The closing weekend for the Harrison Festival offered more great Art Market finds, informative workshops and fantastic beach stage music.  Some outdoor performance highlights were Annabelle Chvostek’s catchy tune ’I Left My Brian’, Ryan LeBlanc effortlessly playing a guitar, harmonica & box drum all at the same time and North to Canda’s all star Gospel & Blues ensemble including Diana Braithwaite, Chris Whiteley, Leon Bibb, Kenny Wayne, Donald Ray Johnson & Russell Jackson.

The Hall concerts continued to deliver exceptional musicianship and contagious energy.  Friday nights performance by Spanish band El Puchero del Hortelano offered a fun mix of Flamenco and Rumba with Funk, Pop and Rock.  Mary Jane Lamond’s Saturday performance had the audience completely wrapped with her spell binding vocals and Gaelic melodies.  Sundays performance with award winning harmonica player Carlos Del  Junco was an excellent close to the Festival.  His ‘overblow’ technique paired with a mix of Blues, Jazz and Latin had the whole house shaking with rock concert amplification.  

Overall, this years Festival was a huge success both artisticly and financially - the latter of the two being all the more important with continued cuts to provincial and federal arts funding.  Missed out on the 2010 line-up, no worries - the Festival will be back again next year from July 8th to the 17th.

As the Festival moved into mid week the sold out performances kept on coming.  Wednesday and Thursday saw packed houses for both the ‘eclectic’ David Lindley and Scotland’s Peatbog Faeries.  Lindley’s acoustic performance offered the very best in American blues and his demented sense of humour delightfully coloured his many in between song stories.  The Faeries had the dance floor hoppin’ and shoutin’ the whole concert with their unique mix of Rock, Electronica and Folk sounds.  The audience simply lapped up their contagious energy and celtic arrangements played on the bagpipes, fiddles and whistles. 

Wednesdays warm sunny weather made for yet another successful Children’s Day.  Children of all ages happily took part in the many arts & crafts and outdoor activities taking place in and around the Memorial Hall.  Performances by tightwire walker Flyin’ Bob and comic daredevil Checkerboard Guy were huge fun for both kids and adults.

Last night’s sold out theatrical performance in the Memorial Hall was a definate good time.  The first of two one-act plays Pillow Talk by Peter Tolan centered around two young men, Aaron and Doug, being forced to share a bed together in Aaron’s Grandmother’s mobile home.  Themes of homophobia and male insecurity offered tremedous laughs and a few touching macho moments.  The second of the evenings offerings, The Terrible False Deception by Rafe MacPherson  was an interestingly unique take on the play within a play.  This piece followed a group of stereotypical performers as they navigated through four different variations of the same dramatic scene.  The audience simply delighted in the unexpected moments that sprung out of the seemingly predictable repetition.  A highlight for the evening was a brilliantly executed front of house speech delivered in a mock British accent with plenty of dry sarcasm.  Overall the two productions were a wonderfull showcase for the young and gifted talent immerging out of the University of the Fraser Valley’s Theatre Department.

The 32nd annual Harrison Festival of the Arts is officially underway.  The celebration kicked off last night in the historic Memorial Hall with the deftly blended ‘folk jazz’ of singer-songwriter Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks.  With lyrics ranging from the simply sublime to the sublimely ridiculous the evening concert made for an entertaining and enthralling start to the Festival.   A concert highlight was a shouted request for ’How Can I Miss You If You Wont Go Away’ which Hicks happily fullfilled singing the crowd favourite in Cantonese… or was it Portuguese? 

Saturday, April 25:  Matt Andersen returned for a sold-out show at the Harrison Memorial Hall. 

A phenominal, young blues performer from New Brunswick, Matt played a solo show in Harrison in January, 2008.  His performance was so strong, the Festival Society leaped at the chance to bring him back.

Matt played the first set solo, and then was joined by a backing band for the second set.  His amazing acoustic guitar work has always impressed, but his vocals are getting stronger and stronger!  Highlights included versions of classic rock and blues tunes like “Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone” and “The Weight”, as well as original material like “One Size Fits Never”, “My Angel Has The Blues” and many more.

Backing up Matt were the Hupman Brothers, from Nova Scotia.  The Brothers took the lead on a song or two and proved to be strong performers in their own right.  The packed crowd gave Matt and the boys a standing ovation and demanded an encore.

After Matt’s first performance in Harrison, people were talking about it for months afterwords…

After this performance, they’ll be talking about Matt for years…  

Thursday April 16 - Shameless Hussy Productions (great name!) presented the play “Summer of My Amazing Luck” as part of the Harrison Festival Society’s 21st Season of Performing Arts.  This humourous production was written by Chris Craddock, who adapted it from the novel by the award winning Manitoba author Miriam Toews. 

Renee Iaci played the central part of Lucy as a mix of strengths and failings that was all too real.  Daun Campbell played the charismatic part of the free spirit Lish and various other characters both male and female.  Jeff Gladstone played Hartley and numberous other characters, also both male and female to great comic effect.

The play follows the lives of two young single moms in the “Have A Life” social housing complex in Winnipeg.  The residents call it “Half a Life” and negotiate indifferent governmental bureaucracy and a judgmental society.  The play had serious moments, but humour was the order of the day.  Particularly funny were the scenes devoted to interaction with authority figures like Welfare Caseworkers, Border Guards and callous parents. 

Vancouver Celtic group Blackthorn played a wonderful show at the Harrison Memorial Hall on February 27.  Special guest was Vancouver Police Pipeband member Jim McWilliams on small pipes and big pipes.  The music was a mix of instrumental and vocals, coming from Scotland and Ireland with a few Quebecois tunes and even the classic Canadian folk song “Log Drivers Waltz”.  The band mentioned they often play in a “pub style” atmosphere and to get to play a concert setting like the venerable Memorial Hall, allowed them to play beautiful and quiet tunes.  Which doesn’t mean to say they stayed quiet.  Some rousing Irish songs celebrating the sea, women, whiskey and missing Ireland got the crowd going as did tunes from Robbie Burns.   To finish, the group received a well-deserved standing ovation.

Reved-up rockabilly outfit Cousin Harley played a rowdy, rockin’ show at the Memorial Hall on Valentine’s Day.  In the middle of a sand-storm that brought to mind the movie Dune, the sold-out crowd were dancing and carrying on and the band certainly fed off the atmosphere.    Cousin Harley himself (aka Paul Pigat), played here during the Harrison Festival of the Arts as a guitarist for both Jim Byrnes and Ndidi Onukwulu.