Barbara Latkowski
Caledonia Courier
From Aug. 19 – 21, the popular MoM Festival will begin with a full and eclectic musical line-up including a variety of bands and musicians.
The MoM Festival (Formerly "Music On the Mountain Festival") is an annual three-day music and arts festival featuring original and independent music and art from all over BC, Canada and around the world.
The festival is presented by Music on the Mountain Society and is now located at the Fort St. James fair ground. With a variety of food vendors, visual artists and artisans on hand, the festival is set to include everyone: children, youth and adults to enjoy not just an intriguing musical lineup but a varietyof workshops and activities as well.
From punk rock to jazz, Lionel Conant, organizer of the annual event, says that this year, the festival has so much more to offer.
“It’s so exciting. The festival has expanded. We have four stages now and there are so many more activities that will be offered this year that especially encourage youth engagement,” Conant said.
The Freedom Arts Empowerment Program will offer free workshops at the festival where they can personally take advice and learn from the festival’s performers.
They will learn about song writing, singing and production and at the end, they will have the opportunity to perform all that they have learnt.
“This is so exciting for us,” Conant said. “To be able to offer this to our local youth,” Conant said.
The market will also be at the festival along with a shadow puppet theatre, and a healing sanctuary that will offer massage and healing arts.
“The musical lineup itself is amazing his year,” Conant said. “We’re so excited that Vancouver based legendary punk icons, D.O.A. will be in Fort St. James for MoM 2016.”
Musician, Dave Saroka from Grand Forks will also be singing but he will be adding a little bit of a unique twist to his performance.
Sarkora is going for a Guinness World Record and will attempt to sing all of his original music for the longest time. He is set to sing all of his own songs in 24 hours.
Other bands in the lineup include: folk roots duo Zonnis, country blues singer, Winona Wilde, singer songwriter, Max Mannequin from Hamilton, Ontario and folk funk performers, Samson’s Delilah to name a few.
“It’s going to be big this year,” Conant said.
“This is a dream to have something bigger than ourselves. We’re a small community so to have something like this right here, it’s so exciting.”