World Music & Arts Festival

Fresh on the heels of winning the Best Contemporary Blues Album for her latest album “Mileage” at the 2025 Grammy Awards, Ruthie Foster is making her debut performance at the Harrison Festival of the Arts. However, she is no stranger to Western Canada, having been a returning headliner at major Canadian festivals like Vancouver and Edmonton for the past few decades. Ruthie was raised in a family of gospel singers in the small rural town of Gause, TX, and first learned to sing during worship services at her community church. With a chapel-bred bravado trained on the works of powerful women such as Mavis Staples and Aretha Franklin, her sound grew into an inspired blend of blues, folk, and gospel. “Mileage”, released on the legendary Sun record label, finds her reflecting on a life full of professional triumphs, personal loss, and a musical journey that has garnered her multiple Grammy nominations and collaborations with luminaries such as a Bonnie Raitt, The Allman Brothers, Susan Tedeschi, and Derek Trucks.

Born in Ghana and raised between the UK and Western Canada, BAWAH, now a resident of Chilliwack, exists between many worlds, his spirit anchored by the rich traditions of his birthplace, yet shaped by the ebb and flow of life far from home. BAWAH’s Afro-fusion sound is unmistakably his own. He blurs traditional boundaries and defies categorization with his unique blend of influences, spanning Afro, Pop, Hip-hop, Alternative, and Electronic genres. In 2025, BAWAH will pour his soul into one monumental project: MAUVEY TO A BAWAH. This project is a symphony of creative expression. A four-part album series, a film series spanning 48 episodes, and a 48-chapter book. BAWAH’s songs are interpreted with arrangements that include a collection of talented vocalists and instrumentalists that make for a powerful musical and visual experience.

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.

Kate Weekes is a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter based in the Gatineau Hills of Quebec. As a touring and recording artist, Kate has released four albums of original material influenced by her time spent in the northern parts of the world working as a dog musher, canoe and hiking guide. Her latest album Better Days Ahead dives deep into “the liminal space created by lockdowns and cancelled plans” to unearth a stirring, picturesque collection of 10 original songs ranging from Appalachian-influenced murder-suicide ballads to anthemic folk-pop to whimsical instrumental waltzes, all buoyed by an eclectic assortment of instruments including (but not limited to) fiddle, flugelhorn, frame drum and fretless bass.

Ye Vagabonds consists of Brothers Brían and Diarmuid Mac Gloinn, who grew up playing music together around their hometown of Carlow, a small town in the southeast of Ireland. After moving to Dublin in 2012, they quickly became a staple of the live music and session scene in Ireland, playing their own original songs as well as folk songs from Ireland, Scotland, England and America. Their music is distinguished by hauntingly beautiful vocal harmonies that cut to the heart, set with simple yet powerful instrumental arrangements. They are multiple award winners in their home country, and have toured relentlessly across Ireland, the UK, Europe, and beyond. Their 2022 album, Nine Waves, was released online last year with an accompanying, stunningly shot full length video.