Angelique Francis puts on a great show to wrap up MusicFest 2023

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

The sun was back out on Sunday, July 16 for the final day of MusicFest and temperatures were again going to be in the mid 20 C so it promised to be a great day for listening to music as long as you coustay cool. We always like the Gospel session in the Concert Bowl and this year was no different. The energetic collaboration of 4 groups had the audience up and dancing on the lawn. Nikki D even got out and danced with the hand clapping enthusiastic audience!!

                            The Gospel session had the large audience up and dancing - don't miss this next year!!

Next we took on a session on the Grierson Stage (called Musical Travellers) which allows you to hear performers that you haven’t heard since it featured several groups playing individually and at times together. After all with 6 stages going on almost all at the same time you obviously can’t hear everyone perform individually so the collaborations that are featured in the Barn and at the Grierson stage are ideal for getting a chance to hear several groups at once.   

 The Grierson stage is perfect for catching a variety of groups playing at one time-Shown here Dougyang Gozupa from Korea

 We ate lunch watching The Blue and Gold which is another group composed of young musicians and we really appreciated their brand of the blues. Watch for them if appreciate country –blues style music. We then took a break and went for a swim in the nearby Puntledge River which really cooled us off. We recommend this for those hot days when you really need to cool your whole body. Totally refreshed we returned to the Barn to hear another collaboration called “Fiddle Me This” composed of fiddlers from many different groups.  We are big fans of fiddle music and appreciated the varied individual and impromptu jamming that we heard in this gathering. 

                                 Kalissa Landa (left) and Daniel Lapp fiddle up a storm in "Fiddle me this"

 We ended the evening in the main concert bowl where the show started with the Jack Semple band and then we were bowled over by Angelique Francis who is just off winning a 2023 Juno for best Blues Album of the Year!! We loved her energy and her band is composed of members of her family with dad on drums. They got most people up dancing and they are a “don’t miss” if you get a chance to see them. The evening finished with the Bros Landreth and Curtis Clearsky and the Constellationz to wrap up another great Vancouver Island Music Fest. Don’t miss next year’s event and we will see you there.For more info see www.islandmusicfest.com

           2023 Juno Award Winner- Angelique Francis and her band put on a high energy set in the Concert Bowl