Boats was among the many groups performing at this year’s Winnipeg Jazz Festival.
A JAZZ-INDUCED BLUR
Despite anticipations of rain, wind and overall shitty weather, the opening weekend of the 2013 Winnipeg International Jazz Festival delivered all the lustre, dancing, local beer and kick-ass music that it promises yearly, even throwing in miraculous sunny weather to top it all off.
“We were grateful that all the weather forecasters were wrong! The weather was great and even when we did get a bit of intermittent showers on Friday, audiences still hung around. In my eight-year history with the festival, it was [the] most successful Free Weekend I’ve ever seen,” says Jazz Winnipeg marketing & promotions manager Tyler Sneesby.
Every year, Jazz Winnipeg kicks off the Winnipeg summer festival season. People come out of hibernation to take advantage of the thing that Winnipegers love most: free shit. More importantly, music and free shit. This year included the same solid recipe of years past: four days of live music, beer gardens, rows of food trucks and legendary dance parties.
“I think a lot of people see the festival as the unofficial start of summer. We’re right at the tail end of the school year, but we’re early enough that people haven’t left town for the lake yet. So, the timing is right,” Sneesby explains.
This year’s highly anticipated weekend included names such as the F-Holes, Greg Arcade & his Rockin’ Band, Cannon Bros, Boats, Royal Canoe the Mariachi Ghost, the Keith Price Double Quartet and, of course, the crucial ingredient to the Free Weekend every year – Moses Mayes.
As usual, music lovers had to come early on in the evening in order to be guaranteed a spot in the beer gardens, which featured brews by local beer gods, Half Pints. Once admitted, the night quickly passed for many in an alcohol and jazz-induced blur.
The artists, most notably Royal Canoe and Moses Mayes, inspired sweaty dancing pits each night.
“The Royal Canoe show was unreal. I’ve never seen so many people in Old Market Square! And when they had Chic Gamine come and do a few R&B covers with them to cap the night, people lost their minds,” says Sneesby.
The festival, which has run since 1990, has used the notorious Cube in Winnipeg’s Old Market Square since the highly debated architectural wonder was completed. The curious metal box, which opens to expose a stage, has had Winnipeg divided for three years.
Sneesby, however, is optimistic about the Cube.
“The festival was putting on its Free Opening Weekend at Old Market Square long before the Cube came along, so when the old stage was torn down and the Cube was built, we sort of just adopted it. Despite its imperfections, we really like the Cube, and we’re happy to showcase it.”
While Old Market Square is the headquarters for the weekend, music lovers found the same high quality shows at venues around the city.
“We use venues that people are used to going to year-round, like the Pyramid, the Burton Cummings Theatre and Old Market Square. So, what we try to do is transform those venues using lights, additional staging and pageantry to make them special for our festival. I think we really accomplish that with Old Market Square and the Cube stage.”
Free Weekend was not the only highlight of the festival. Huge names were brought to the humble prairie city this year, including the Royal Wood, the Roots and a club session by DJ Questlove and Alfa.
“I think we’ve hit upon a pretty good music mix. We really pride ourselves on trying to book stuff that is cutting edge, or classic artists that have never visited Winnipeg before.”
By Rachel Wood
Photo: Valentin Mittelstet
