Stompa

Gotta get up, listen to me

Clappa your hands, stompa your feet

Nothing is wrong, if you move to the beat

Clappa your hands, stompa your feet

Stompa your feet

~Serena Ryder

Peterborough is a city for music lovers. Throughout the town, live performances are hosted at bars, festivals, hillsides and other venues. It's not unheard of for there to be several performances going on at once. This was the case a week ago when a few locations aired the final concert of our beloved Tragically Hip. As in many towns across Canada, screens popped up in parks so that fans could set up their lawn chairs to watch together. It was the next best thing to being there. The local Holiday Inn on the waterfront also shared that live feed. That same night heard ongoing performances at the Peterborough Folk Festival, as well as this season's closing act at Musicfest, which has featured free concerts every Wednesday and Saturday night throughout the summer for thirty years.


This year, in late June, Musicfest opened with a biggie - local singing sensation, Serena Ryder performed for her home town in front of an enormous and appreciative audience. She put on a fine show.






Her family and friends were all there to cheer her on. And her sweet young niece joined her on stage to perform Sia's song,  Elastic Heart.






She put on a great show full of energy and passion.






Her hit Stompa really got the crowd going.






It was a superb start to the year.






On the previous night, there was a bit of blues happening at the waterfront Holiday Inn with Jerome Godboo.






Note all of the harmonicas, each in a different key, hanging from his belt, and the colourful percussion tubes which reportedly belong to his kid.







A large crowd gathered to watch. They arrived by foot, by bike..






...and by boat, as was the case with this little sweetie.






She quickly made friends with someone who had a pocket full of doggie treats. No, it wasn't me.





As the evening moved on, we got to see those tubes in action.


Other performers at Musicfest's free summer concerts also caught my attention, at least for a little while. There was Keifer Sutherland Band, Jocelyn Alice & Ria Mae, husband and wife duo, Whitehorse, and a few cover bands - Powerhouse (Chicago), Hotel California (Eagles) and Classics Albums Live featuring Fleetwood Mac hits.


And then I had the pleasure of listening to The Sultans of String.






This was a grey night and it was raining on and off. Unfortunately, that meant a smaller crowd for this performance.






For me, that was good luck. As I stood off to the side of the stage snapping a few pics, one of the venue volunteers invited me to take a seat in the VIP section since it had scarcely filled up and the show had already begun. I gladly and gratefully selected a seat and enjoyed a great view of the show.






I had first heard of this group a couple of years back when I read an impressive review of their performance in Maynooth - where I was living at the time. It seemed I had missed a good show and so I made a mental note of going to see them if the situation ever presented itself to me. It presented itself very nicely.






Here's a small snippet of how they sound.






These two backed them up occasionally.






With a plastic bag for my camera (so classy!) and an umbrella for me, I didn't mind the brief but heavy downpour.






It was a great show and a fine season.

I can hardly wait until Musicfest 2017.