Summer Streetfest reputation growing
Email
Print
Letter to Editor
Share
Updated: June 30, 2009 9:22 AM
This week marks the beginning of Revelstoke’s Summer Streetfest, with new musicians taking to the Grizzly Plaza bandstand each night for the next two months.
Presented by the Revelstoke Arts Council, the Summer Streetfest features 64 consecutive nights of free, live music in Revelstoke’s downtown core. And according to the Arts Council’s Gary Pendergast, artists were extremely interested in this year’s Summer Streetfest.
“E-mails started coming in January from people who’d heard about it, wanted in, wanted a space,” said Pendergast. “Where in the past, we’d have some people playing three or even four times during the two months, [this summer] no one is playing more than two [times].”
“I think [the increase in artists] has a lot to do with the young people coming through the town,” said Pendergast of the recent interest in the festival, who said he received many e-mails along the lines of: “’We were in Revelstoke, we heard the music downtown, can we take part this year,’ that type of e-mail came in over and over again.”
“What we try and do is give as wide a variety of work as we can,” explained Pendergast. “We’re looking for new things, but we are aware that the audience is really looking for things they’ve heard in the past, things they’ve enjoyed in the past, so we never just wipe the past away.”
As for the acts at this years festival, Pendergast says they’re a combination of local and outside talent, with a mix of styles.
“We’ve got Ryan Donn coming back, [and] Andrew Allen: they’re people who’ve played in the town a lot of times over the last couple years. But equally we’ve got local people. We’ve got Cornstarr, we’ve got The Rev, Hugh Spinney, Sharon Shook—these are all locals that regularly appear, have their following,” said Pendergast, noting, “There’s an Elvis, a Johnny Cash, and a Rod Stewart ... I’m pretty confident the variety is there and people will enjoy it.”
Pendergast said the festival is unique in the region, noting: “I think the formula is perfect. It works. I think the city should be congratulated as well for funding such a really, really good tourist opportunity ... Other people do Thursdays, or a weekend, but nobody does this. And nobody has got that unique setting.”
v2
