The second annual Mountain Shadows Music Festival is back with an extra day of music to showcase local talent.
Last year the festival was held in September and only lasted for one day. This year the festival will run for two days in August – Saturday the 23 and Sunday the 24.
John White is the festival organizer and plays in the local blues band the Smoking Aces, who will be playing the festival.
He said the move from one to two days was because there is enough talent for a full weekend of music and they are expecting around 1,000 people to turn out each day.
“There’s a lot of music fans around and we want to try and cater to as many as we can,” said White.
He added that the reason they moved it to August is that the weather is a little bit better than in September and the date didn’t clash with any other events.
“There is such a broad range of music this year. You have everything from indie to country to folk to Americana to Celtic rock,” said White, eagerly describing the lineup.
White said the festival is already starting to gain a positive reputation outside of Cochrane and he is finding that people as far away as Quebec and B.C. are interested in playing the festival.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how it develops over the next few years,” said White.
White moved to Cochrane from England about four years ago and had started his own band when he arrived. What surprised him when he started jamming at some of the local bars and restaurants was the number of very talented local musicians.
“There is an awful lot of talent around here that never gets any coverage, never gets any exposure,” he said. “I thought it would be a good idea to do something about that.”
So last year he started the festival to give talented local musicians some new fans and new exposure, adding that people get to see some really talented musicians for a low price.
White said when you look at the bigger festivals, like the Calgary Blues Festival or the Calgary Folk Festival, people come from all over the country and all over the world to perform – making it more difficult for local bands to get exposure.
The Mountain Shadows Music Festival allows for local exposure.
The festival is focused on exposing young talent as well, with a secondary stage called the ATCO stage. White said the acts on the main stage would have an hour each to perform and there would be a 15 – 20 minute break in between. During this break, there would be young performers on the ATCO stage.
This year will feature Luc Savignac, Kaleigh Jo Kirk and Collective We.
Last year, Sydney May performed and White said she was so popular that they brought her back this year to perform on the main stage with a full band.
“We are hoping that we can look at bringing them back over next year or the year after on the main stage to help encourage youth musicians in town,” said White.
He pointed out that it is very difficult for youth because they are unable to play in bars, so what the festival is trying to do is give them experience.
The festival will run from 2 p.m. and go until 10 p.m. at Mitford Park each day.
A single day pass is $15 and a weekend pass is $25. Tickets can be purchased online at mountainshadowsmusic.com or at Tea & Other Things.
