Coal Shed Music Festival coming up
Annual event to take place on Yarmouth waterfront Aug. 10-12, 17-19 and 24-26
There will be lots of musical entertainment on the Yarmouth waterfront during the 2018 Coal Shed Music Festival, which will open Friday, Aug. 10, and will be held over three weekends, with nine days of performances all told, culminating with a Sunday night country show Aug. 26.
The annual festival again will feature a variety of musical styles, says Phil DeMille, the event’s founder and co-ordinator.
“There are some familiar names,” he said, referring to the lineup of performers, “but we also like to change it up each year too, so there are many new names as well.”
“It doesn’t seem to matter where we go now. If mention is made of the festival, (people will say) ‘oh yes, that’s the one that takes place on the Yarmouth waterfront.’ People know it now.”
— Phil DeMille
This year’s headline acts include Terry Kelly – “We’ve been trying to get him for several years,” DeMille said – as well as a tribute to the old CBC television show Singalong Jubilee. The latter act is led by Blain Henshaw and also features Garth Proude and Georges Hebert.
“They were two of the key musicians on the (Singalong Jubilee) program,” DeMille said, referring to Proude and Hebert. “And they both toured with Anne Murray.”
The Singalong Jubilee memories show will take place at the end of the festival’s first weekend – Sunday evening, Aug. 12 – with Terry Kelly slated to take the stage a week later, on Sunday, Aug. 19.
This is the 12th year for the Coal Shed Music Festival. If you include the festival’s kitchen parties, this year’s festival will have well over 200 participants, DeMille said.
“If you break it down into groups and actual performances, it averages about 10 per day,” he said.
The festival also includes songwriting workshops, along with a musicians’ market – held each Saturday morning of the festival – where people have a chance to sell used instruments or other types of musical equipment or perhaps pick something up.
The festival has come a long way since it began back in 2007 as a two-day event.
“It’s just amazing to me that it continues to grow every year,” DeMille said. “It doesn’t seem to matter where we go now. If mention is made of the festival, (people will say) ‘oh yes, that’s the one that takes place on the Yarmouth waterfront.’ People know it now.”
The festival may be a summer event, but planning for it begins months in advance.
“It starts in October, to tell you the truth,” DeMille said. “I start making my contacts, people are contacting us and we’re trying to put the thing together.”
For more on the festival, including a day-by-day performance schedule, people can visit the event’s website at www.coalshedmusicfestival.com. There’s always the possibility of “down-to-the-wire” changes to the schedule, DeMille said, but otherwise what people see on the festival website is a good guide for who will perform and when.
The festival again will help support school breakfast programs in the Yarmouth area. People attending the festival also will have a chance to support the Yarmouth Food Bank. Terry Kelly is one of the headliners for this year’s Coal Shed Music Festival. He is scheduled to perform Sunday, Aug. 19, at 7 p.m.