Five Alarm Funk are returning to the Memorial Hall hot on the heels of their latest album, “Force Majeure”. The band metaphorically lit the hall on fire three years ago, being the first festival act to play there following the pandemic closures. It was a memorable evening of funky, sweaty fun! This Vancouver musical powerhouse is a festival favourite across Canada, with their intensity, humour, and grooves that don’t stop. With a drummer as a frontman, a high octane horn section, psych rock guitar, percussion, and a style that evokes the greatest funk from James Brown to Parliament Funkadelic, this band will be sure to fill the dance floor and make it a Saturday night to remember.
Kobo Town
Named after the historic Port-of-Spain neighborhood in Trinidad where calypso was born, Kobo Town has been described as “an intoxicating mix of licked calypsonian spirit, dancehall reggae and trombone-heavy horns” (Guardian). Since its inception in 2005, the band, based in Toronto, has brought its calypso sound and ska inspiration to audiences around the world. Kobo Town is led by Drew Gonsalves, a songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist whose music has been covered by many other artists, including Carlos Santana, Manu Chao and Calypso Rose. At once disturbing and joyous, intensely poetic and highly danceable, the group’s songs are rooted in the rich tradition of Caribbean musical storytelling and are delivered with an indomitable energy that has thrilled audiences from Montreal to Malaysia and from Havana to Berlin.
African Chamber Music Ensemble
Join us for the 46th Annual Harrison Festival of the Arts. We are excited to welcome everyone back to Harrison this year for a thrilling Festival! For full details on the festival such as Schedule, Artist Lineup, workshops, Children’s Day, the Artisan Market and more… continue on to the Homepage. African Chamber Music Ensemble Location: […]
Mama’s Broke
Mama’s Broke is a unique and powerful folk duo that both honours and defies tradition with their original compositions. Two strong voices blend to create haunting harmonies, while they artfully juggle fiddle, banjo, guitar and mandolin, and incorporate traditional dance and foot percussion as part of their performance. Drawing from old-time, Quebecois, blues, punk, Celtic, Balkan and doom metal, they create a soundscape that is both familiar and new. For a group defined by constant touring, it’s not surprising that the two artists that make up Mama’s Broke, Lisa Maria and Amy Lou Keeler, met on the road. As Lisa remembers it, “Amy was driving her old Mercedes from Montreal to Nova Scotia and I was looking for a ride. We spent the 17 hours in the car talking almost exclusively about music. By the time we reached Halifax we started playing together, and within a week or two became a band.”
Alpha Yaya Diallo & Bafing
Alpha Yaya Diallo (prounounced “jallow”) is a revered Guinean-born guitarist, who has a longstanding relationship with the Harrison Festival ever since he first performed here with worldbeat group Fatala in the very early 1990s. His style draws on a range of West African guitar traditions, and reflects his own Foulani background along with other cultures and traditions of Guinea, Senegal and even the Caribbean and Cape Verde. The fluid melodic lines of his guitar playing, both acoustic and electric, are complemented by an echo of the balafon, kora, ngoni, bass and drums to create a West-African sound that is both nomadic and generous. Since settling in Vancouver he has primarily led his own bands and has been awarded multiple Junos.
