Vancouver Island MusicFest wraps up in fine style

by Keith Nicol and Heather Nicol

Sunday July 14 was another sunny hot day for the final day of MusicFest so again the name of the game was keeping cool. We are started our day at one of our favourite stages- The Grierson Stage where the music we heard coming into the festival site drew us in. JimJam (an Irish group) was playing with 2 other bands and since we are Celtic music fans we had to check them out. The session was called “Improv Wears Many Coats” and it was great to see how the 3 groups collaborated moving from Irish music to NY Jazz and Gypsy Jazz. We hadn’t been to the Crossroads Stage yet for this festival so we next headed for this nice shady site to learn some Latin dance moves and hear music from Chola y Gilano from Chile. The Crossroads Stage is more of a workshop stage so if you want to learn more about a style of music or a particular instrument this is the stage to check out. 

                                               Flavia Nascimento is a powerhouse on stage 

We next headed back to the Main Concert Stage to check out Tio Chorinho with Flavia Nascimento who are Canadian but play” New Orleans Jazz of Brazil”. Wow, is Flavia Nascimento ever a power house and dynamic presence on stage.  By this time it was mid afternoon and temperatures were now in the high 20C’s so we decided to cool down with a swim in the nearby Puntledge River just as we did the previous day. That cool down set us up for the final sessions on the main Concert Bowl that we  were especially looking forward to. 

                            Learning some Latin dance moves at the shady Crossroads venue

 As we mentioned earlier we are fans of Celtic music and Kathryn Tickell and the Darkening from Northern England started us off with music featuring the Northumbrian Pipes, an instrument from that part of England. She is also a great fiddler player and they played a mix of lively Celtic music. They were followed by one of our favourite groups of the festival- JigJam. We had seen them earlier at the Grierson Stage and they played a lively blend of Irish – Bluegrass music which was certainly a big hit with us and the crowd since they had lots of people up dancing. 

                     Kathryn Tickell and the Darkening traveled from Northern England to be at MusicFest

 They were followed by Canadian music legend – Daniel Lanois who has worked with a variety of big name artists like U2 and Bob Dylan. He played a mix of music but liked his down home songs of growing up in Quebec and Ontario the most. The final acts of MusicFest 2024 were local bands from Vancouver- The High Bar Gang and Lucarno. But just because they are local doesn’t mean they aren’t great musicians in their own right. Lucarno closed out the festival in classic style and had everyone up dancing to their lively upbeat music. And so concludes another amazingly varied and fun Vancouver Island MusicFest....lets hope it can continue for another 30 years!! For more info see: www.islandmusicfest.com

                       Daniel Lanois has won many Grammy and Juno Awarda and was invested in the Order of Canada in 2018!