Music at the Market–Anyone wanting a taste of what the 2016 Invermere MusicFest will be offering up next weekend should mosey on down to the Invermere Farmers and Artists Market on Saturday, August 13th for some raw blues/rock delivered by local act Big Eli B Blues Band.Photo Submitted.
With only a week remaining before the Invermere MusicFest kicks off, interested music lovers have little time to purchase tickets, volunteer for the event or sign up for one of or all the available workshops available to the public Sunday afternoon.
Those interested in the festival (August 19th to 21st at the Kinsmen Beach Greenspace) will get their first taste of the action at the Invermere Farmers and Artists Market tomorrow (Saturday, August 13th) when Big Eli B Blues Band performs for those in attendance. Big Eli B Blues Band is a hard blue/rock band based out of the Columbia Valley with one studio album released so far.
Every year our mandate is to support one local band for our festival and Big Eli is the local act this year, said MusicFest executive director Jami Scheffer, noting they did something similar at last years market, selling tickets and driving up interest beforehand.
There were tons of people out last year and it was our last day for early bird pricing so we sold a lot of tickets, she said. It is a great place to just connect with people for those that dont know about the Invermere MusicFest.
The other events people can sign up for leading up to the festival are the four musician workshops that will be held on Sunday, August 21st starting at 10 a.m. The first workshop available will be jamming etiquette with the Big Eli B Blues Band followed by a session called, Do What You Can (With What You Got) taught by Sean Cronin at 11:15 a.m. After the lunch break, PSYCH JAM and Bend Sinister will host a workshop on open source composition followed by Marie Bridges vocal performance master class.
Ms. Scheffer said that part of the way artist director Ben Cameron put together the list of performers for the festival had to do with whether they would be a good fit to host a workshop as well.
This years festival will be the second year they will be hosting a series of workshops after a successful trial run last year, Ms. Scheffer said.
Im not a musician and I was there just organizing it all and I got so much out of it, she said. They were jamming, they were talking and sharing information between the instructor and the students. Everyone had something in common and they were all into it and it was really great.
She said that even those who are just vocalists or guitarists are encouraged to attend the entire group of workshops on the Sunday.
We want people to come to the whole session, not just one, she said. Thats what happened last year. A singer came for the vocal workshop but stayed for the whole thing and said they learned so much from the other instructions.
Tickets for the workshop will be sold for $10 per workshop or $40 for all four workshops including lunch. Those looking to sign up or learn more information can contact Ms. Scheffer at Pynelogs at 250-342-4423.
