Fredericton roots music festival returns for a second year to welcome more than 50 performers from across Canada.
Launching a music festival is a big undertaking. It requires confidence and experience, something organizer and Living Roots Music Festival founder Eddie Young has a lot of. For the past few years, Young has been promoting live music events throughout the city with a big focus on hosting shows uptown – an area not often associated with live music. At least not since the 80s when the Hilltop Pub was one of the city’s main live music venues. While his hard work has been paying off with shows at Grimross Brewery and Ringo’s Bar & Grill often drawing capacity crowds interested in an early evening of music, Young turned his sights towards festival planning last year and has yet to look back.
With today’s announcement of the lineup planned for the second annual Living Roots Music Festival which takes place May 25-27, 2017, Young remains as enthusiastic about live music as ever before.
“I am very excited to share this lineup with everyone,” said Young. “I believe it is a great, diverse lineup with something for everyone. Some first time performers coming to the area, some great touring acts, and some of our best local acts.”
This year’s festival will include performances by many familiar Maritime artists including Ben Caplan, Pretty Archie, Kill Chicago, The Crossroad Devils and Jessica Rhaye, with acts from across the country including The Steady Swagger (Montreal), Brooklyn Doran (Toronto), and Hamilton, Ontario’s, The Vaudervillian.
This year’s festival kicks off at Grimross Brewery on May 25 with a performance by Calgary’s Raygun Cowboys.
“Wednesday night will see an opening show at Grimross Brewery with Stomp Records recording artist Raygun Cowdoys, which will get us off to a roaring start,” said Young.
This year’s event includes shows happening at six Fredericton venues as well as the festival’s first performances programmed in Harvey at the Loch Pub & Grill.
“I grew up in Harvey,” said Young. “It is a great place, especially in the summer with all the lakes. The population almost triples. I would like to see some more people stay there and put their money into its economy, maybe introduce some people to our great music scene that wouldn’t normally come to Fredericton to see a show. Also, my friend Nick [Cleghorn] has been working hard to get The Loch up and running and I believe he will have a good thing on his hands. The festival weekend will also be the opening weekend for The Loch and we plan to have live music there continually if folks support it.”
Supporting local has always been a focus of Young’s and it shows in his programming each year as he works to include shows at businesses not necessarily associated with live music. This year’s festival will involve The Abbey on Queen and The Royal Barbershop as well as Reads Newsstand, who began hosting all-ages shows last fall.
“It is defiantly one of the cornerstones of the festival,” said Young. “I believe supporting local is very important to our culture here and it is important to support our peers in the community. There are some real neat places and people around, and folks need to realize it. I am just trying to shed some light on it. It will take a community to build up our culture and music scene, but I believe we have it in us. I hope that holding some shows will bring the people into these small businesses and introduce them to it and maybe they will go back or tell a friend or family member.”
For complete festival information, tickets, passes and to learn more about the artists involved, visit Living Roots Music Festival.
Complete performers listing at the time of this release includes:
Pretty Archie | Ben Caplan | The Steady Swagger | Kill Chicago | Jessica Rhaye | Mike Filipowitsch | The Vaudervillian | The Raygun Cowboys | Rory Taillon | Brooklyn Doran | Kunle |Emily Rockarts | The Rumble | Midnight Vesta | Jeff Beam | Jane Blanchard | Jon Soderman | Soderman Band | The Torinos | Jessie Brown | Camilo V | Creative Differences | Oak, Ash and Thorn | Kathleen Gorey McSorley | Hum & Hollow | Calum Jackson | The Crossroad Devils | The Falling Leaves | The Montgomery St. Band | Patrick Reynolds | Emily Ruse | Kendra Gale Band | Electromagnetic Blues Band | Quinn Bonnell band | The Winstons | Richie Young | Colin Fowlie | Wayne Hansen
