The cool thing about the inaugural Rogue Arts Festival held last weekend at Shirley Macey Park was the way the musical groups collaborated to produce something more than just another jam session – a tight performance that sounded as if it had been rehearsed for weeks.
The group Pendomoja, a Vancouver based, seven-piece reggae, African and rock band, performed with multi-genre, world fusion musician Michael Lacoste from Roberts Creek. They sounded great together. Folky Strum Strum shared the stage with the popular local band Butler in the Hey! They blended like coffee and cream. Mohamed Assani, the sitar player, collaborated with the Funkdealer.
The Staggers and Jaggs on Saturday afternoon were impressive. This Vancouver band performed gypsy jazz and a bit of blues with some throaty, belting vocalists. Later that evening, Roots Roundup hit the stage with more full-on rock. The wisecracking, genial Pat Dorval who was master of ceremonies was kept busy as almost 1,000 people came through the site over the three days, about as many as the non-profit group of festival organizers had estimated.
Collaboration was the word of the day. At the Rogue Art Gallery on site, Dean Schutz, curator of the temporary exhibition, worked with others to produce a group painting. Marina McBride, who organized the gallery, listed all the artists who took part in showing their work: Dean Hunt, Cody Chancellor, Tessa Rand, Hawkfeather Peterson, Caroline Weaver, Jean Paul Langlois and Simon Haiduk. Beside the gallery tent on Saturday, woodworker Juan Carlos Fernandez demonstrated a patterned piece he was carving out of western maple. Other artists gave demos throughout the day.
Producer Arwen MacDonald said, “The amount of time, heart and effort people put in to making it a smooth event was outstanding.”
The workshops did not draw too many people away from the music, but one event listed as being about proportional representation was a surprise. Sounds dry, doesn’t it? But the folks from Alliance 4 Democracy made the topic exciting by performing a skit in which a collection of costumed wrestlers – each with a percentage of the vote – challenged each other and the audience to cast their vote. The wrestler who was pinned to the ground was declared the winner since the jeering, preening character was first past the post in the electoral system. I don’t think I’ve ever understood the concept better.
Human foosball drew many to this interactive game, while others gathered at the Libation Station for craft beer and cider or put temporary henna art on their hands. Some other gems popped up during the weekend. Miss White Spider presented her own one-woman light and shadow theatre Saturday evening. She created a collage of visuals, puppets, music, voice and global myths using projectors, paintings, loop pedal, synthesizer and her own music and visuals to tell stories.
“For me, the magic is in the people,” MacDonald said. “All weekend there were moments of friends being made, art and music being created collectively, people reuniting, and everyone jumping in to do whatever needed to be done. Everyone had a smile on their face.”
The group has lots of wrapping up to do, but they plan to get their rogue on again next year.
