By Ken Wallis. Photo Credit: Ken Wallis.
This year is the 19th anniversary of the Orangeville Blues And Jazz Festival, It takes place June 2 through to the 4th and you can catch a ton of events, featuring 75 acts on 3 stages, and a whole lot more.
Ken Wallis interviewed Larry Kurtz for the radio show BluesSource Canada. The following excerpts are from that interview, amended and edited for brevity and clarity.
Ken Wallis
Well, am I ever excited, music festival season is up and running and the first one off the block is the best one, the Orangeville Blues And Jazz Festival. Joining us is Larry Kurtz, the Artistic Director and he's also the lead for Larry Kurtz And The Lawbreakers. Larry, thanks for coming on the show it's great seeing you.
Larry Kurtz
You too Ken, I really appreciate you doing this, this is great.
Ken Wallis
The Orangeville Festival, I have to admit, last year was my very first year ever being there and this Festival has been going on for quite a while.
Larry Kurtz
Actually this year we're going into the 19th year.
Tell us how the festival got started.
Larry Kurtz
A long time ago my wife and I were going to Toronto a lot to see our favourite blues bands and I tried bringing some of them up to Orangeville. I would rent a club in Orangeville, build a stage, sell tickets and I ran a series of concerts. I had Downchild, I had Jack de Keyzer, I had Fathead, all those bands. This was back before the festival. I started making plans to do a full-blown festival. I have a woodworking business and I went to all of my business contacts and asked them to sponsor this unknown festival that I was going to try to present. I went to the town of Orangeville, asked for permission to use the park, which we were able to do. We set up a stage and the first year Jack de Keyzer headlined, and we had I think five restaurants involved and five volunteers. We had an overall attendance for the weekend if you include the restaurants of about 2,000 people. We did a pretty good job getting people out and the next year, we said we were coming back and all of a sudden, we had 50 volunteers. People really enjoyed what they saw and wanted to get involved so it sort of grew pretty quickly.
Ken Wallis
This year the festival runs June second through to the fourth. Give us a bit of a rundown as to what's happening.
Larry Kurtz
On the first night there's quite a little kickoff that starts it going. On the Friday night we shut down the whole downtown and we have classic cars on the street, over 250 cars, which is called our Blues Cruise and we have a stage set up. This is new starting last year, we have a stage right on Broadway with bands and then we have other bands spread out among the cars throughout the weekend. We have some really cool bands, Voodoo Pawn Shop on Friday night on the stage, we have Rosie's Smokehouse Deluxe, Danny Marks is playing, CJ Lee, Big Dan And The Top Side Band, so lots of good bands. I don't want to forget on Friday night that the car show goes from five until nine pm, and then our main stage, my band is going to open up for Rick Estrin And The Night Cats, which we're very excited about, he can really blow a harmonica that guy. They're so entertaining, what a great band, they're a worldwide touring band and we're just thrilled that they're coming to Orangeville.
Ken Wallis
And then it gets even better on the Saturday, there is so much going on, it's almost impossible to keep up with everything.
Larry Kurtz
Saturday if you're in town already, there's a farmer's market if you happen to be up, there's lots of activity in the downtown core again. We start our stage on the street at noon, lots of great local bands. We also do a New Orleans style march right at 12:30. The band marches through the street and then finishes their set on the stage, which is always fun. We have an opera house that we use, the Orangeville Opera House is a beautiful theatre, soft seat, 260 seats and we have music in there all weekend. Saturday we have Brandon Isaak playing in there, we have Jake Chisholm who has a great new album out. There's also lots of acoustic music and jazz in the Opera House throughout the weekend. I might as well mention on Sunday Tony Holiday Band is coming all the way from Memphis Tennessee with special guest Steve Mariner playing with him. Also, a great acoustic blues man Rob Lutes will be playing in the Opera House.
Ken Wallis
There’s quite a lot going on and on the main stage, oh boy oh boy, one of my favourites. Guy Belanger.
Larry Kurtz
This is going to be a real treat, I'm not sure how often he even plays in Ontario but we’re really happy to have him come and play for us. He'll kick things off at 2:00 on Saturday and then followed by the great Kenny Blues Boss Wayne, some boogie woogie piano for everybody. Sandra Bouza who we had last year on our street stage, and we feel she's a headliner, so she's gonna be playing on the main stage this year followed by Chris Antonik. Chris has one of my very favourite albums I've heard in years, Chris's album is fantastic. And then we have Bywater Call which will be fantastic, and our headliners on Saturday are MonkeyJunk with their 15th anniversary tour.
Ken Wallis
A very strong lineup and then it doesn't seem to wind down too much. Sunday has a lot going on as well.
Larry Kurtz
In the downtown area we have a motorcycle event, we're expecting a thousand motorcycles this year. And again, our stage is happening in the downtown area, The Opera House is happening. The main stage starts right at noon with a gospel show, the Toronto Mass Choir, 45 singers on stage with a band, it's going to be spectacular. That’s followed by one of our all-time favorites, Suzie Vinnick and from Ottawa J.W Jones. Our headliner on Sunday is Shakura S’Aida.
It's just a feast of music, I love coming there, and I always try to catch a little bit of each act. It's back and forth all day long, there's just so much going on. Larry, it must be a huge job, you must put in hours and hours on this.
Larry Kurtz
Definitely. You know you’d think it would be just a well-oiled machine after all these years but it's still a lot of work. We have to co-ordinate 250 volunteers for this event and then there's the fundraising. You have to make sure there's money to pay for the festival. The festival is a great bargain, most of our events are free. You do pay a ten dollar admission to the main stage on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and there's a weekend pass for twenty dollars for all three days. So, we feel it's a great bargain and lots going on.
Ken Wallis
Where do folks get tickets?
Larry Kurtz
You can just right onto our website, orangevillebluesandjazz.ca and there's a link to the tickets right on the website. The schedules are up and I'm really happy with the website this year. It's really easy to navigate. All the schedules are up and you can see who's playing where. We have workshops as well so you can go and take a harmonica workshop with Guy Belanger while you're there, that's free, or you could do a guitar workshop with Brandon Isaak.
Ken Wallis
Larry thanks so much for coming on the show it's been great chatting with you and again. June 2nd to 4th, it all happens in Orangeville, thanks Larry see you there.
Website: orangevillebluesandjazz.ca
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Twitter: twitter.com/ovillebluesjazz
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