“And back to the main stage for Alan Doyle. What can I say about this guy? I love
him and the crowd loved him. He knows how to relate to us and we can’t help but
respond. Great songs, great fun and a great sense of humour. Alan is a
professional and it shows. We were treated to songs from the new So Let’s Go album and
old favourites including some Great Big Sea hits. (from http://www.soundcheckentertainment.ca/riverfest-elora-2015)”
It
feels like forever since I wrote a blog post about any of our favourite fellas
but it has only been three weeks and so much has happened. Our favourite fellas
have been as busy as ever playing at music festivals, promoting their
individual projects, recording music and spending important with families,
where ever they may be. They have all been keeping us, the fans up to date on
their social media pages. And so have the fans lucky enough to attend these
fabulous events.
Last
weekend Alan Doyle attended two huge music festivals in eastern Canada, Riverfest
in Elora and the Forest Music Festival in Haliburton, Ontario. Although it has
been a week since these festivals many of the professional journalists and
photographers, bloggers and fans who attended are just only beginning to get
their thoughts and images together to share with the rest of the world via their
newspapers, webpages and social media accounts.
After
all this time I still love researching, reading comments and articles and
looking at the wonderful photographs taken by some very enthusiastic and
talented music lovers. They all have their own unique and valuable experiences.
Thank you to all those, who once again shared their words, thoughts and images via
social media and the Internet.
The
music blog ‘A Music Blog Yea?’, an online magazine ‘Aesthetic Magazine Toronto’
and a blog ‘Sound Check Entertainment’ have assembled a great collection of
photographs and nice words inclusive of all the musicians and artists at the
Riverfest in Elora, including some nice words and some amazing photographs on
stage of Alan Doyle and The Beautiful Gypsies.
A
local newspaper The Wellington Advertiser has published a review “Seventh
annual Riverfest Elora bigger than ever” by Jaime Myslik with a lovely
photograph of Alan Doyle attached. The article has been circulated on my Google
+ page. There is a huge collection of fan photographs and other stuff at the
official social media pages.
For
the Forest Festival in Haliburton the next night, there was a little less
information available. The Festival’s social media pages were not active in
promoting this very unique and special event (which is there choice of course).
A local newspaper The Highlander Online circulated an article titled “Forest
Festival experience a hit despite rain” by Mark Arike about the festival which
I copied below and circulated on my Google + page.
The
article contains some fabulous photographs of Alan Doyle (and Cory Tetford and
Kendel Carson) and links to a video. They played a new song and an oldie but
good Great Big Sea classic against a spectacular backdrop of the sun setting on
the lake. I will let you visit the site to experience this delightful little
gem. The video was taken by newspaper staffers Matthew Desrosiers (who also
took some great photographs) and edited by Justin Tiffin. (This video wouldn’t
breach copyright because it only contains a portion of the song). Discovering
articles, photographs and videos like this one is what makes researching and
blogging so rewarding.
A
lot of the information about this event comes from the musicians and artists (and
the fans who used social media to share their experiences) such as the photographs
by Alan Doyle on his official Twitter account. My favourites still remain the
good old thoughtful selfie and photographs that tell a musician’s or artist’s
story at a particular point in time. They may get favourited, retweeted, liked
and shared and then not much thought and it is on to the next thing. Sometimes
these beauties get lost in the flow of information produced to keep a record of the
things they do and to keep fans in touch via whatever means. As a consequence I
have included a photograph from Alan Doyle’s official Twitter account of the
Alan Doyle Trio at the Forest Festival in Haliburton against a spectacular
sunset is totally gorgeous. Many thanks guys and girls for sharing your life on
the road with the fans. Always a treat and of course as always no copyright
infringement intended.
Alan Doyle @alanthomasdoyle What a night TheForestFest. One of the coolest venues I've ever seen. 16 August 2015. ( from the official Twitter account of Alan Doyle no copyright infringement intended)
Forest Festival experience a hit despite rain by Mark Arike, 21 August, 2015 (no copyright infringement intended)
Despite having to move a sold-out show from one venue to another due to a thunderstorm, this year's instalment of The Forest Festival is generating positive reviews.
Forest Festival experience a hit despite rain by Mark Arike, 21 August, 2015 (no copyright infringement intended)
Despite having to move a sold-out show from one venue to another due to a thunderstorm, this year's instalment of The Forest Festival is generating positive reviews.
"I think, overall, things went really, really smoothly," said festival general manager Lesley English. "We've got a great team in place with really key people doing super jobs.”
That team included several volunteers and staff at the Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve.
The five-day event, which ran from Aug. 12-16, featured performances from Whitehorse, Michael Occhipinti and Shine On, Sarah Harmer, Red Hot Ramble, Oh Susanna, James Funnyhat, Melissa Bel, and Alan Doyle Trio. The concerts were held at one of two venues: Haliburton Forest's Historic Logging Museum and the outdoor Bone Lake Amphitheatre.
The sold-out Harmer concert was scheduled to take place at the amphitheatre on Aug. 14.
However, one hour before its start time a decision was made to move it indoors because of the weather, which included heavy rain, thunder and lightning.
"When you're doing an outdoor venue like this, we don't just look at one source for weather predictions. I follow a couple of weather networks," said English, pointing out that Environment Canada's local monitoring station is in Bancroft.
"Sometimes those predictions can be quite different for our area.”
English said the storm moved in very quickly, although reports indicated that a thunderstorm wasn't expected to arrive until 10 p.m. that night.
Rain forced organizers to move the Aug. 15 Oh Susanna concert to the museum as well.
While English couldn't confirm the overall attendance for the festival, nearly 1,300 tickets were sold for the concerts featuring Harmer and Doyle. The festival's opening concert with Whitehorse was also sold out.
Although no plans have been confirmed for next year, English said that many ideas are already floating around to make the 10th anniversary special.
"We're tossing around a lot of ideas, everything from doing the best of the best – the Forest Festival's greatest hits, so to speak – or even throwing it open to our fans to see 'who would you like to see at The Forest Festival?'" she said.
The lineup for next season will be announced in April.
And don’t forget to check out the wonderful video and photographs by Highlander newspaper staffer Matthew Desrosiers. (No copyright infringement intended).
That team included several volunteers and staff at the Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve.
The five-day event, which ran from Aug. 12-16, featured performances from Whitehorse, Michael Occhipinti and Shine On, Sarah Harmer, Red Hot Ramble, Oh Susanna, James Funnyhat, Melissa Bel, and Alan Doyle Trio. The concerts were held at one of two venues: Haliburton Forest's Historic Logging Museum and the outdoor Bone Lake Amphitheatre.
The sold-out Harmer concert was scheduled to take place at the amphitheatre on Aug. 14.
However, one hour before its start time a decision was made to move it indoors because of the weather, which included heavy rain, thunder and lightning.
"When you're doing an outdoor venue like this, we don't just look at one source for weather predictions. I follow a couple of weather networks," said English, pointing out that Environment Canada's local monitoring station is in Bancroft.
"Sometimes those predictions can be quite different for our area.”
English said the storm moved in very quickly, although reports indicated that a thunderstorm wasn't expected to arrive until 10 p.m. that night.
Rain forced organizers to move the Aug. 15 Oh Susanna concert to the museum as well.
While English couldn't confirm the overall attendance for the festival, nearly 1,300 tickets were sold for the concerts featuring Harmer and Doyle. The festival's opening concert with Whitehorse was also sold out.
Although no plans have been confirmed for next year, English said that many ideas are already floating around to make the 10th anniversary special.
"We're tossing around a lot of ideas, everything from doing the best of the best – the Forest Festival's greatest hits, so to speak – or even throwing it open to our fans to see 'who would you like to see at The Forest Festival?'" she said.
The lineup for next season will be announced in April.
And don’t forget to check out the wonderful video and photographs by Highlander newspaper staffer Matthew Desrosiers. (No copyright infringement intended).
