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| Smile! Summer's here! |
Car Clubs for example are in full swing as shows spring up from Harveys restaurants, to malls, to Main St. Take a quick search and you can find any number of events and festivals going on, with all types of ridiculous reasons and names for them like the " Friendship Festival" from Niagara which also has a festival in the same area called the "Festival of Friends"...Huh?..Both sport free live outdoors bands, affordable accommodations, beer tents, and cool food, info / crafts booths, and a midway with rides for the kids, but they are apparently different festivals. Strange but cool.
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| Relax at a cottage or... |
Toronto of course has its smorgasbord of choices, but outside of a visit to the Metro Zoo again to see Pandas, there's nothing new that appeals to me there and the Caribean, Gay Pride or Afro-fests aren't my style either. Dragon boat races are cool, which you can find at Toronto's harbour front, but you can find that in Barrie or elsewhere too.
Last year I not only attended the Collingwood Elvis Festival but took part as a performer and in the competition. Unfortunately I was judged for the wrong category so my older style suits didn't match the concert days (jumpsuit) era they were looking for! But it was fun and they offered to pay my way and contest entry this year to make up for it which was nice of them. I declined with a polite,
"No thank-you, very much." This way I will always have that excuse as to why I never won the Best Elvis award! Ha!
Closer to home, with the July 1st celebrations in the rear view mirror the focus of the local media week after week after week (someone has money) has become about a " Hoe Down" which spends hundreds of thousands of donated dollars to put on a party, then dishes out the leftover spoils to a hand full of hand-picked minion charities and is then adored and fawned over by a community and embraced by local governments as proof of their do-gooding, and therefore justifying their ongoing support given them regardless of jobs going overseas. Yeehaw!
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| George Olliver , " The Blue Eyed Prince of Soul" |
I'd post a link to Newmarket's Jazz Fest info however the town has a policy against blogs linking to their sites ( they sent me a letter saying so) therefore here's a link to Aurora's Jazz Festival info instead.
I put "jazz" in parenthesis because at first glance of the announced line-up for Newmarket's new festival - which are using the ousted former organizer of Aurora's Jazz Festival - there doesn't seem to be many actual jazz bands. For example Glenn Marais is a great local talent and he's played a gig for me before, but they are not a jazz band. I grew up with Glenn and we didn't listen to jazz, believe me, we were classic rockers as was 90% of Aurora's teens - not country (sorry Hoe-downers) or jazz - but he is a great talent no doubt and I'm sure will rehearse some jazzy numbers for the event. Headliner George Olliver isn't a jazz band either, they are R&B. Soul as well, and yea he's played with The Who and Rolling Stones and they had some hits... in the 70's.. but not for jazz.
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| Music in the parks becoming same old , same old |
I'm thinking perhaps they could have invested in more jazz bands instead of over hyping it so early on. That's just me.
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| TP does Elvis Festival Parade |