UNEXPECTED START TO EVOLVE FESTIVAL

[Jay Funk Dawg]

UNEXPECTED START TO EVOLVE FESTIVAL

Antigonish - Friday Am -

the 5th Annual Evolve Festival was scheduled to begin at 4:20 pm Friday with a performance by groove band All oF Green, but things didn't really work out that way. As of Thursday afternoon, cars started coming. And people began peacefully and excitedly setting up for the weekend. By early Friday morning hundreds of eager festival goers had descended on Sunflower Valley in picturesque Antigonish Nova Scotia and they weren't waiting around for the party to start.

Organizer Jim Dorey has been co-producing EVOLVE since 1999 and has never seen this kind of spontaneous convergence. "The party was supposed to start tomorow afternoon, but people just started showing up. And setting up camp. It's great. They're ecstatic to be here and really eager to help out. Groups of volunteer from New Brunswick, a group from Ontario set up their own stage with DJs, and there are all sorts of other types performers, and travelers from as far away as Vancouver Island, Mexico, and Romania! So now we have a small village of campers and an impromtu stage. I gotta admit we weren't quite ready for them, it's almost like the festival started itself up. ... - which is important because it's a essentially a people's event. Every year it's increasingly like we're facilitating this Canadian unity festival, everyone comes together and makes it happen."