Lindsay Chung
Observer Reporter
Starting Thursday, the Seniors’ Centre will be filled with the sounds of bluegrass and country music, as the festival season kicks off right here in Quesnel.
The 21st Where The Rivers Meet Country Bluegrass Jamboree will take place Thursday to Sunday (April 26-29).
“It’s well attended,” says executive member Ken Knoke, who is a past president of the jamboree executive. “We have people from all over B.C. and Alberta who enjoy our festival.”
This year’s jamboree features 13 bands playing a mixture of country and bluegrass music.
“Everybody looks forward to coming to Quesnel because it’s the first event of the season for those who go around to the different festivals,” says Knoke.
Knoke is excited that two of this year’s bands – The Hampsters from Burns Lake and Young Country from Fort St. John – feature young musicians.
This year’s bands are coming from the Okanagan, the Peace River country, Prince George, Fort St. John, Burns Lake and Terrace. There are also several local performers, including The Quesnel Fiddlers, The Windy Reeds, Ellaine and Friends, Cariboo Thunder, and Country Calibre.
The jamboree raises money to provide bursaries for music education. Right now, they can offer 15 $300 bursaries for youth to take music lessons, explains Knoke.
“Our goal for the weekend, besides providing a very entertaining weekend for folks … our goal has been to provide the bursaries for young folks so they can continue their music education,” he says, adding each year, past bursary recipients come back and perform for everybody on the Saturday afternoon.
Ellaine Botterill, who has been helping with the jamboree for 15 years and is also a performer, says the support from the community has kept this event going – and growing – for 21 years.
“I think the volunteers are the biggest,” she says.
“If we didn’t have the volunteers, we wouldn’t have [a jamboree].”
Botterill says they would like to thank their major sponsors, advertisers and silent auction donors for their support.
This year, doors open Thursday at 11:15 a.m., and the opening ceremonies will be held Thursday at 12:15 p.m.
Good food is a big part of the jamboree experience, and there are pancake breakfasts Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m.
They have a kitchen open all weekend and suppers catered by Cricket 14 Catering & Bartending Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 5 p.m.
Botterill says the dance floor at the Seniors’ Centre is a great one, and many people love to use it.
“It’s usually just packed there with people,” agrees Knoke.
“You can go there and dance your face off for four days and just have a fantastic time, and the music is just beautiful.”
In the past, the jamboree has featured an open mic on Friday and Saturday nights, but they are trying something new this year and holding an open mic Thursday at 6 p.m.
One of the highlights each year is the Bandscramble, which will take place Friday at 9 p.m. Any musicians who are performing or in the audience can put their name on the sheet, and the names are drawn from a hat and mixed up so the musicians all end up in different bands. They have to come up with a band name and practise their three songs in 20 minutes.
“Some of them dress up,” says Knoke.
“There’s a lot of laughter during that event. It’s very entertaining.”
Throughout the weekend there will be door prizes, as well as silent auctions Friday and Saturday from 1-8 p.m.
There is also an instrument draw Saturday at 5:55 p.m. Dinner is a bit early that night – 4:45 p.m. – to accommodate this draw, which provides an instrument that has been donated to a youth aged eight to 18.
Schedules for each day, band profiles and more information are online at quesnelcountrybluegrass.ca.
There is RV parking at the back of the Seniors’ Centre and on-site security.
Knoke says the City of Quesnel Public Works department is incredibly helpful.
“They just bend over backwards to help us out and look after us, and we’re ever so grateful to them for that,” he says.