HARBOUR BLUES ‘N ROOTS FESTIVAL
Where: Ship Point, Inner Harbour
When: Aug. 25-28
Tickets: $32-$39 from rmts.bc.ca (250-386-6121) or the Victoria Jazz Society Office (250-388-4423)
It has been a year of change for Darryl Mar, who re-designed both festivals he produces for the Victoria Jazz Society after several decades of relative stability.
First up was the TD Victoria International Jazz Festival, which ran June 24 to July 3. For the 2022 edition of the festival he founded nearly 40 years ago, Mar put programming into Beacon Hill Park in Victoria and Bullen Park in Esquimalt for the first time. He has re-imagined the former Vancouver Island Blues Bash in a similar fashion, changing both its name and spot on the summer calendar.
The new event will debut this weekend as the Harbour Blues ‘N Roots Festival, with Alex Cuba, Ruthie Foster and William Prince as headliners. “Coming out of the pandemic, it gave us time to rethink the festival and expand the genres we could present,” Mar said.
Plans were in place to stage Blues Bash over Labour Day weekend in 2020, but the event was cancelled due to the pandemic. When the 2021 instalment also went dark, Mar used the down time to plan for life beyond Blues Bash.
His first plan after rebranding as the Harbour Blues ‘N Roots Festival was to move away from Labour Day and into a more sympathetic spot earlier in the summer.
“It was always a little shaky, that weekend,” Mar said of the September long weekend, which can often be subject to volatile weather.
“That’s one of the reasons why we chose to move it one week ahead. It’s only a week, but it does make a difference with weather, from what I’ve experienced.”
Mar did not make the switch without careful consideration. Blues Bash had developed a built-in audience over its 27-year lifepsan, and blues fans in the city looked forward to closing out the summer with the outdoor party. With advance ticket sales soaring, his move to expand has been met with approval.
“I think it was limiting, with regards to us expanding the audience demographic. Now, by not being so narrowly focused on just blues and a bit of R&B, we can go in the direction of country, world music, and folk.”
Half of the programming at Ship Point through Sunday is blues, Mar said, which should appease the faithful. With the new artistic mandate, he was able to add a third mainstage performance at Ship Point, where Blues traditionally only had two.
The festival was also able to incorporate sets by a trio of Juno-nominated acts — AHI (tonight), Lindsay Beaver and Brad Stivers (Friday), and George Leach (Saturday) — at Hermann’s Upstairs.
“There’s a variety of genres that we’re able to present now, from Latin music to country folk,” Mar said. “The inventory of artists that I could present [at Blues Bash] became quite limiting. I felt like I was repeating the same thing every year. That’s not my job. I want to bring new music to Victoria.”
