The recipe for Flin Flon’s biggest summer music event is almost ready – all it needs is just a little Jam.
The Blueberry Jam Music Gathering is barrelling full steam ahead into its second incarnation, taking place at Flinty’s Campground, the Rotary Wheel and Johnny’s Social Club later this week. Shows will kick off at Johnny’s August 8 before moving along to all three sites for August 9-11.
“We have to start putting up things, but all the plans have been laid and volunteers have been more or less recruited, supplies and all that have been traced and laid in,” said Edgar Wright, event chair for Blueberry Jam.
“We’re further ahead than we were last year.”
Some improvements are ready to be unveiled, including a new sound system at the festival area and a new sound booth location, moved to the side of the stage. Other aspects of the show will also see changes, tweaks and improvements.
“We’re more ambitious. We have more performers than we did last year. We’ve expanded the beer gardens. We have much tighter crowd control. We won’t have vehicles passing through the crowd like we did last year. That’s a big safety concern we’ve been getting to grips on,” said Wright.
“We’ve reached the point where we don’t need any more suggestions – we need workers.”
This year’s festival will feature just north of 80 different acts, so many that organizers had to stop accepting new groups last month. Many of the acts coming to Flin Flon from out of town already have ties to the community. Harry Shnider was born in Flin Flon, the son of a prominent doctor. An accomplished musician, Shnider now lives in Calgary, working with an engineering firm. Thanks to Blueberry Jam, Shnider will be making his way back to his hometown, saxophone in hand, for a pair of performances.
Shnider said the enthusiasm shown for last year’s inaugural event made him want to join up for this summer.
“I know a lot of people have messaged me saying, ‘We’re really glad you’re coming up to Blueberry Jam and we’ll get together with you after your performances.’ This is absolutely wonderful. I was really impressed with the energy, just following it last year on Facebook. To see for a first year thing, just how excited people were with it. Honestly, it gave me the bug to want to reach out to Mark Kolt.”
Back in the early days of the band program being offered in Flin Flon schools, Shnider was a clarinetist. He was the first student in the Hapnot Collegiate band to be named to a provincial honour band in 1981. Shnider will form a jazz
combo along with arts figure and festival organizer Mark Kolt on keyboards, Mark Matejka of Swan River on the bass, Dennis “Rugged” Hyndman on the drums and Jacob Harvie on guitar during the festival. On the side, Shnider also said he would join Vanessa Unrau and a pair of young Flin Flon musicians, Mikylo Odut and Andrew Richard, for a jazz arrangement of a Britney Spears song.
“I’m so pleased that I’ve got opportunities to collaborate with musicians in different disciplines and young people. When I left Flin Flon in the mid ‘80s, this is honestly something I never thought would ever happen,” said Shnider.
Other musicians based in Flin Flon are also looking forward to the show. Neal Smedegaard will use his bass and guitar to accompany a solo artist or two, along with joining High Noon.
“Last year, I played at the closing set on Saturday night, during the peak time. It was crazy. That was the most people I’ve ever played for. I remember looking out, there was a bunch of people on the wood dance floor, and as far back as I can see, there’s people all the way back to where the trail starts.”
“It is a really big community thing. It’s bringing in people who aren’t as active in the arts here. It’s not the same people you see at Johnny’s every show. It’s everyone, it’s involving the whole community.”
Smedegaard said the vibe of the event takes on a very cozy, homey feeling - one that’s hard to explain to friends in Edmonton, where he spends most of the year attending classes at Grant MacEwan University.
“It’s pretty cool. I think a lot of my friends in Edmonton, when I explain to them what it really is, I have a hard time explaining to them how it really works. ‘Oh, it’s like a music festival, but it’s also like a jam, too,’”
“When you’re out of town, when you’re explaining to people that you’re from Flin Flon, it’s already like ‘What the heck?’ But then I explain to them how it works, show them a couple of videos and it usually catches them off guard, how much traction it really has attracted when I explain how small our area is. They’re always surprised at how active the arts community is.”
Shnider agrees about Flin Flon’s art scene. While he hasn’t had many recent chances to participate in it first hand, the word has gotten out.
“I’ve been to conferences for economic development and at one of them, one of the speakers who was talking about municipal arts and culture involvement specifically name checked Flin Flon as a little community, semi isolated, that completely
punches above its weight for its population and what what you would expect out of a mining community in the north,” he said.
Event chair Wright said that, even before artists step on stage for the second Jam, plans are already underway for a third event next summer.
“As a group, we’ve learned a lot this year. I honestly don’t know how
they got it done last year, and this year, we got it done a lot of help and next year, we’re going to do it differently,” he said.
“We’re already making plans for next year.”
