FOMO: Harvest Time?
Spring has sprung so obviously we will discuss Fredericton’s finest fall festival Harvest Music Festival happening September 10th to 15th.
Hurricane Lee dampened the festival groove in 2023 so anticipation is high for a full four day festival in 2024. The Saturday shows last September were canceled in advance of the pending hurricane. The cancellation impacted the sold-out Gov’t Mule, Big Sugar show as well as Broken Social Scene and Wide Mouth Mason and others.
Spring’s biggest question is, who will be performing this fall?
Harvest Festival did an early sneak peek on February 15th and announced some of the bands performing. On Harvest Thursday night, Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene will be back to make up for the canceled show but this year they are bringing former member and friend Feist. Feist will have a separate show but my guess is both BSS and Feist will share the stage for a few songs.
Also announced is the return of Jim Cuddy Canadian music royalty but this time with his own band on Saturday night.
Making his Harvest debut is Victor Wooten and The Wooten Brothers. Victor, a 5 time Grammy winner and arguably the best living bass player. Victor is (so far) my “must see” pick of the festival. The Wootens also play on Thursday night so the best plan may be to ensure having an Ultimate pass or Thursday night pass to ensure you get to see all of the acts.
Who else?
Despite The Fredericton Word badgering Harvest Festival Director of Music Programming Brent Staeben for some news, he would not confirm or deny any acts (check out his interview below!).
Without any leaks from the top, The Fredericton Word is confident based on schedules and rumours that Jason Isbell, fresh off his latest 2 Grammy awards, will be attending Harvest for his third time. The biggest name in Americana music gracing our stage again shows that Harvest is a world-class festival.
Though not rumoured I think it is a safe bet to assume Jason Isbell’s touring partner Alejandro Escovedo may also make an appearance. Not familiar? check out this song for reference. This man has a music resume longer than the phonebook (kids you may need to google the term “phonebook”).
Harvest Festival has indicated they will announce the full lineup on Tuesday, March 26th. Ticket and pass sales are expected to follow soon after but have not been announced.
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Cheers!
with Brent Staeben,
Harvest Festival, Director of Music Programming
Cheers! is a Q and A with local celebrities (I determine who qualifies as a local celebrity, and bribes are accepted). I ask the questions I would ask if I was having a beverage or 3 with them.
While researching for this interview I found an article calling Brent, "Fredericton's impresario", I don't know what that means but it sounds important. He has also been bestowed the "Order of New Brunswick" which I know is important and a real thing. Both of these titles are well deserved (though I do think Brent should wear a sash around town displaying his honours) Regardless of the titles I just want to thank Brent for his hard work and dedication to the Fredericton community. Harvest is such a big part of what Fredericton is and has impacted my love of this city.
-Steven
Brent, most people in Fredericton will know you as the long-time volunteer music director for the annual Harvest Festival. Some may not know that you actually have a busy life outside of Harvest such as a full-time job, a busy family, a fan of soccer and (unfortunately? ) Chelsea FC, a swimmer, and a biker. You are a busy busy man. How do you balance it all? How do you find time to volunteer to help fill music programming for 4+ days every year?
Over the 30+ years I’ve been involved, I guess you could say I’ve grown up with Harvest, and in doing so, I’ve been able to fully integrate it into and around my work and family life. It helps that my wife Sonya Hull started volunteering with Harvest the year before me and she’s been heavily invested in Harvest’s growth and success all this time as well. So, Harvest is a part of who we are as a family – my youngest Luke, now 19, has been volunteering backstage at the Blues Tent under the watchful eye of Nancy and Warren Maddox for 9 years now and sometimes I think he understands more about Harvest’s music programming than I do! Sonya and I had great role models in both sets of our parents who were very involved in their communities. We too feel like we have a responsibility to be active in working to make our communities better. As we often say to our boys – “If not us, then who?”. She was the President of the FAST swim club and is now Chair of the Fredericton Tree Commission while I’ve helped out with some FDSA and FHS soccer teams over the years and am still active in school soccer. The goal is always to try to leave the organization better – and hopefully more sustainable - than when you arrived. I had the best time this year when I convinced Luke to help coach the FHS JV Boys soccer team with 2 of his friends. We all ran the team together, made it to the provincial final, and had an exceptional time creating something we can build on. That’s the stuff that still gives me real energy and satisfaction - building something and seeing it in action.
I assume planning for a festival is years in the making, to scout and book the acts for an upcoming Harvest. What is your process for finding and booking talent? How does that process differ between booking bigger established acts (I still can't believe you scored Robert Plant) and then up-and-coming acts before they make it big (the Avett Brothers were right on the cusp of stardom)?
It’s a never-ending process now. I’ve got a list of dozens of acts that we could pursue and of course, that’s being updated and added to each year. I’ve got agents that I’ve built relationships with over the years and they’re bringing me new ideas and are there when I want to go after something special. The list of acts includes everything from headliners to the hot up-and-comers to young/new acts who just want to be part of the festival. The goal for me is to figure out how we can make it all fit together so that we create both a gumbo of a great weekend’s entertainment but also have individual shows that draw in new audiences too. It’s also really great to have added the help, contacts, creativity, and counsel of Stephen Lewis to our team this year! So, overall, I’m trying to keep that single-ticket buyer happy with an incredible show for their dollar while also building a weekend of shows that appeal to the Ultimate pass buyer who both wants to discover something new and see someone who might be a returning favorite. I’m constantly keeping diversity of genres in mind – that gumbo I mentioned - and other factors that mean something to us and our audiences as well. I’m likely my very worst critic, so maybe that helps the final product – but that’s for someone else to determine. In the end, my goal is to create musical memories that last long enough so that you’re excited to come again the following year! (and bring some friends and family too, ha)
How often do you get to travel to see live music? What are some of the best festivals or destinations for live music that you recommend for local music fans?
Generally, I do one big trip a year in the Spring to a festival somewhere south which usually serves the dual purpose of letting me see acts that are perfect for Harvest and recharging my batteries after 6 months of agonizing over that year’s programming. Then I’ll try to get to Boston or New York for one trip a year to see bands and connect with US agents. As for festivals and live music, look, if you can afford it, what Bangor is doing is pretty special and last summer’s line-up there was impressive (you can book those kinds of bands with a 16,000-seat venue!) but you really can’t go wrong with either Montreal Jazz Fest or Festival d’Ete in Quebec City. If you haven’t been to Jazzfest in Montreal and walked those streets from 6 to 10 pm at night, you’re missing one of the most unique and special experiences in the world. And yes, I know we’re a lot smaller, but what we’re trying to do on Queen Street was certainly inspired by what Jazzfest does each July.
Some will disagree with my layman's assessment but I think music lines seem to have blurred more in the last few years, there is less difference between country, folk, americana, southern rock, the various interpretations of blues, etc etc. (This is perhaps reflected in the move away from the name Harvest Jazz and Blues ) With the popularity of acts like Jason Isbell, The Lumineers, Avett Brothers becoming mainstream does it make your job harder? are you competing with more festivals for the same talent?
Well, there are definitely a few different issues to address in this question! I’m not sure that the lines have blurred as much as people have access to so much more music now with algorithms suggesting who you listen to next and so musical tastes have expanded to include artists and genres you might never have heard before. There’s no doubt there is a serious musical overlapping of what I’d call the alt-county/rock/Americana space of Zach Bryan, Brandi Carlisle, The Avetts, Tyler Childers, Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, and our good friend Jason Isbell. There’s a lot of heart and soul in that music, it’s relatable and of course, musically it’s brilliant too. And so yes, I guess part of what’s going on is that every festival wants a piece of those acts – and what happens when demand vastly outstrips supply? Price shoots up. One act on that list was booked by a festival in January of 2022 for $125k and by the time they played that festival gig in September, the act’s new asking pricing had exploded to $1.5M. Crazy. But the real issue for us is that we’re now competing against a lot of other festivals for talent and when you have a festival in say Kentucky or California that is willing to throw down millions, it attracts a lot of talent there and then tours are geographically built around those big gigs. Getting the acts back up here to Eastern Canada is nearly impossible. And there’s no sense dancing around it but the price of getting here via airplane is killing us. That’s making it really hard to get that breakout acts at 15K USD who look at the cost of flying 8 or 9 people up here and they go, “Hey it just doesn’t make sense for us”. I think the original thought was it would be easier for festivals in the years after COVID but It’s never been harder to book this festival than it is right now.
Do you have a dream Harvest act that you would love to book, perhaps someone that you have been trying to get but scheduling hasn't worked, or just someone outside the budget and audience size of Harvest?
I actually don’t ever talk about this stuff. But for you? What the heck. Bob Weir and Sheryl Crow are two acts I’ve tried many times to book and it’s never worked out. I had booked Phil Lesh – Bobby’s bandmate from the Grateful Dead - in 2018 but he canceled due to a health issue. Those guys aren’t getting any younger so I’m gonna keep trying!
I know your father is a politician back in Newfoundland, where you grew up. Do you ever see yourself wading into politics here in Fredericton?
Well, while it’s definitely crossed my mind, I think the way I’ve looked at it is that I could never be both a politician and a Harvest Board member at the same time and Harvest will always be first in my heart. I’ve had numerous inquiries – some recent, in fact - and shouts of encouragement over the past 30 years from people hoping I’d contribute in that way but Harvest is my passion, and above all of that, I like this life that Sonya and I have built together.
I know you still like to swim and your son Erik swam for UNB (following in Dad's footsteps). Do you think in your glory days you could have kept up with Erik in the pool? Other than swimming at your cottage in Grand Lake do you still have a swim routine?
Swimming is actually the reason I’m in Fredericton as I was recruited here to swim for UNB in 1984. I’m so proud of what Erik accomplished in the pool; AUS Champ for UNB two years in a row in the 100-metre Butterfly – matching my wins for UNB in the same race in 1987 and 1988. That’s a pretty special bond for us but the truth is he’s so much better and faster than me – and well he should be 30 years later! Watching him win those races and watching his younger brother Luke win provincial soccer titles at FHS and FDSA were incredible moments for Sonya and I – they both showed a ton of resilience in their sporting careers. As for swimming these days, I’m back in the UNB pool a few days a week – it’s a little surreal as the UNB pool is exactly the same as it was when I first walked through its doors in February 1983. And I can’t wait for those special days of swimming at Grand Lake. Each day down there is priceless, as you well know! Hope to see you soon walking along Scotchtown Road!
Thanks so much for your time Brent I appreciate you!
The Hood:
Running Sunshine Gardens
This week’s guest writer is Jon Holt, “Mayor of Sunshine Gardens”
When our growing family moved to Sunshine Gardens in 2014, I was certain that we were going to love living here. I had already started to believe the hype! The people, the location to such amazing parks, great schools, the list goes on. But as with everything in life there’s always a few surprises, for me there was one that suited my lifestyle perfectly. Within a few hours, I was aware of the constant physical activity passing by our door on Parkhurst Dr. It could be an early morning group training for a triathlon or a family bike squad heading for the multi-use trails we're fortunate enough to be handy to. Day and night, all four seasons, the human-powered motion continues. In the evening, mobs of people shuffle along, closely following their Running Room instructor’s constant, reassuring pace. Each person dreaming of their own personal goal. All this activity perpetual, and it’s inspirational to an old running junkie like me, it motivates me to get moving every single day. As I age, I’m 46 now, I need to find all the motivation I can get.
I’ve mentioned before in previous dispatches from Fredericton's first suburb, we basically live in a giant oval, with courts and crescents penetrating from the outside edge to the middle, it’s called the Radburn Plan. I’m not sure if it was completely purposeful or not, probably a stroke of luck, but the entire oval is almost exactly 1.5 kilometers long. If you add the two Crescents to your loop, both Harewood and Woodfield, you end up at almost exactly 2 kilometers. As a Pandemic School Project at “Holtwarts” the kids and I busted out a measuring wheel to confirm the rumour we’d always heard. It’s pretty uncanny that it could be so exact, but it was 2km nearly on the nose give or take a few centimeters. Armed with this knowledge I began to understand what all the activity was about. Our little neighbourhood loop is an unofficial ‘track’ accessible 24-7 and open to the public. Not only that, at each end of this loop is the City's multi-use trail network which can then take you anywhere you need to go. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the countless kilometers of trail tucked into Odell Park, just South of our little loop. We live in a hotbed of human-powered activity and I am all for it!
There was a time in my adult life when I was not active, other than my job as a Zamboni driver, which was reasonably physical, but overall I was definitely in a rut. I decided, with some encouragement from Susan, my wife for new readers, but at the time my fiance suggested I give running a try. She'd recently done the Ottawa Marathon and was fit as a fiddle, I was slightly jealous. It didn’t come easy, I was a wreck and hadn’t really done anything hard for a long time. Slowly though I got more fit. At that time we lived on Charlotte st, also right beside the trail and Bill Thorpe walking bridge. I was motivated to get healthy, but I also discovered that I truly loved running and what it gave to me. The solitary time, the rhythm of it all, it left me alone with my thoughts, which I learned I also really love. Not only was I getting my body right, it gave me time to reflect and think. It was on a run when the thought ‘I should try and write something’ passed through my brain for the first time. To be perfectly honest, as hokey as it sounds, starting to run changed my life, it went from an activity to a lifestyle. As a lifestyle, it's one that I have continued and hope to continue in perpetuity, or at least until my legs fall off.
Now that we’ve lived here a while, nearly a decade, I know who’s coming down the street as soon as they round the turn. Based on stride, gait and arm swings, it's basically a running finger print. Each person’s style is uniquely their own, Joanne, Roly, Mike, Dawn here's looking at you. Eventually we did get blinds for our windows, but they’re usually wide open, letting the world in. I still wave a lot, to both random strangers and friends alike. It's a part of my DNA. I’m thanking them for keeping me motivated.
The cast of characters that regularly pass by our windows are a who’s who of Fredericton’s elite athletes past and present. But more often than not, they’re just regular folks like you and me trying to extend their lifespan, deal with stress, make a goal they’ve set for themselves, or connect with friends. Over Christmas, we like to take our cowbells out as a family and cheer on the Santa Shuffle Race that passes by the door. It's a pretty great cross-section of Fredericton runners of all abilities and motivations. It's a perfect example to our kids that anyone can live a healthy lifestyle, or at least work towards one.
Each person has a different motivation, for some active transport is a way to get to work. We had a neighbour that rode by our house every morning on a unicycle to get to his downtown clothing store, Erik Neilsen of Peter Roberts. Our kids would run to the door, open it and holler out, everyday day! He’d wave and keep pumping his legs. Rain, sleet, hail or blizzards, nothing stopped Erik and his unicycle, it was like clockwork. He and his family have moved and now he unicycles around the parking lot of his new relocated store on Smythe St.
Whether they’re running, biking, skateboarding, or rolling skiing, the people passing by are as diverse as the activities they attempt. But there are a few notable folks whom I see regularly. The first of which is Eunice Phillips and her gang of accomplished lady runners, Mary, Diane et all. Eunice is a Marathoner from NB who has basically done it all and is in the Run NB Hall of Fame. She’s competed in and done incredibly well in, more marathons than you can shake a stick at. In her prime she was a running machine! She’s arguably the most accomplished female marathoner in the history of NB, and she lives just up the street. Eunice and her gang regularly run by, a little slower than she was in her heyday in the 90s and early 2000s, but aren’t we all. She’s an inspiration, not only because of her accomplishments but because she’s still going, either on foot or on a road bike. I watch her pass by, and I wave, then see her return hours later, day after day. For her, like me, it’s a lifestyle, but a lifestyle that’s made easier because of where we live. It’s easier to maintain when you’re surrounded by like minded people.
At the other end of our street lives Nathaniel Couture. There’s not enough time or ink to explain just what Nat does to his body, but in short he runs very long distances through the most challenging circumstances on dirt trails a few feet wide. He runs over mountains (The Alps, The Rockies, The Catskills) and through forests, over rocks and trees, and anything that happens to be in his path. He’s an ultramarathoner, a very very good one, and his races are usually around 100 Miles, or 160ish km. His running exploits are the stuff of legend, but you would never know, because he’s incredibly casual about the fact that he’s superhuman. Many many mornings I see him and a training partner or two whip by with a dog in tow while I pack my kids lunches, possibly one of several workouts that day. He's also a machine, a suffering absorption device and he inspires me daily to push my limits. The human body is an amazing thing.
The longer I write the more I realize how much I’ve begun to expect these interactions. We’ve now been in this house for a decade, and it’s a part of my routine. Before the sun is even up I see the same bodies float past, Greg the retired grampa that runs 7 days a week 3 laps at 6 am, Nat and his band of smiling suffer-fest aficionados, Jess with her blinking light belt, the lady in the red coat that only ever runs laps most times 3 laps but other days 5. John the 80+ year old retired UNB Prof that walks in winter and bikes in the summer. These are my people, even though some of them don’t even know it. Some folks going by probably wonder who the weirdo waving from the window or saying hello from the yard even is, but it’s just me saying thanks for the motivation. It's fuel for my next chance to slip on the sneakers and go out the door, and it’s free and it's available because I live in the best neighbourhood in the City of Fredericton.
Brews News
What is happening at the amazing local breweries and distilleries around the area
Note: Always check the brewery/tap room socials for hours and any last-minute changes
Featured below: First Light Distillery, Grimross Brewing Co, Half Cut Brewery, , Maybee Brewing, Picaroons, The Cap, York County Cider, Big Fiddle Still
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Next issue…
Total eclipse of the heart…
The joys of turning 50
Great read and worth the price just to know that Brent is working on the Dead alumni!
Another enjoyable, informative issue!