It was sunshine, some sand and sweet music, but it wasn’t just a beach party.
The Music on the Mountain festival had their most successful year yet, essentially breaking even for the first time, and they give all the thanks to the community support from sponsorship and volunteerism.
“We had such a broad spectrum of people there from the community,” said Lionel Conant of the Music on the Mountain Society. “We bring all this talent, but without the audience and the volunteers, it just doesn’t go off.
We really, really pulled this together as a community.”
With large donations coming in this year from a number of local businesses and organizations, including the municipality and local First Nations and a significant grant from the provincial government coming through with an extra $10,000, MoM finally found itself in the black in 2012.
The festival ran for three days again on August 24, 25, 26, and drew music lovers from Fort St. James, Vanderhoof, Prince George, Quesnel, Williams Lake and beyond.
Conant said the group plans to continue to grow the festival in the future, with the help of the community.
There were more kids at the festival than in past years, he said and more weekend pass-holders and more campers on site.
The live music was incredible, crossing a number of genre lines, including everything from folk to bluegrass, punk to hard rock, there was a bit of everything for everyone.
Miss Quincy and the Showdown rocked the house and put on three sets - one each day - of everything from rockabilly to country covers in their own style.
The group was ending an eight-month tour which crossed Canada and also went abroad to include Europe. While their Friday night set was not as tight, the mellow Saturday night “B” stage show of country covers showed another side of the talented women’s skill set, and the Sunday show was every bit the Miss Quincy a person could hope for.
There were a number of highlights, with Folky Strum-Strum being mentioned by a number of festival-goers as an amazing surprise, lead singer Iyan Bruvold has a voice every bit as unique and plaintive as Eddy Vedder, only he sings while also rocking the banjo.
Members of the group, from Rolla, B.C., host the Sweetwater 905 Art Festival each year, now the first festival in central B.C. of the year.
The Steve Brockley Band, High Society, Broken Mirrors, Kate Reid, Corwin Fox, Blackberry Wood, Linda McRae and many, many more artists brought their talents together to make an amazing “lastival.”
Another highlight was the on-site painting being done by artist Crystal Charlotte Easton. Over the entire festival, Crystal worked on a large painting she called “Mothers and Sons” which was up for silent auction the entire time.
On Sunday, after finishing the incredible painting, she presented it to the crowd and to the winning bidder, Kelly Inden and Fireweed Collective Society. She called the group’s purchase of the painting “soul-touching” and she tearfully acknowledged the group’s importance to her, as she had helped to found the group when she lived in Fort St. James.
Easton now lives in Nanaimo, B.C., but returns to Fort about twice a year to visit family and friends.