With the gradual lifting of COVID restrictions this summer, and the allowance of small outdoor music concerts, the Harrison Festival Society is delighted to confirm that we will be presenting a limited capacity version of our annual Harrison Festival of the Arts, from July 10-18, 2021. Due to the difficulty in restricting audience numbers in our usual space on the Harrison waterfront, the festival will take place on the family-run Holberg Farm in Agassiz. As a result the 2021 version of the festival is titled Farm Edition.
The use of Holberg Farm as a concert site was tested last summer through the festival’s Still Running concert series. Audience members loved the beautiful farm setting, and artists gave intimate and connected performances to 50 person audiences, safely distanced through assigned seating in household bubbles. The 2021 Festival will follow a similar format, but will include many more performers, including some new faces and some familiar names.
The first weekend of the festival, July 10 and 11, will be a celebration of BC’s musical and cultural diversity, with members of the BC World Music Collective presenting individual sets, and a collaborative set on Saturday evening. Styles include flamenco song (Farnaz Ohadi), marimba polyrhythms (Robin Layne and the Rhythm Makers), Cuban son (Adonis Puentes), Indigenous hip hop and spoken word (Ostwelve), soul (Tonye Aganaba), and the Celtic/Latin hybrid of La Banda Landa, the husband and wife duo behind The Paperboys and Locarno.
Weeknights will include performances from Chilliwack based chamber folk group The Crescent Sky, multiple Juno award winning appalaching tinged songwriters Jason and Pharis Romero, and legendary blues man Jim Byrnes with famed Doug and the Slugs keyboardist Simon Kendall. The final weekend will feature another host of talented BC based performers: Chinese fusion ensemble Silk Road, roots folk rockers Early Spirit, soul songstress Dawn Pemberton, beloved acoustic roots masters The Bills, the Metis dance and fiddle of V’ni Dansi, the intricate fiddle and guitar interplay of Pierre Schryer and Adam Dobres, and the New Orleans sounds of the Big Easy Funk Ensemble. The festival finishes with a special Sunday evening show by Vancouver’s famed gospel trio The Sojourners.
While the festival will not have its usual Children’s Day with crafts and other interactive activities, there will be a special daytime family concert on Wednesday July 14, featuring a kids-oriented History of Motown show with singer Krystle Dos Santos.
An art exhibit featuring the stunning nature photography of local photographer Joe Gadsby will be held at the Ranger Station Art Gallery in July. The Festival Society is currently working on programming participatory workshops, and is following the evolving guidelines for gathering closely, in order to determine where these may be held. More information will be posted on our site as it confirmed. Please follow our social media channels for more releases!
Tickets will go on sale June 16th. A full schedule of events is posted on the schedule page.
