Still time to catch Vancouver Island MusicFest

By Keith and Heather Nicol

The Grierson stage was a popular venue on Saturday

    There are still a few tickets remaining for the Vancouver Island MusicFest this year and with the ideal concert going weather at hand you should check it out if you are in the Comox Valley. With blue skies and daytime temperatures in the low 20 C you couldn’t get weather for anoutdoor concert. On Saturday, July 13 we spent a good part of the day at the Grierson Stage since it had some great musicians playing tribute to some important anniversaries.  It began at 10:00 am with “Happy Birthday Pete Seeger – 100 years” and it was one of our favourite sessions of the day. We loved Helen Austin’s version of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”. Next up at 11:45 was Planet Music which featured as the name suggests music from around the world.  Both “Cha Wa” and “Adonis Puentes” had people up dancing in the aisles with their lively rhythms. 

There was dancing in the aisles

Learning to Tango at "The Club"

     We disappeared for a short time during the Planet Music session to check out a new venue and theme for this year at  "The Club”. This venue is adjacent to the main concert area in the curling centre and featured hands on sessions. For instance, we had a quick lesson in how to dance the tango with Keith Beldam and Yumiko (Check the programme for other hands on details).  Then it was back to the Grierson stage where we saw another tribute – this time to Woodstock which is 50 years old this year. When the MC asked if anyone in the audience was actually at Woodstock a few of people raised their hands. Next we caught the one of our favourite Newfoundland musicians – Matthew Byrne on the Woodland Stage and we had seen him in Newfoundland on a few occasions with an amazing group called “The Dardenelles”. Come to think of it they would be a perfect addition to the line up at a future MusicFest.  Then it was back to the Grierson stage to catch the end of the another tribute – this time entitled “Roots of Rock and Roll”.  The fun side to these tributes is that each of the several groups on stage gets to choose how they were influenced by the person or event being recognized. 

Matthew Byrne from Newfoundland at the Woodland Stage

In the evening headed to the main concert bowl where we heard "Cha Wa", "Muscles Shoals AllStars" , and Tom Cochrane.Who knew so many top soul singers where associated with Muscle Shoals and Tom Cochrane put on an energetic standing room only performance. Rain played havoc with the evening shows and it unfortunately shortened the evening for many people.

Tom Cochrane played before a standing room only crowd on Saturday night

And there is still more to seen and heard on Sunday!  The forecast is good (but bring some rain gear just in case) and there are still tickets left so come out.  For more information see: www.islandmusicfest.com. See you there.