Summer weather has been slowly emerging in the countdown to the 18th annual Bella Coola Music Festival. This year’s Festival features an eclectic line up of seasoned veterans, fresh new sounds, local flair, and wholesome family fun.
The Festival will kick off on Friday night with a by-donation show at the Hagensborg Legion featuring BC band Samson’s Delilah. Seth Macdonald and Shara Gustafson are well known as the front line of the funk/rock/reggae/world groove high energy dance band “Mamaguroove,” which graced our stage in 2012. This show will be a great way to get into the Festival groove!
Headlining the Saturday night are epic rockers BC/DC. They were born of bush party ashes in the summer of 1999. Some 900 unexpected gigs later, Canada’s BC/DC has systematically redefined the concept of a tribute band, garnering iconic status amongst diehard fans, agents, and venues from Vancouver BC to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
They are heavily rooted in the Bon Scott-era catalog (Dirty Deeds, TNT, Jailbreak, Let There Be Rock), but also covers AC/DC’s second “golden era” with all the essentials; Back in Black, For Those About to Rock, Hells Bells, and many more.
On Sunday night we shift gears with the amazing talented DJ Shub. Formerly of A Tribe Called Red, DJ Shub is a title earning DJ and award winning music producer. He lives in Fort Erie, Ontario and is a proud husband and father of two; a member of the Turtle Clan; and, Mohawk from Six Nations.
Shub will be performing with award-winning hoop dancer James Jones, who was a finalist on So You Think You Can Dance Canada, and has worked with artists such as K-OS and Snoop Dog. Jones will also be performing a special hoop dancing solo set on Saturday afternoon.
For the kids there will be Dianna David, a movement storyteller who fuses traditional techniques with modern tools to create entertaining pieces suitable for any crowd, including contact juggling, mime, clowning, shadow and interactive play.
Ginalina is a gentle-hearted and fun-loving mom, and her vision is to bring out the best in children through quality, playful, and enriching music that celebrates family, nature, and kids! Juno-nominated and award winning, she’s a trilingual and family friendly musician and storyteller.
RupLoops (Rup Sidhu) is an interdisciplinary artist, musician, producer and composer. Specializing in vocal percussion and live looping, his sound blends the rhythms of poetry and spoken word with a dynamic range of cultural hybrids. Inspired by folk and classical forms of music from around the world, his musical expressions can range from groove oriented hip hop beats, to contemporary fusions of classical ragas.
The lineup is completed with Cecile Doo-Kingue, aguitarist and singer-songwriter who blends blues, afro-roots, and soul to create a unique sound, Dustin Bentall and Kendel Carson, who have a chemistry, energy and charm that is all at once compelling, magnetic and completely authentic, Enter-Tribal, refreshingly unique native trio featuring Bella Coola’s own Nuxalmc Jerrilyn Webster (JB the First Lady), Jack Garton, a distinctive voice on the accordion, mixing cajun, European and country styles into an exciting roots music feast, Marin Patenaude, who’s sound has been compared to Joni Mitchell, K.D. Lang, Bonnie Raitt, and Jennifer Warns, our very own Rose and Buddy with Pirate and the Bloody Bohemian, and the Western Canadian Music Award winning folk/roots duo Twin Peaks .
Tickets are on sale now locally and online so pick yours up today!
