West Island Blues Festival goes back to its roots
Event celebrates 19th year with two free outdoor concerts, one indoor show
The West Island Blues Festival is back to its pre-pandemic self.
“We've been waiting two years to do this,” said Dollard-desormeaux city councillor Errol Johnson, a co-founder of the festival which is celebrating its 19th anniversary this summer.
Last year's festival featured a series of pop-up shows in neighbourhood parks across the West Island, but had limited capacity due to COVID-19 health protocols. In 2020, the festival was held virtually because of the pandemic.
This year's festival will look more like the real deal: It will feature two free outdoor concerts and one indoor event.
The festival kicks off May 26 with a VIP indoor concert featuring Juno Award winner Dawn Tyler Watson.
The concert will be held at the Pierrefonds Cultural Centre at 13850 Gouin Blvd. Tax deductible tickets cost $100 and includes cocktails, meal and concert.
The two free outdoor concerts will be held in Dollard and Pointeclaire. They are:
■ July 9 from 3 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. at the Dollard-des- Ormeaux Park (in front of the Dollard Civic Centre). The show headliner will be Sylvie Desgroseilliers.
■ Sept. 10, from 5 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. in Pointe-claire Village. The headliner will be announced later, but organizers are hoping to land Brian Greenway of April Wine fame.
Desgroseilliers, who was on hand for Tuesday's press conference at Madison's restaurant in Dollard, said her July concert will be a mix of musical styles.
“It will be a grassroots gospel show; it will be blues show and it will be fun show. I'm going to make you sing and I'm going to make you dance,” she said. “I started signing with the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir so the blues and gospel, it's all intertwined.”
Pierrefonds-roxboro Mayor Jim Beis, who co-founded the festival with Johnson, said the festival also serves as an important fundraiser for local community groups.
“We started with a small tent in a park. And now, so many years later, we've been able to raise $250,000 for charities, he said. “Charities that make a real difference in our communities. No matter the amount we're able to donate to them after these festivals, it makes a difference in their bottom line at the end of the year.”
This year's festival recipients will be the West Island Women's Shelter, Alzheimer's Group, the West Island Black Community Association, AJOI and Literacy Unlimited.
Beis said the festival also helps create a public awareness about these community organizations.
“Unless you need their service you'll never know of it. So what we do is not only raise money for an organization, but we also create that education and advise the public that they are there (for them) and they exist in moments of need.”
Organizers also gave a shout-out to TD Bank, the festival's main sponsor.
Dollard Mayor Alex Bottausci said this year's festival signals a return to normal after the past two pandemic years.
“It's amazing to know we're going back to a level of normal. I hope that we are. This is going to be one of the highlights of the summer.”
Pointe-claire Mayor Tim Thomas, a music aficionado, said it is a privilege to be involved in the blues festival.
“I've managed and dabbled in the music business for 25 years now. I call myself a musician trapped in a talentless body,” he said. “You compensate when you are one of those, organizationally.”
Beis pointed out the festival is a collaborative effort between three cities.
“When we thought about what the name was going to be, the idea of having it named the West Island Blue Festival was exactly for this reason, without knowing it at the time. And now it's become a threecity/ borough event.”
Beis said that before the pandemic, some other West Island cities expressed an interest in hosting festival events.
“This is something we're optimistic about and exploring. Maybe next year, who knows, we'll have another one, two or three mayors from the West Island also doing events.”