Prairie Wind Music Fest Hosts Eclectic Line-up

It's time for the 4th annual Prairie Wind Music Festival in Cypress River. Stu Anderson is artistic director and describes the event.

"The festival goes on Saturday, June 6th. So, that's this Saturday. It starts at noon and goes til night -- usually wraps up around 1 in the morning. This is our fourth year of the festival. We started out quite small. We had a couple hundred people, but a full lineup. We started the festival off knowing that we wanted to build through throwing a quality event, and a world-class festival in a small town. We really focused on a good production and a really well put-together festival. And we've grown substantially over the years."

He outlines the areas from which the festival draws its crowds.

"All over the prairies and in Ontario, too. We had people come in from Ontario last year. I know there's a big group coming in from there again this year. We've had people from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba. So, it's quite a wide range. A lot of people from Winnipeg came out, people from Brandon, all over rural Manitoba, Portage la Prairie. It's quite a large net of people."

Anderson says they host a wide range of musical genres. "We like to say we have a little of something for everyone. We have children's entertainment, to rock-and-roll, to country music, to folk music, to singer/songwriters. We even get into some dance music. The festival strives to have something that everybody can enjoy. The type of talent we bring in is from all over Canada. We feel like, even though some of the acts might be unknown to the people that are there, we book stuff that can be appreciated by everybody."

"We do have an eclectic mix. And I think that people just have now grown to understand that we are going to provide world-class entertainment. Whatever we put onstage, whatever the genre, is going to be entertaining. We're not going to put anything onstage that is going to be offensive. But there's really no limits to the genre that we will consider booking. I think that's just a fun part of our festival -- the eclectic mix of entertainment that we put onstage. You're going to discover something that you never thought you would like. I know last year I had a couple of people going into the festival saying, 'Oh, you kind of booked a lineup that's a little more country than I would like this year.' And I said, 'I don't know. I don't agree.' And I had those people come back and say, 'We understand now. That was not a country music festival.'  There was country music there, and people that love country music enjoyed it."

He lists some of the lineup this year.

"I think the highlights for me this year, one of the bands that first got me into the music business, was a band called The Perpetrators. I fell in love with that band about twelve years ago. They're a Blues/Rock band from Winnipeg, MB, Juno nominated -- Western Canadian Music Award winners multiple times. They're going to come out and they're going to perform for us during the supper hour, at which time we're having a pig roast as well for $15.00. A few of the other bands that I get really excited about, the Reverend Rambler, who's also a Winnipeg guy. He's playing the Winnipeg Folks Festival and Dauphin's Countryfest this year, as well as our festival. He's a rockabilly/rock-and-roll kind of a guy. So, that should be a lot of fun. We have a few acts in from out of town. We have Joe Nolan in from Calgary. Joe Nolan's in the kind of a vein of a Bob Dylan singer/songwriter type. He's been nominated for a few awards as well. He's one of my favourite performers in Canada. A throwback to the Davey James type of old-style folk musicians, Kacy and Clayton are going to be in from Saskatchewan. And they're  going to be just coming off a huge European tour, and this is one of their first shows back in Canada from that. There's lots to be excited about this year."

Anderson adds tickets are $30 including free camping. Everything you need is onsite, including food vendors.  

You can find their website by clicking here: www.prairiewindmusicfest.com, and their Face Book page: Prairie Wind Music Fest.