... he had been hoping for more). He did, however, want to keep his lanyard with the laminated pass (the one that says backstage pass), because he is sure his friends will not believe that he really DID get to go backstage.

signing off,
Rebecca and Arta