A lot of the fun at the Pick N Ride fest starts after the shows
Bluegrass stars, festival fans join forces at Ottawa Valley bash, writes Aedan Helmer.
Where: Forester’s Falls, about 120 km northwest of Ottawa
When: Thursday to Sunday
Info: horsecountrycampground.com or 613-867-0585
Passes: with camping are $85, day passes are $45 Friday and Saturday, $30 for Sunday. Children under 16 are free with an adult. Available via ticketscene.ca. Some of Ontario’s best bluegrass pickers will share the stage with a couple of bona fide bluegrass allstars at this weekend’s secondannual Pick N Ride festival in Foresters Falls.
But as festival director Walter Willett sees it, the real festivities begin once the mainstage lights go out. That’s when the paid performers join ranks with the festival fans — many of them likeminded musicians themselves, with banjo or mandolin in hand — for some late-night woodshedding in the fields along the mighty Ottawa Valley.
“This is really, really unplugged,” said Willett of the nightly allacoustic affair. “We call it ‘field jamming.’ It’s really different than any other festival. People bring their RVs and a lot of them stay for all four days.
“The stage runs from 4:30 to 10:30 p.m. (with eight acts scheduled), but we shut it down early because we have so much field jamming to get to. You can walk through the campsite and everywhere you go there’s music just pouring out all over the park.”
Friday’s headliner is Chicago’s Grammy-nominated Special Consensus, celebrating their 26th year as “one of the top-performing bands on the bluegrass circuit,” Willett said.
Saturday’s festivities will include a traditional dance and all-day demonstration from the Anishinabe Experience.
Then, straight from the heart of Kentucky comes Saturday’s headliner, the Kevin Prater Band.
“He’s known as the ‘Machine Gun Mandolin’ player, and this is the real traditional grassroots music,” Willett said. “This is what was playing in the hills of Kentucky when it all started with Bill Monroe.”
Following Saturday’s mainstage show, Prater and his five-piece band will take roost in another unique feature of the festival site, described by Willett as a “miniature cowboy town,” complete with a saloon, where the Kentucky band will no doubt appear the genuine article as house band.
And, any Saturday night sins will be washed away by morning with Prater and company leading the bleary-eyed festivalgoers in Sunday’s all-gospel revue.
Ontario-based acts, including Ottawa’s Dusty Drifters and Kanata’s Concession 23, are among the opening acts — and among those lending their chicken-pickin’ skills to the all-night jams.
The festival is co-hosted by Wilderness Tours (festival passes include access to the resort’s beaches, hot tub and swimming pool) and Horse Country Campground, which offers horsemanship workshops and demonstrations through the weekend with Calgary Stampede champion David Cowley.
“It’s a rather unique event,” said Willett, “with the combination of some great bluegrass music and top-level horsemanship. It makes for a really unique outdoor event.”