Organizers are taking the Blueberry Jam back out of the freezer. The annual music gathering had previously stopped accepting acts until they could find a way to accommodate the large number of people looking to perform.
Mark Kolt, chief scheduler and production chair for the Blueberry Jam Music Gathering, said organizers would be opening up a fourth stage to fit in even more acts than before.
“The board considered the matter and decided to find ways to add another stage and some more performers,” he said
“I think we’re headed for a hundred.”
Kolt said that 86 acts were signed up already and the new limit will be set at 100.
“It’s hard to picture going more than that, it’s getting really, really complicated,” he said.
“The extra stage should help us get from 80 to 100.”
Kolt said the move to open up another stage was driven by both artist and attendee requests.
“I think whenever it’s been discussed at the committee level, the sense was that if there’s that level of interest, we can try to make it work.”
Kolt was tight-lipped on any potential location for a fourth stage, but teased the announcement could come soon.
“I still don’t have anything official on where that’s going to be. There’s some negotiations underway and if those conclude successfully, then perhaps sometime next week we’ll announce the location… it’s still a little bit of a secret.”
Kolt said some of the factors the committee will be considering are location, cost for technical support and how many acts eventually sign up.
“The fourth stage basically represents Friday and Saturday night,” he said.
“There’s still some options there. It was a decision by the group to make it work one way or another… If plan A doesn’t work then plan B probably will.”
Blueberry Jam has become one of the biggest events of the summer for Flin Flon. Kolt said the interest from performers and attendees has grown quicker than expected.
“I couldn’t have predicted that,” he said of the 100-performer limit.
“As we’ve been quizzing the performers there just seems to be all that interest out there.”
Kolt boasted of high social media engagement and wanted to continue that feeling through the winter months.
“Obviously there’s an excitement there. I’m just thrilled that’s the case and want to try to continue to feed that,” he said.
“Having lots of performers gives us a sense that it’s a party, like, ‘all these other people want to be there, I want to be there too.’”
The 2020 Blueberry Jam Music Gathering will take place this summer from Aug. 6-9.
