Blueberry Jam overtakes Flin Flon – don’t miss it!


The Blueberry Jam Music Gathering will happen in Flin Flon from August 8 to 11, 2019.


lin Flon is Music City North. It’s not anything like Nashville in size or importance to the music industry, nor is it like Toronto with its thousands of bands and thousands of venues, but the music indus- try is changing (many would say, not for the better) and we believe that Flin Flon is uniquely poised to become a true music city.


F


Members of the arts and culture com- munity in Flin Flon know that the cost of living here is among the cheapest in the country, especially the costs of housing. They have been batting around the fantasy (or is it...?) that an ‘Artists Colony’ could establish itself here without difficulty. Art- ists could live economically, in safety and in the beauty that inspires creation. It could be a retreat in their downtime, yet only a drive away from getting on the road to their gig.


It bears serious consideration. Take Blueberry Jam Music Gathering,


ber of Commerce and Community Futures Greenstone (the federally funded economic development program), jointly determined that we should have an event that might attract tourists to Flin Flon. We had already been the recipients of Tourism Manitoba’s ‘branding’ strategy, we are The Water and The Wild, but we needed more. Looking for what we are good at, they hit upon music, of course and the planning for a multi-day event was underway. There are Folk Fests and Country Fests


Elly Spencer The arts from up here


Flin Flon’s totally free outdoor music festival that is mov- ing rapidly towards its second year of operation, August 8 to 12 (it used to be August 9 to 12 but that part of the story is for later). The music scene in Flin Flon is legendary in the north, with local musicians planning, preparing and delivering astonishing, polished shows at least once, usually twice, every month. They cover most genres from folk to rock, Celtic to Broadway. So the City of Flin Flon Economic Development team, aided by the Economic Development Officer, (who is shared among our three communities of Flin Flon, Creighton SK and Denare Beach SK), the Cham-


all around Manitoba in the summer and they are all fun but sometimes they can get expensive, especially for a family on vaca- tion. The ‘little engine that could’ which became the Board of Blueberry Jam Music Gathering, decided our festival would be free. That means no-one pays – and no- one gets paid. Ads went out on Facebook asking for musicians to come play. There were no restrictions on style of music (your humble author did try to ban ac-


cordions but was told if bagpipes were in, accordions were in) so the Festival had everything from gospel to heavy metal. There were no rappers last year but in the future… There were over 50 acts at the inaugural BBJ on two stages over three partial days last August. The City of Flin Flon built an outdoor stage in the Flin Flon Camp- ground and The Flin Flon Rotary Club made fish and chips, burgers and hotdogs in a tented area covering four camping spots. They also hosted a beer garden that proved popular. Musical acts from Flin Flon abounded but many folks from The Pas, Snow Lake and Cranberry


Portage showed their skills as well. Most performers camped on site and were able to find impromptu jam- ming opportunities and create new sounds after the crowds went home. Oh yes, there were crowds. So much so, that we are planning to actually count the people coming into the campground by giving everyone a bracelet when they arrive each day. The response was so awesome that this year we have musicians from Thomp- son, Prince Albert, Edmonton, Toronto and Newcastle, England on the program. We are hopeful there will be commercial food vendors on site to help the Rotary Club meet the demands and we will have water bottles, tee- shirts and Blueberry Jam memberships to purchase. There are 75 acts signed up to play everything from


prog rock to spoken word. There was simply not enough time for everyone to get their 2 performances in so we have added an extra night and an extra stage at John- ny’s Social Club, a small indoor venue with a bar within walking distance of the Main Stage. The dates again are: Thursday, August 8: 7:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. at John-


ny’s Social Club; Friday, August 9: 3:00 p.m. to midnight on the Main Stage; and 3:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. at Rotary Wheel (the last two hours will be a DJ dance party!); and 7:00 p.m. to midnight at Johnny’s; Saturday August 10: 11:00 a.m. to noon on the Main


Stage; 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. at Rotary Wheel (again, dance party for the last 2 hours); and 7:00 p.m. to mid- night at Johnny’s; Sunday, August 11: 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Rotary Wheel and 11:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on the Main Stage. Come see us, it will be worth it!


Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness under ordered government in “MinneManiKotaSota”?


lake, enjoying an outdoor performance at Assiniboine Park or relaxing at one of our great festivals seems to provide time and impetus for consider- ing the state of the world. Like many Canadians, I have been watching the political environment in the United States with amazement


T and and mysti-


fication. How can a na- tion, that is such a huge economic


cultural


power in the world, be so fraught with turmoil, tension, and political up- heaval? Each week, the stories coming out of the political environment in the United States seem more unbelievable. It is not as though Canada does not


have many problems and issues of its own, but the magnitude of the disarray evident in the political life of our neigh- bour to the south is astounding. I some- times think about a conversation I had a number of years back with a patron of the Winnipeg Folk Festival who came from the Minneapolis area. He said he


18 whatsupwinnipeg.ca


Trudy Schroeder Random Notes


he summer brings with it some moments for contemplation of the mysteries of life. Time at the


loved attending the Winnipeg Folk Fes- tival because it seemed to be such an incredible expression of the cooperation and goodwill that seemed more evident to him in Canada than in the U.S. He said that coming to Canada made him realize that it was a coun- try that America could as- pire to. He said, “Canada is the country that the USA could have been.” I can remember him telling me that he


also


believed the people of the Great Plains have much more in common with each other than they do with the power brokers on the eastern and west- ern sides of our respec- tive countries. He jok- ingly suggested that the peoples of this heartland should band together and


form a new nation that we could call MinneManiKotaSota. Something about this idea is actually quite appealing, but the time for this kind of alternative na- tion building is probably long gone. The diverging priorities and ap-


proaches of our two nations have some- times been linked to phrases from the founding documents of our nations.


less squabbles about the nature of liberty and endless pursuit of a hedonistic, capi- talistic definition of happiness. In contrast, Canada has often been de-


scribed as a country looking to build on the three qualities identified in the Brit- ish North America Act of 1867, which gives the federal government powers to ensure “Peace, Order, and Good Gov- ernment” for the nation. Somehow this is a much more placid and rule abiding sort of aspiration, than the pursuit of happiness. All the same, there is some- thing profoundly powerful about a na- tion that seeks peaceful solutions, tries to create an orderly and predictable na- tion that is well governed. This is far from a fully framed criti-


Summertime invites reflection.


The phrase drawn from the 1776 Decla- ration of Independence that is often cit- ed as the heart of the American ethos is that three things are given to all humans as “unalienable rights.” Governments are there to protect the rights to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” On the face of it, these seem to be quite the noble and laudatory rights, but they seem to have doomed the nation to end-


cal comparison of Canadian and US ap- proaches to building a nation. However, for my summertime induced reflection on the state of our nation, I feel it sums up some of my immense gratitude that my ancestors chose to make Canada our home. As these beautiful summer days pass, I am proud and pleased to intro- duce visitors from other countries to this splendid country. I am wishing us all the opportunity to enjoy the bountiful fruits of peace, order and good government in this most glorious time of year. Trudy Schroeder is the Executive Direc- tor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.


August 2019


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