It appears the secret is getting out - Flin Flon’s Blueberry Jam Music Gathering is starting to spread.
Organizers for the recently wrapped up second edition of the Blueberry Jam shared attendance numbers for the event last week, showing a large increase in audience members from the inaugural event last summer.
Last year, organizers estimated somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 were at the Jam at peak hours, including about 1,000 on the first night. On the first night for this year’s Jam, scheduling coordinator Mark Kolt said the festival had around 2,500 visitors, more than twice the number as last year.
This year, at least 7,000 individual visitors attended for the festival - more than the combined populations of Flin Flon and Creighton.
“I’m thrilled,” said Kolt. “It's hard to see that as anything but a step in the right direction. It’s hard to not feel very grateful and proud for that.”
While exact peak hours numbers for attendance are not known, organizers do have a benchmark number to work with. On both Friday and Saturday, volunteers reported running out of wristbands to give to festival goers. About 2,000 wristbands were set aside for each day.
“Even in terms of the 7,000 figure that's been posted online, those are just the ones that were counted,” said Kolt, adding the actual number of visitors to the festival is higher than the confirmed number.
“Certainly Friday, quite early on, we ran out of bracelets, so then they had to start doing a head count as people came in. Once it got dark, it became difficult. So there were certainly other people that came in, because they were still coming in for the later part of the evening. Some maybe didn’t get counted at all.”
The number of acts also grew this year, going between 80 and 85 in total and necessitating the opening of a third stage at Johnny’s Social Club. A new event was also held at the club Thursday night as an informal kick-off for the festival.
Along with touting the success of this year’s event comes a series of big questions about the future of Blueberry Jam. Plans for the third edition of the Jam are already underway for next summer, but has the Jam outgrown its current locations?
The concept of a so-called tweener stage for solo or acoustic acts between larger band sets was floated last year and appeared close to fruition for this year’s Jam, until organizers chose to hold shows at Johnny’s instead. Kolt said the idea of a third stage in the Flinty’s Campground/main stage area is on the table for next summer, along with perhaps moving some shows into the Flin Flon Community Hall and the R.H. Channing Auditorium.
“I guess the question is how will the festival continue to grow, in terms of the number of acts participating. Will we need a fourth stage? Is it conceivable that we have three stages at the site, plus Johnny's?” said Kolt.
“Another question mark would be, since there was a lot of interest in the Thursday night offering at Johnny's, whether maybe a larger venue would be appropriate for that. The Rotary Wheel could probably hold a few more people, or maybe it would be appropriate to hold it at the Community Hall. There's a bunch of questions, different paths that we could take.”
With that said, nothing firm has been confirmed for next year’s event. More plans and information will come after the event organizing board meets for their general meeting this fall.
Kolt said keeping things as-is for next year is still a good choice.
“The good thing is that so many things were successful, it gives us lots of options. Even if we redid things almost exactly the same way next year, because it was so good this year, that wouldn't be a bad thing, necessarily. Maybe we don't need major surgery, maybe it's just a question of doing the same thing, but more efficiently. There's lots of options.”
This year’s Jam saw a spike in out-of-town performers. The furthest afield of those was Holly Rees, who became the Jam’s first-ever trans-Atlantic performer. From Newcastle, U.K., Rees came to perform a pair of sets at the event during a Canadian tour. Rees followed the Jam sets up with another show at Johnny’s Social Club last week.
“It was really fun,” she said.
“It just felt, right off the bat, like such a supportive community and such a musical, creative community. Everyone’s enjoying it and it just felt like that. It was really nice that it wasn’t genre-specific. It was like, ‘if you make noise, let’s do it!’”
When asked if she’d be interested in returning next summer to take in the event, Rees was emphatic.
“I would love to come back. It’s like working it out, how to do it, but yeah, I love Flin Flon and I definitely would come back.”
