BONFIRE FESTIVAL photo album

[keither]

Hey all.

Our photographer Krystal Stevens (yes, our Krystal who was proposed to by Steev on the Bonfire stage last weekend) has thrown together a quick little online photo gallery to peruse while we work on the new website.

Once the new website is up, there will be a photo contest to win a pair of tix for next year's festival... but these should tide you over till then.

Thanks Krystal!

http://www.krystalstevens.com/Bonfire/index.html

[bouche]

that is such an amazing looking venue!

[Baj]

found this in the mix o pix...Afro do you have a brother that loves fests too?

[keither]

It is Bouche... it's total paradise just a short ferry ride away from Vancity.

A lot of those shots were taken early in the day when people were either still sleeping, chillin/swimmin at Ruby Lake or tucked in the shade on the hillside watching from there... so they're a little misleading as to just how packed we were this year.

Once the sun set, the amphitheatre started to pack full of booty shaking madness. I think we swelled to around 850 people on Saturday night during the Five Alarm Funk & Themasses sets. Pretty good for only our 2nd year.

There were so many highlights... too many to list, but I'll give you a few of mine.

- Slammin Jack's bluegrass version of Iron Maiden's 'Run to the Hills' and KILLER 'Eyes of the World' encore.

- The ladies in All Purpose, their cool organic grooves and their awesome stage choregraphy.

- The Tuques electric jamgrass set... the WHOLE set. We've got our own New Monsoon right here in BC! They were also key players in the nightly campground jams.

- The campgrounds... where we had all the musicians in one general area, but intertwined with all the regular festival goers. Everyone thought it was so personal & intimate that they were jamming & partying all weekend long with the performers who were RIPPING shit up onstage every day!

- The party in the newly formed townships of 'South Jackton', 'Lower Jackton' & the 'Jackton Highlands'! Following Slammin's EPIC 2 sets of pure bliss on Friday night... and the South Jackton parties all weekend long... it was total party central with late night jams & everything. sick.

- All the people hula hooping all weekend long. There had to be 300 hoops onsite!

- The Mythmaker's kids camps with circus arts, theatre, stilt walking and all sorts of other cool stuff.

- The 200 or so kids having the time of their lives dancing, hula hooping, getting their faces painted and generally givin'er! There's just something about the innocence & bliss of kids at a music festival that brightens the spirits of everyone around them.

- Saturday evening... everything about it from Stephen Franke through Five Alarm Funk & finally Themasses... that was one RAGING PARTY!!!

- The 'Dancing Fool' Brendan bringing 3000 glow sticks to the festival and throwing 1000 of them into the crowd at the peak of each night's festivities... just to take things to a whole new level!

- Steev's surprise proposal to Krystal with 'Pearl Necklace' as his band (Themasses on different instruments) during Themasses set break on Saturday night... Krystal saying yes and 900 people going crazy when she did!

- Giving away 3 Larrivee guitars & 1 Taye drum set to ecstatic raffle winners. What a great prize to leave home from a festival with, eh?

- Swimming in Ruby Lake, the 3rd warmest average temperature lake in BC. It's huge & deep & fed by hot springs... so nice!!

- Sunday's eclectic lineup with musical virtusoity all over the place: Don Alder, Blue Island Trio, Ridley Bent... the list goes on.

- Sunday's finale with Todd Taylor & Friends. I've said it before and I'll stand by my statement, Todd Taylor is Western Canada's Warren Haynes.

And finally... GETTING EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY RECORDED TO DAT!

We'll have those downloads available soon, don't you worry brother!!

Next year we'll take things up another notch, maybe even enough to have some of you Eastern cats make the trip out West... and you'll never want to go back!

Party Party!!!

Edited August 26, 2006 by Guest

[Jay Funk Dawg]

Good to hear all the reviews.. I would have loved to be there. What a great summer for live music!

[keither]

And what a Fall we have lined up out West... best ever I'd have to say.

September 12 - Slammin Jack farewell show

September 14 - moe.

September 21 - MMW

September 28 - Mofro

October 13 - The Breakfast w. guests Jackfruit

October 17-18 - Gov't Mule

October 21 - Lotus & Themasses

October 28 - Bonfire "Halloween on Planet Groove" costume party with The Pnuma Trio, Karmetik Underground & KJ Sawka

That, plus we have more in the works... as I'm sure Upstream & HOB do too!!

Party Party!!

[keither]

Whoops... forgot to mention a few others, clearly worth noting!!

October 8 - The Who

November 3 - Rolling Stones & Van Morrison

Date unsure - Roger Waters

[Baj]

vancity seems like the place to be

love to be able make the slammin jack show

Edited August 26, 2006 by Guest

[DevO]

Sounds like it was a great time. Big congratulations to Krystal, too!!! I haven't seen her in years and its good to know she's (evidently) doing well! Are Slammin' Jack calling it quits? I blame Steeve's getting hitched and settling down if so.

[keither]

I blame Rich (guitar) & Heather's settling down... though we're not playing the blame game, we just want to celebrate the 6 years of amazing music that Slammin Jack provided us. I'm sure there will still be some SJ shows from time to time (Bonfire '07 perhaps?), but Rich & Heather are moving back from whence they came... to Guelph to start their family where it's a little easier to afford I would imagine. Maybe some Guelph band just scored BIG TIME and may get one of Canada's finest jam guitarists!!

[Baj]

I think the whole band should move back here and spoil us fine SoOn folk

[SaggyBalls]

So far the word is that Slammin Jack is not done...just stretched out a bit. Shows will still be played and songs still written. We'll see how it all shapes up in time but come now - why start making the casket when the band's just not going to be really active?