Roots and Blues Festival takes over Salmon Arm this weekend

SALMON ARM – The Shuswap will be filled with the sounds of brass and bluegrass as the 'summer destination spot for fans and lovers of music' takes over Salmon Arm this weekend.

Now in its 23rd year, the Roots and Blues Festival features an eclectic mix of music from Blues to Bluegrass, Celtic to Cuban and Americana to Afro-beat, and runs this weekend, Friday, Aug. 14, through Sunday, Aug. 16, at the Salmon Arm Fair Grounds.

This year performers have travelled from across the globe as far away as Beijing’s Hanggai and Pakistan’s Riffat Sultana. Argueably the big name of the 2015 festival is John Oates of Hall and Oates fame. He will be performing on the TD Main Stage Sunday night at 10 p.m.

In addition to four daytime stages and two evening, the festival offers workshops by performers during the day. Topics are usually artist-specific and include things like how to overcome writers block.

Along with music, the event features an international food village, a beverage garden, a dance stage, a fun zone for children, an artisan market of handcrafted goods and on-site camping.

The festival runs from 5 p.m. until 11 p.m. on Friday, and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. until 11 p.m. 

To contact a reporter for this story, email Dana Reynolds at dreynolds@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.