Last weekend I headed off to Gateway Music Festival down in Bengough, Saskatchewan. Bengough is the gateway to the Big Muddy Valley where outlaws of old hid out in caves. A bit of outlaw vibe remains in the area and there couldn’t be a music festival here without a little bit of country. Gateway Music Fest’s Artistic Director, Mike Dawson, does a great job of mixing a little bit of country and a little bit of rock and other genres and lots of Saskatchewan talent along with the headliners. This year was another great year of music. The big highlights for me were Kathleen Edwards, Elliott Brood, Yukon Blonde, Terra Lightfoot and John K Samson but there was so much more to like about it.
This year my sister and I bought a tent trailer and this was our first trip with it. We decided to camp at the campgrounds this year and see how that went. Our camping spot was right by the pool, and that turned out pretty good for us. The pool meant we had access to flush toilets and showers when it was open. We also could listen to the music at the pool stage on Saturday from our campsite while we relaxed in the shade and had food and drinks. The area was the quiet family area and that suited us just fine.
Friday afternoon we missed the first couple acts while we were setting up camp but got over to the festival in time for Surf Dads. These guys rock. I have been wanting to catch these guys and liked their set. I look forward to hearing more from them. | |
We turned our chairs towards Kara Golemba for a quieter set. She was quite lovely with a beautiful voice. | |
Chairs turned back to the Garden stage for Gunner & Smith, a country roots rock band. I liked their more rockin out tunes the most. | |
Poor Nameless Boy was up next. He is a Regina artist that has been working hard and touring lots the past couple years. I enjoy watching his progress and I love hearing him sing. | |
Another Regina artist favourite, Belle Plaine, was up next. Such a warm lovely voice she has. She is a bit more country these days which works for her. I personally prefer jazzier Belle Plaine but I love her no matter what direction she goes in. I look forward to hearing the album that is coming out in October. | |
Turning our chair back to the main stage, we were then serenaded by William Prince and his smooth deep voice. | |
Things really picked up a notch when Terra Lightfoot hit the stage. She sure can bring the rock. A definite highlight of my weekend. | |
The Kentucky Headhunters surprised me. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy their Southern country rock as much as I did. They are seasoned pros and what’s not to love about a crazy character doing a fantastic drum solo? | |
Yukon Blonde had a great set with their heavy riffs and smile inducing rock. | |
Big Sugar hit the main stage next. Another group of seasoned pros that entertained us. Their recently deceased bassist Gary Lowe was on all our minds and is missed but Grady bassist stepped up and filled his shoes. | |
Chixdiggit and Small City Blues ended the night of music in party mode. They sounded great from back at our campsite. Us old folks just can’t party like we used to! I went to sleep tired and happy. | |
Saturday I went over to the Garden Stage to catch Ryan Hicks with his band. I had only seen him solo so it was nice to hear him with the backing band. | |
I stayed for another Saskatchewan artist I know. Brodie Moniker had a fantastic set and had me up dancing. I sure hope to hear more from Brodie. | |
I headed back to my campsite and listened to the music from the pool there. Alley Dawgs was one of the bands playing. Marshall from Rah Rah explores his country music yearnings with that band. I didn’t get over to get pictures of them. That would have been too much work at that point. I regret missing some bands over at the Garden Stage but especially Natural Sympathies who had some dancers with her. I am pretty sure I will be able to catch her at Regina Folk Fest this year though. We did get there in time for Nick Faye and I am glad we did. Another Saskatchewan artist I am loving these days. | |
Library Voices are still a very fun band to hear and see. Their music has evolved over the years with versions of old favourites being updated. They are still great fun to sing along with and I thought about many of our old R3 friends that would have loved to have been there to see Carl dance. | |
Ellen Froese was up next. I knew very little about her. She has a great voice and I expect I will hear more about her in the future. | |
Seth Anderson was another artist I knew little about. He is originally from the east coast but is living in Alberta these days. Another great voice and I enjoyed his catchy heartfelt tunes. | |
We once again turned our chairs to the main stage with Zachary Lucky there to entertain us. Another wonderful Saskatchewan artist. My favourite of his set was when Belle Plaine joined him for the the song Saskatchewan. So lovely. | |
Festival favourites Karpinka Brothers were up next and brought some smiles to people’s faces. | |
Megan Nash who keeps getting better each time I see her was on next and had a fantastic set. She brought up a couple Bears in Hazenmore and her Space Cat to help her on a couple songs. | |
John K Samson was probably my favourite of the weekend. Such an amazing songwriter and we got to sing along to One Great City, Sun in an Empty Room, A couple of Virtute songs and so many more. Love that guy. | |
With my heart full already, Kathleen Edwards hit the stage. So great to see her back up on the stage and with Jim Bryson there with her. And she still tells great stories! | |
Just when I think it can’t get any better, Elliott Brood start playing over on the Garden Stage. Even with some guitar tuning troubles they were great. My favourites are the older tracks. So many great memories tied to them. |
Steven Page was last up on the main stage. It was cool to see him and he has a great voice. I am not a huge fan but he put on a good show and had some heartfelt stories to tell as well. Some of those fell on drunk deaf ears up front unfortunately. There were a lot of drunk people around but there were few incidents and no drunk driving tickets given out. Most people just stumbled over to their campsite and I didn’t hear of any drunken brawls either. We again listened to the last couple party bands from our campsite. I am sure a good time was had by all.
We got up the next morning and went over to have our pancake breakfast and then packed up and went home. It was a great weekend of music and thank you very much to everyone involved with Gateway Festival that worked so hard to put on a great event! I will be back and I recommend it to everyone.
Take a look at more photos from the festival over at Flickr. Photos on Flickr
If you didn’t listen to the playlist a couple weeks ago when I posted it, I encourage you to check it out this week.
Or you could check out the Summer playlist compilation. It has over 5 hours of summer songs and growing. Let me know what songs you would like added to it.
Hello
Thanks Dar,
That was a great article. I like the pictures along with the band descriptions.
Sounds like you had a very busy weekend. What did you think of the tent trailer camping?
We borrowed a travel trailer this year for camping. I’m told that it’s really glamping when you get to this stage.
Thanks again for sharing with us.
Hi Scott, I wouldn’t call trailer tents glamping, but I guess that depends more on the standard of trailer you are using
‘morning!
(I think Scott was saying that “travel trailer” camping is seen as glamping — not tent-trailering…)
Yes, Travel trailer camping is referred to as glamping. Last year we rented a tent trailer, which worked out really well, but this year we borrowed a 23ft travel trailer that has almost all the amenties of home.
Hi guys!
The tent trailer is really nice to have. It almost feels like glamping in it. Our trailer is a 2004 and has lights, a fan, a sink, stove and fridge in it. Luxury! …if you have electricity or a charged battery or the propane working. We didn’t have those quite figured out for this trip but we will get it figured. The trailer came with a solar panel but I need to get the battery checked as we didn’t get it charged enough to turn on lights. Still it was nice to have it.
Thanks for reading Scott. (and thanks for reformatting Garf. I kind of liked the randomness but I suppose that looks better. hehe. And now I know to do that) In my mind I was going to do a much fuller review but I got bogged down working on photos and then was up until 2 trying to finish the blog post. So go look at more photos on flickr!
hey, sounds like it was fun. One of these years, I should get off my butt and do the same thing for Ness.
Was Ellen Froese with the Hot Toddies, or on her own? She played at Ness with a backup band and was the most fun, danceable music of the weekend, IMO.
I’m not a huge Dead South fan, in the grand scheme of things, but they put on a fantastic show at Ness.
so, Dawson didn’t play with LV?\ I thought he might, since he would’ve actually been there at the festival.
and I see Ellen Froese had the whole band with her. fun! especially if you’re a swing dancer
Yes Ellen Froese had a band. The music didn’t excite me but they were very good.
Dead South always get me dancing. Eliza Mary Doyle, their banjo player, was having a great time dancing at Gateway.
Dawson is a sometimes LV member it seems and I am sure had his hands full putting on a festival.
she’s dating the brother of a good friend of mine here in Toontown. Got to meet her and hang out at her Boler at Ness. She’s pretty cool. They had a story about her playing the main stage, having grown up a Ness kid
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/ness-creek-music-festival-eliza-doyle-dead-south-1.4756539
maybe Ellen Froese was doing the more country/folky thing with her solo stuff. With the Hot Toddies at Ness, she was rockin’
You should definitely do a Ness Creek Recap for our blog krib!
That goes to everyone out there. We welcome contributions. If you have been to a show or festival and would like to write a blurb about it to share with us, that would be fantastic. 😀
But I didn’t take any pictures. Zero pictures
Who’s at Kaslo right now? I don’t want to use her real name, in case she uses a blog name here.
looks like a good line-up.
I’m looking forward to seeing Shakey Graves at RFF. I love the new album
Ness is great for meeting musicians. I got chatting with Max, the lead guitarist/singer for the Classy Chassys.
Of course, he’s a big Stray Cats fan (as am I) and was telling me about the great Brian Setzer concert in Montreal a long time ago.
He was quite envious when I told him I was at that show, even though I’m pretty sure he was <10 at the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG8pU-kh49w
Yes it was definitely more country/folk at Gateway which isn’t really my thing. Others really enjoyed her and I liked her sparkly jacket.
Takes a few pics next year!
Kaslo had some of the same artists as here, Shakey Graves included. I liked Shakey Graves at Interstellar Rodeo and look forward to hearing him again. I am hoping to get to Kaslo next year but we shall see. https://kaslojazzfest.com/artist-lineup/
Morgana is her blog name btw.
I would love to get to Ness Creek one day. Completely different setting than Gateway. Not a lot of trees in Bengough. Haha!
bengo or bengoff?
rhymes with cough
unlike Bienfait, which rhymes with bean grate
as in, it grates on my nerves when I hear people pronounce Bienfait
Right. It’s been so long. I’ve got friends on FB that I know are from the old R3 days, but can’t remember their blog names anymore
“Well, Bengough is a good, solid English name. Salt of the Earth. Bienfait comes from that other, hoity-toity language where they think words get pronounced differently.”
That was a topic of discussion with a couple artists from out of province…how to pronounce Bengough. Terra Lightfoot was particularly amusing trying to get it right. Not Ben-go but Ben-goff.
yes, like Leicester
and Worcestershire
Pronounced just like Peterboroff…
or Middlesbrough (MID-əlz-brə) you can hear it on the wiki page
Mind you, it could be worse, it could be Welsh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHxO0UdpoxM
WTF kind of name is that? Haha
It’s the name of a Welsh railway station and means
Broken image.
Hey kids! Looks like we will be contending with rain this year in Kaslo instead of heat stroke. My Mom and I set up our blanket and cooler on site this morning. My kid arrives shortly and then we will all leave home base (a B&B so not even glamming!) to spend the rest of the day on site.
We have a mix of top shelf local talent, Indie CanCon and headliners. Tonight’s big name is Shakey Graves. One of the musicians was hopping out of their glitzy bus when I was walking by. Very nice young lady to chat with. I don’t know the band so can’t say who she is or what she plays but I’ll find out in a few hours.
Wish me luck with this walking stick, concussion and puffed up hand.
I’m not sure what’s funnier, the name of the Welsh town, or that they consider the difference between 12 and 21 to be a big contrast in temperature.
okay, it’s the name of the Welsh town. it’s funnier. although…12 is chilly, but 21 ain’t exactly sweltering
I hope all goes well Morgana! Have a great time!!
That is an amazing name Garf. Very descriptive.
I know I won’t make it to all shows I would like to and certainly won’t be keeping up with @darbar with the excellent recording and reporting back but here is the schedule if anyone wants me to check out a band in particular let me know
https://kaslojazzfest.com/2018-festival-schedule/
Too Many Zooz! I missed them here because of the musical. Jill Barber and Shred Kelly would be high on my list as well.
Shovels and Rope should be good. I like Shakey Graves too. Buffy is an amazing woman. I like to hear her words but not as much the music.
The Zooz are also at a workshop tent but I may not get there soon enough. Waiting for kid. I also saw them in town … about 1.5 years ago.
Jill and Shreds are both starredas areBuffy and Shakey.
The kid really likes Carmanah and one of her classmates is on the main stage at 12:15 tomorrow.
So much to drag this body to!
I missed SC Mira and Arkells at the Exhibition last night. What do you think? Should I go to Burton Cummings tonight?
I missed checking out Baby Cages for the blog last week. Damn!
Just announced, Carmanah will be playing here in support of Hey Ocean in November.