Rock’n Roll! Blue Feather New music Festival closes its 22nd edition in Whitehorse

The 22nd Blue Feather New music Pageant place the emphasis on soothing the mind with new music. 

The occasion, which took area from Nov. 5 to Nov. 6 in Whitehorse, gathered several artists from across the earth, with a concentrate on youth and Indigenous performers. For pageant founder Gary Bailie, Blue Feather — a mainstay on the territory’s tunes scene due to the fact 2000 — is all about bringing unique generation of artists alongside one another. 

“Even though this competition has a Initial Nations grassroot beginning, it’s really about inviting everybody,” Bailie told CBC News. 

“I normally believed that the grandest part of To start with Nations culture … is that we welcome men and women and we share. As we have appear out of a great deal of factors, residential educational facilities, intergenerational trauma, and reconciliation … just try to make things appropriate again. We have a lot of fantastic, hidden abilities.” 

Gary Bailie has been volunteering for the Blue Feather Audio Competition in Whitehorse for the earlier two a long time. The function has been an critical component of the Yukon considering that 2000 as it capabilities youthful and Indigenous artists from the territory and beyond. (Virginie Ann / CBC News)

Bailie claimed this year’s topic, “Peace of Mind,” was not only chosen to promote serenity and interior tranquil, but also in honour of Ukraine.

For the event, splashes of the blue and yellow colors of Ukraine’s flag had been thrown throughout the stage’s art operate.

“We think in acquiring peace for ourselves, in our brain, but also peace on our earth,” said Bailie, who’s been volunteering his time towards the pageant for the past two many years.

“New music has a common language, and it just appears to be that when the audio is taking part in, there is peace in the globe. But as quickly as the songs stops, wars commence.” 

Musicians youthful and previous

The two-day event featured some perfectly-identified artists such as Stevie Salas and Bernard Fowler, who’ve equally performed formerly with the Rolling Stones rock and blues singer Sass Jordan and Bria Rose, who made her Blue Feather stage debut this yr. 

Just one of the festival’s youngest artists, Sierra Levesque, informed CBC Information this was a chance to link with people who are like-minded.   

“I from time to time come to feel a minimal little bit left out at faculty, people today really don’t seriously fully grasp musicians,” Levesque said. “Most of my tracks are about that feeling, wanting to be somewhere else.” 

The 17-calendar year-previous from Pembroke, about 150 kilometres from Ottawa, said she’s been doing for the earlier 10 years — at bars, parks, even in the back of pickup trucks — but hitting the Blue Feather Tunes Festival stage is a milestone. 

Sierra Levesque, 17, performs at the Blue Feather Music Pageant in Whitehorse, on Nov. 5, 2022. The artist was just one of the youngest to hit the phase at the Yukon Arts Centre during the festival’s 22nd edition. (Virginie Ann / CBC News )

“It feels remarkable, I am so glad to have travelled this way since I would have never anticipated to be carrying out in the Yukon, it’s a terrific chance to meet a lot of rock artists who share the really like for the music,” she mentioned. 

Even though the party showcased knowledgeable musicians, a single of the festival’s missions is also to mentor youth in all places of creation and performances, Bailie explained. 

“Some of these men have been about, they acquire music to a complete other degree,” he explained.

“They practise a large amount, they came and rehearsed for two, a few days before they hit the stage … It was quite unique, we had young people today interacting with them and observing. Those people are the kind of matters that are actually amazing and fulfilling. That’s my paycheque.”