Jubiliation

Kim Mitchell

This year’s Riverfront Jubilee was one for the books.
The three-day music event featured the debuts of EB Anderson & The Resolutes, Sounds of Motown, and Slowcoaster, as well as the hard rock of Dirty Deeds and Kim Mitchell, the rebirth of Big Wreck, and the return of the Joel Plaskett Emergency.
“Every night had something special,” said Carlton Munroe, Jubilee executive director.
“People are still talking about Sounds of Motown from Friday night. It was the first experience for a lot of people with this band and it’s just an amazing conglomerate of musical talent on stage at the same time. Tim Chaisson, relatively unknown coming into the festival, I’ve watched him grow for the last five years and we knew this was the year he was ready for a main stage show and he drew a lot of new fans.”
Munroe continued, “Joel Plaskett is historically one of our favourite performers and this is one of his favourite places to play and I think you could certainly tell when he was playing. Alert the Medic, unbelievable. Going into Saturday, Carry the Lost and Slowcoaster – both their first time playing the festival – and another big response there. Big Wreck and Classified… it was really pretty epic – and an amazing turn out.”
In addition to the solid lineup, weather worked in the Jubilee’s favour this year. While the days were scorching the nights were perfectly cool and organizers saw that reflected in the turnout.
“Very happy with the numbers. I think all the stars aligned this year,” said Munroe.
“Our advance sales were really strong this year, too; we were really happy with our advance sales. It’s the walk-ups that’re usually dependent on the weather and that’s what determines how successful the festival is and everything in that regard went really well this year.”
Even though the festival is in its 17th year they’re still finding ways to improve and it did not go unnoticed.
“A lot of comments and compliments on the site this year. We do little tweaks each year and I think that we might have got to the point now that we got it right,” said Munroe. “The VIP tent has gotten a great response. We sold out of the tickets we had for the VIP tent which also serves the sponsors and guests. Some real great compliments from the people in the VIP tent. The site is something that we’re all really happy with this year.”
Food vendors this year stepped up as well, pairing standbys of pizza and sausage with fish and chips, donair eggrolls, kettle chips, Belgian waffles and crepes.
Only 362 days ’til Jubilee 2013!