During much of our festival this year there was job action by village workers, who are members of CUPE. This was due to a sticking point in negotiations with their employer, the Village of Harrison Hot Springs. We were a third party to this dispute, however since we use village facilities and resources for our festival, we couldn’t avoid being caught in the middle. This situation impacted our festival, and thus has tended to dominate the conversation about our 40th, so I thought I would talk about it a bit before recapping the really fun stuff: the shows and artists of the 40th Harrison Festival of the Arts.
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Pickets, Plan B’s (and C’s!), and a Movable Audience:
Going into the festival we knew that a strike was impending, but we did not predict how much it would impact us. Let me say right off the bat that as an organization we are bound by funding agreements not to publicly take sides on these kinds of issues – our view is we provide a forum for artists to speak, and they have the stage to voice political opinions if that is what they do. Our sole focus is to produce the event, and if there are obstacles, as the saying goes, the show must go on! And this year, despite moments when we doubted if it would, the show did go on. For this we give thanks to many people – to our incredible community of volunteers, staff, board members, and others who didn’t throw their hands in the air when things got a bit crazy.
The first weekend went pretty smoothly. Pickets went up on Monday around Memorial Hall, which was concerning for us, as we knew that many artists and staff members would not want to cross a picket line. Indeed that is what happened – a few hours before the scheduled start of the Literary Café, Shane Koyczan showed up for soundcheck and respectfully expressed discomfort with the situation, and understandably wondered if we might go to an alternate venue. Our usual alternate is St. Alice Hall in the Harrison Resort and Spa. We called them and they allowed us to move into there. So we headed down there to fire up some chairs and a small stage, leaving someone at the Memorial Hall to re-direct people. It seemed to be coming together.
As the audience of over 200 was lining up at St. Alice Hall, General Manager Gamal Hanna from the resort came down to inform us that the union at the resort was going to shut down the show despite the fact that we were no longer on municipal property and had zero to do with the dispute. It was at that point I almost gave up on the evening, but it was incredible to witness the determination of community members, as we came up with plan C. Gamal suggested moving to the Harrison Lake Hotel, which is what we did. The whole audience marched right down there, we threw up a sound system, chairs, and concession in the space of 45 minutes, and the show happened. We thank audience members for their patience and understanding. They were great.
Huge thanks to the Gamal Hanna, the Harrison Resort, and the Harrison Lake Hotel! You were amazing!
We kept the theatre show Talking With in the Lake Hotel for the Tuesday, as the show had to set up early, but later in the day the parties resumed negotiations, and the pickets came down.
Things rolled along normally until Saturday the 14th. The two sides were to meet that day and give final offers. CUPE had made it clear on social media that if things broke down picketing would resume, so we looked at alternate venues, and were prepared to build a stage at the Bungalow Motel if necessary – thank you to them for their willingness to help! After a day of being on tender hooks, we finally got word in the mid afternoon that they had reached an agreement! We all breathed a massive sigh of relief, and, exhausted from the stress, we carried out the rest of the festival as usual in our home venue, the Memorial Hall. The festival finished Sunday with a great show from Chilliwack and a beautiful, peaceful, lantern launch on the lagoon, organized by our friend Ernie Eaves. All was right with the world again!
The 40th!
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Now that this story is told, let’s continue with the event itself. And, picketing aside, it was one to remember.
I do not have the space to recount all performances here, so will make some general observations. I always hesitate at the idea of “highlights” because as a programmer I like to think that everything has equal value. What I will do though is look at the theme that ran through the fest, and how the art and entertainment we experienced tied into it.
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Generations
Almost a year ago we struck a 40th anniversary committee, and our Board President Heather Robertson came up with the idea of Generations as a theme – the committee took to it right away. The idea is that at 40 we are a festival that has impacted multiple generations of families, artists, community partners, staff, and volunteers.
A show that I think embraced the Generations concept in a fairly profound way was our opening concert, featuring the incredible Buffy Sainte-Marie and her band. Buffy is simply amazing – an artist who came to prominence in the 1960s folk revival, but refused to be pigeonholed by that. She was a pioneer in the 1990s with the use of the internet for trading files, and her album Coincidence and Likely Stories from 1992 made her relevant to my generation of listeners. A few years ago, in her 70s, younger people became more aware of her through her winning of the Polaris Prize, which normally goes to younger indie groups. We invited elders from Sts’ailes and Seabird Island as guests, as Buffy continues to be an inspiring role model for people of all backgrounds, and especially for indigenous people. At 77, she put on an amazing show for us all.
Buffy’s special guest was Oji-Cree songwriter William Prince, who won over the audience easily with his remarkable voice and arresting story songs. A top representative of a new batch of Canadian songwriters, Indigenous and non-Indigenous. Can’t wait to have you back, William!
The festival opening on Saturday featured the Sasquatch Dancers, and the always thoughtful and informed reflections from Sts’ailes historian and former Chief Willie Charlie. It framed the idea of Generations in the only proper way, with a welcome from the First Peoples of this land. Generations ran as a subtext through so many of our shows that followed.
I suppose that, as we are a festival that constantly returns to “tradition” as a reference point, even when the music goes in very contemporary directions, Generations will always be a theme. From the old traditions of Cajun music (Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys) to Ottoman era music of Turkey and the Levant (Lamia Yared) to Ottawa Valley and Irish step dance (The StepCrew) the voices of generations rang through many of our concerts. Cultural heritage is part of our mandate, and thus tradition will always be a thread that ties the varied performances together.
There was another, more self-referential way that Generations was expressed in our shows. This year we had the return of some artists who are long time favourites, from Shari Ulrich (who performed with her daughter Julia), to special shows by Tri-Continental and Cousin Harley on the beach, and several others. Theatre night was particularly meaningful in this regard. A Festival constant since the beginning, Ian Fenwick, brought back a show that was performed at the Festival almost 30 years ago, Talking With. While for several years our theatre shows have been student-based, this performance featured a group of mature women who are the backbone of the theatre community in the valley. Most had been in the original Harrison production. They dealt with the venue change with aplomb and grace, and it was a wonderful evening.
There were numerous other touches that drove home the idea of Generations: the communal art project at Children’s Day that drew on an early festival poster for inspiration; the slide shows that preceded concerts, painstakingly compiled by Marilee Jones, which showed festival audiences, volunteers, and staff from over the years; and of course Ernie Eaves‘ beautiful sculpted masks, entitled “Generations”, which he donated to the festival for an auction. Thank you to Ernie and Marilee for your work and contributions!
A special event that had profound and serious implications around the theme of Generations was a workshop on Truth and Reconciliation, which involved the blanket exercise, an exercise that is becoming well known as a means of increasing consciousness and understanding of the history and impact of colonialism on the First Peoples of this country. This was a powerful experience for all involved. We send huge thanks and love to Sto:lo Grand Chief Clarence (Kat) Pennier and UFV Indigenous Studies head Shirley Hardman for putting this together and facilitating it.
Finally, I want to let everyone involved with the festival know that the support I felt this festival (and I think I can speak for my fellow staff members as well in this) was incredibly moving and meaningful. It is when you are faced with adversity as an organization that you really see where your strengths lie, and in our case it is with the love that our local community has for the festival. Make no mistake about it, this year’s trials held the potential for big losses for us, but ultimately, while we did lose some money (and some hairs!), it did not permanently damage us. In fact, I believe the experience strengthened the festival community, so that in all confidence I can say “here’s to another 40 years!”
Sincerely,
Andy Hillhouse
