What to Keep and What to Give

Last weekend, July 27-29, was the inaugural weekend for the Interstellar Rodeo. Now normally I would be in Calgary volunteering at their festival, but there were circumstances that led me to bow out for this year (first time in 16 years). Initially I was sad, but then I caught wind of this new festival. As chance would have it a friend asked me if I wanted to help with media, and so I jumped at the chance. By the end of the weekend, Calgary was a memory. In fact, I will likely continue supporting the Interstellar Rodeo, and give up on Calgary altogether. If I am honest CFMF had been letting me down for years anyhow, so I don't really think I will miss it. Plus why drive to Calgary when this gem is in my own backyard.

Back to Interstellar, and boy what a festival. There were a few first year hiccups that I won't bother to go into, because they are a non-issue, also if they were not ironed out right away they will be fixed for next year, plus the audiences didn't see it so why shine a light on it.  What is most important is that the festival was a success. It was not a sell out, but it felt full.

Audiences and bands alike were smitten with each other, and isn't that what's important.

From the moment the gates opened until the last encore of Blue Rodeo everyone who attended had a great time. There was enough variety to keep even the fickle of audiences intrigued, and if you somehow didn't enjoy yourself - maybe you just need to stay home, because nothing will please you.

It's pretty obvious I love music and this festival had great variety and a few bands I had never seen perform and even a few I had not really even heard music for, so win, win for me. I am always dazzled by Hawksley Workman , Alejandro and Gillian. 



Hawksley & Mr. Lonely



Richard Buckner blew me away as did the Carolina Chocolate Drops and The Sojourners.

Cadence Weapon

A pleasant surprise was Cadence Weapon, who I must admit I have never seen perform more than one song. His style of rapping is intriguing and clever and I am now a fan and finally Randy Newman, every song was one we all knew. It's incredible when you take a moment and think of his career, mind boggling.

I enjoyed everything I saw and it was great to see old favourites and make new discoveries.

What sets this little festival apart from others is the intimacy. It is in an outdoor, yet covered, amphitheatre, the sound is amazing, the food vendors were all local food trucks who have amazing offerings and one final touch that initially I thought was bizarre was each artist was paired with a wine. That particular wine was only sampled/sold during the artists set. They had a house white and red available at all times but the feature was only a limited offering. Once I saw the concept and read the descriptions in the program, I thought this was a very smart idea. Below I have a picture of the program that shows the band and the wine, just so you know what I am rambling about.

  

The Blue Rodeo bio and the wine that was paried with them

Clever little details like this helped set it apart. I was very proud to be apart of this festival and want to especially thanks Six Shooter Records, their staff and their fearless leader Shauna de Cartier, Johnny Mac for having the vision and foresight for this festival, the Wine Guy, Gurvinder Bhata for pairing many delicious wines with delicious artists and Aimee Hill for stopping me at another concert, Ben Folds, to ask me to help her out with media. I am so pleased to have spent a wonderful weekend with so many like minded music enthusiasts.