“I better get started,” Sarah McLachlan told the crowd as she sat, barefoot, at the piano Sunday night to draw a close the 32nd ROOTSandBLUES Music Festival. “I’m officially a year late.” And with that, as if there were not a moment to lose, she sang.
32nd annual ROOTSandBlues well attended
It was very much the spirit of the weekend: make up for lost time, the festival last summer that never was. So many moments were so full of the heart-thumping joy of gathering for live music, and the skies so clear, that few dared to even say the ‘w’ word.
“By all accounts, this festival was everything we could have asked for,” says Kevin Tobin, artistic director, Salmon Arm Folk Music Society (SAFMS). “We couldn’t have asked for better weather, and we couldn’t have asked for better people on all fronts making it all possible: the artists just blowing us all away, the hard-working staff and volunteers, great vendors, our sponsors and business community, and, of course, our audiences. What a community we have rallying behind this beloved festival. Thank you, everyone, for making this festival one of the best.”
The team is still working on official attendance numbers, but Tobin says they are “very happy.” The SAFMS had an inkling of that support, but it was not guaranteed. For the first time in years, the festival moved its dates ahead by nearly a month to increase the odds of a safe, fire-free weekend. Other changes included half-hour shows on the CBC Blues Stage between Main Stage acts, an opening up of the Barn Stage area with its segregated beverage garden no longer needed. This year, ROOTSandBLUES shifted to guests being able to carry drinks throughout the grounds.
“I think a lot of people felt this freedom to move around and be right where they wanted to be,” says Tobin. “It’s absolutely the willingness to try new things and continue to build out a superbly organized festival that has made ROOTSandBLUES so successful over the years.”
Plenty of thought also went into a stellar lineup—with many of the 2023 promised artists returning—from Main Stage headliners that also included Amanda Marshall and Five Alarm Funk to quietly and not so quietly powerful shows on the Barn Stage, Odlum Brown Shade Stage, CBC Blues Stage and Plulk’w Place presented by Acorn Music.
Where there was music, there was also activism and storytelling: from Oji-Cree singer-songwriter Aysanabee sharing the stories of his residential school survivor grandfather to renowned Ukrainian bandura player KRUTЬ singing to save the culture of her war-torn country—and from Begonia’s
openness about her body and depression to Stephen Fearing telling how a high school teacher got his first song played on pirated radio airwaves from a ship on the Irish Sea.
The festivities in Salmon Arm began long before gates officially opened last Friday. The free Tuned Up and Kick Off concerts held downtown as a gesture of thanks to residents saw full and jubilant attendance.
Then, on Monday morning, as if Friday headliner Amanda Marshall’s Let it rain lyrics still echoed against the backdrop of Mount Ida, and as if on cue, it began to rain.
Dates for the 2025 ROOTSandBLUES Music Festival are to be determined.
