Summer’s not over if the blues lady is still singing. Shemekia Copeland is among the headliners at this weekend’s Summertime Blues Festival, Friday through Sunday in Nanaimo.
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What: Summertime Blues Festival featuring Sonny Landreth, Shemekia Copeland, MonkeyJunk, Mark Hummel’s Golden State/Lonestar Revue, Coco Montoya and more Where: Maffeo Sutton Park, Nanaimo When: Friday through Sunday Tickets: $55 daily or $139 for a festival pass Information: nanaimobluesfestival.com
Members of the non-profit Nanaimo Blues Society are succeeding in their bid to make their hometown a legitimate hub of blues activity on Vancouver Island. And they are doing so with a festival that has quietly become one of the area’s premier blues-centric events.
The annual Summertime Blues Festival is poised to break out in a big way this weekend, bolstered by the strongest lineup in its five-year history.
According to Gerold Haukenfrers, president of the Nanaimo Blues Society, sales have “skyrocketed” thanks to the festival’s exemplary roster of headliners, which includes Sonny Landreth, Shemekia Copeland, MonkeyJunk, Mark Hummel’s Golden State/Lonestar Revue, and Coco Montoya, among others.
Ticketholders from Virginia, New Mexico, Tennessee, Washington state, Yukon, Alberta, Ontario, and Washington, D.C. will take in the event this weekend, in addition to fans from Victoria and elsewhere on Vancover Island. “People see our lineup and say: ‘Wow, a blues festival that actually has blues acts,” Haukenfrers said.
Nanaimo residents also deserve credit for keeping the blues alive in the area, he added. “We have a very, very strong network here. The blues jam on Sunday at the Queen’s Hotel is jam-packed every weekend. The demographics are right.”
Local supporters will be rewarded for their loyalty with a pre-festival benefit concert tonight. Five bands from Nanaimo will perform at the Summertime Blues site to raise funds for the Loaves and Fishes Food Bank, followed by a 20-person jam.
The fundraiser is an important part of the weekend, Haukenfrers said. “It gives locals who don’t have the dollars to come to a larger event a taste of what the blues is all about. We are hoping to raise $5,000 for the food bank, so I think it’s a winwin proposition.”
Haukenfrers hopes to have 1,000 people on site each day at the festival’s waterfront location, Maffeo Sutton Park. To accommodate the increased numbers, the festival is sporting a bigger stage and better sound and lights in 2017. These are key steps forward if the festival hopes to grow its reputation further. “Our venue is absolutely superb,” Haukenfrers said. “But we’d like to make our festival a destination festival.”
Summertime Blues will make waves this year, thanks to some shrewd bookings by artistic director Grant Payne. Montoya and Landreth did time with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, while Hummel earned a 2013 Grammy Award nomination for his Blind Pig recording, Remembering Little Walter. Copeland, a threetime Grammy Award nominee and one of the top blueswomen of her generation, has been dubbed the Reigning Queen of the Blues at just 38.
The top half of the lineup features some heavy names in the international blues scene, but it takes a full year of promotion to make any festival succeed. Summertime Blues is no different in that regard, Haukenfrers said.
“One of our biggest challenges as a society is getting known.
“We’re not a major centre and we haven’t tapped into the Lower Mainland market. I don’t even think they know what we are doing. That means there is room to grow.”