Sappyfest 8: Shotgun Jimmie

Sappyfest 8

Sackville, NB

Aug.3, 2013

One of the highlights of this year's Sappyfest was Shotgun Jimmie's set.  If you see him playing in your area, do yourself a favour and check him out.  Great stage presence, consistently well crafted lyrics, he's a solid live performer.  He did not disappoint that night!  Here's hoping that Sappyfest comes back next summer, fingers crossed!

Sappyfest 8: Long Shadows

Sappyfest 8

Sackville, NB

Ah, Sappyfest.....how I miss thee.   

Shot this one while waiting for scrumptious fish tacos from the Everyday Food Truck.  

Sappyfest 8: Step Right Up!

Sappyfest 8

Sackville, NB

Aug. 3, 2013

This collection of carnival games was a fundraiser for Struts & Faucet.  At first their were adults in those booths but eventually they were taken over by kids...except for the 'Shot in the Dark' booth which involved a toy gun.  That one had an adult in it all weekend. ^_^   

It was hilarious to watch the kids hustle the passing crowds, trying to get them to play their games.  The kids are all right!

Sappyfest 8: So many loafers

Sackville, NS

Aug. 4, 2013

Living outside of 'the city', I am blissfully unaware of the latest fashion trends.  Here's what the hipster set seem to dig:

• Loafers for the gents
• High waisted short shorts for the ladies.

Best twitter comment of the weekend courtesy of @dropthebeat, an accurate summary:  

"Sappyfest fashion tip.  My mom in 1992"

If we regress any further it's going to be stirrup pants and gummy shoes for everyone!  *shudders*

Sappyfest 8: It's only a flesh wound!

Sappyfest 8

Sackville, NS

Aug. 4, 2013

Sappyfest 8

Sackville, NS

Aug. 4, 2013

Cardboard knight battles and bicycle jousting were on offer at this free patch of grass off the Bridge St..  The bicycle jousting was very fun, I'm sure the paper horse head on the bike improved my performance. ;-)

I'm glad we took Andrew up on his offer to "suit up".  I wonder if the young onlookers enjoyed the show as much as those who participated?  Too cool for school, I guess.

What's on this weekend? New Ross Christmas Festival! Breakfast! Desbrisay Open House!

New Ross is the place to be this weekend for all things Christmas.  Hebbs Cross has your greasy breakfast fix, back to New Ross Friday and Saturday for a community supper.

Breakfasts

Dec. 8
Hebbs Cross Fire Department
7:00am - 11:00am,
Homemade baked beans, eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage, toast, tea, coffee, juice. 

Price $7, children $3.

Suppers

December 7

Community Supper
New Ross Legion

4:30pm - 6:30pm,
Come and taste all the delicious foods that makes up a Pot Luck meal. 

Adults $9.00; 5 - 12 years - $4.00 and those under 5 years eat at no cost to you. 

There will be Christmas crafts and Surprise Packages for sale, and perhaps baked goods.

Dec. 8
Turkey Dinner & Supper
Forties Community Centre

11:30am - 1:30pm,
Turkey dinner with all the trimmings. 

Adults $10; 12 and under $5; under 5 $2.50. 

Proudly part of the New Ross Christmas Festival. 

Call 689-2612 or 689-2000 for information.

Community Events

Dec.8
Craft Fair and Tree Decorating Contest
Forties Community Centre

10:00am - 4:00pm,
No admission. 

Proudly part of the New Ross Christmas Festival. 

Call 689-2612 or 689-2000 for information.

Dec. 8
Christmas Craft & Gift Fair
New Ross Consolidated School

10:00am,
A large Craft & Gift Fair featuring 40 vendors.

Festival Stage performers and Demonstrations of traditional crafts. 

Light lunch available and door prize draw.

Dec. 8
Christkindlmarkt - part of the New Ross Christmas Festival
Bandstand

4:00 pm,
A little German Christmas Festival for those who miss them. 

A part of the New Ross Christmas Festival. 

Featuring German sausage, Pancakes and cookies with other genuine German goodies.

Dec. 9

DesBrisay Museum Christmas Open House
DesBrisay Museum

2:00pm - 4:00pm,
Crafts and games for the kids, face painting, gingerbread decorating, Jelly bean game.

Christmas Carol singalong, Christmas trivia games, door prizes, apple cider, punch and Christmas Cookies. 

Bring a food bank donation.

Sappyfest: Hiding from the sun

Sappyfest 2012

Sackville, NB

Aug. 5, 2012

This image was taken on a very, very hot Sunday in August.  As you can see, folks were scrambling for any available shade, especially the small group in the foreground.  It's hard to see, but in the background there is also a large crowd hiding under the shade of a tree.

It was the heat that eventually broke me that day and left me scurrying to the dehumidified coolness of my car as I drove back to the South Shore thinking of diving into the cold Atlantic ocean...

Return to Sappyfest 2012

Sappyfest Main Tent

Sackville, NB

Aug. 4, 2012

The warm weather this weekend put me in a summer mood, thought this shot of Sappyfest music lovers wearing shorts might help you remember the glorious month that was August.  Actually, July was pretty awesome as well!

My only complaint from this year's iteration of Sappyfest, no charcoal bbq pits!  FOR SHAME!

The Sappyfest Chronicles

Oh Sappyfest...you came and went like a pleasant daydream.  Wait, was it a dream?  No, it was real...I have the blisters on my feet to prove it.

Sappyfest is the only music festival on my radar these days.  It's within a 4 hour drive from my house, the crowd is there (mostly) to listen to music and I only recognize 3 or 4 of the bands in the lineup.

Sappyfest:  your port-a-potties were air freshened with well cured sinsemilla smoke rather than ammonia pucks.  Your festival guide told me to accept lineup changes:  "things change, get over it".  I did.

The drive to Sackville was hopeful, filled with anticipation.  This was my second foray into the fest' that is sappy so I had a vague idea of what, when and where to expect it.  

The air on the highway was hot and the windows were down.  I'm sure I wasn't the only driver who had a Don Quixote moment when passing the large wind power array at the NS/NB border.  

Once I crossed the Tantramar marshes (it was just like the Sappy Times handout said....utter those words like a mystical incantation:  tantramar marshes, tantramar marshes, tantramar marshes), it was as if I had entered Mordor.  Epic cumulus clouds and sunny skies were replaced with a thick blanket of grey fog that enshrouded my home away from home.  At the time, I thought I wanted more sun.  As it turns out, I didn't know what I wanted.

Skip ahead to the last day of the festival.  I sat in a shady corner of a parking lot, enjoying the support of the soft driver's seat in my car.  I felt like I was drowning.  It's not the heat, it's the humidity.  Actually, it was everything.  A weekend of sensory overload.  I was suffering from hipster fatigue.

I bolted.  

Staying in Sackville for another 4 hours quickly started to feel like getting up for work after a heavenly and relaxing long weekend.  I started assessing my festival experience the way day traders perform a price/earnings ratio analysis of stocks and bonds.  I realized how Sappy happy I felt.  I stopped thinking about getting my money's worth from my ticket the way ravenous diners approach a cheap buffet.

I couldn't stay any longer, so I didn't.  I escaped.

I fueled up my body and my car and hit the road.  I gave my new Eternal Summers cd a test run as I had another Don Quixote moment.  I was awake, alert and happy to be driving.  Maybe I was just happy to be in a comfortable, air conditioned seat.  

I ran.  I ran back to my cosy Lunenburg county home.  I ran back to the chilly embrace of my familiar Atlantic ocean.

I was happy to see a thick bank of fog greeting me as I crossed the county line.  I rolled down the windows.  I inhaled and exhaled.  I cooled down.

Thank you, Sappyfest.  See you next year.

(more pics and stories to follow)

Nice day for a street party

Later on in the afternoon, during our first day in Glasgow, we stumbled upon a West End music festival.  


All manner grilled food was on offer from various vendors and no shortage of pints.  Everyone seemed to be having a grand old time.

Sappyfest 2011

This summer was my first visit to Sappyfest, certainly not my last. It was an incredible weekend, a great lineup of musicians, attentive audience (there for the music, not just to party) and friendly folk all around.

I didn't take many pictures that weekend, except for this one.

Shot across the street from my car, this nondescript strip of pavement quickly became an impromptu hangout and camping spot for festival goers.

This group of music fans, sitting on the stairs behind an permanently parked tractor trailer...painting and/or drawing in the warm afternoon on Sunday....pretty much sums up my Sappy experience.

I was impressed by the lack of hassle by the cops, especially with so much open alcohol in plain view. Also, Sackville bylaw enforcement appeared to turn a blind eye to the folks who were camping in the narrow strip of grass behind this parking lot. A refreshing change.

Guest Post: Wind and Light

Here's another guest post from Jeff Doran, enjoy!

What are whirligigs without wind? There was no shortage of either at the 10th annual Whirligig and Weathervane Festival in Shelburne, NS, September 19. In fact, the exhibits had to be moved into the lee on Dock Street so they wouldn't take off.






I may have contributed to the gusts since I had come from breakfast at the Sandy Point Lighthouse Community Centre. It was also the 10th annual Lighthouse Festival.

I've always said September is the best part of summer.

I started at Sandy Point light just down the coast from Shelburne.
There were whitecaps in the harbour. The community centre has monthly
meals and a view which would cost you twice as much at a restaurant.
Rain showers cleared to a rainbow in the direction I was headed.
Baccaro light is stuck out at the end of a point of land past Port La Tour, next to the giant volleyball of the coastal radar station. It was windy and lonely out there. I saw one car leaving as I arrived and one car arriving as I left. The location blew us away.



Inland at Barrington, Seal Island light has been partially relocated and partially replicated. In 1979 the lantern was removed by helicopter from the island off the coast of Clark's Harbour. The lighthouse was recreated by the Cape Sable Historical Society and has been open as a museum since 1985. You can climb five stories to the Fresnel lens made in Paris.





The Whirligig Festival was a frenzy of twirling, jigging, cranking and clattering works of art. Anyone interested in wind energy should consider the possibility of using whirligigs to saw dowels and churn shotglasses of butter. In addition to the usual miniature industrial applications, there were complicated cog and wheel inventions which spun dancers and circuses. Traditional rural life was represented by blacksmithing, wood chopping, milking, ox driving, hunting and fishing, not without modern humour. An angler baited a humpbacked whale. A brace of ducks took aim with shotguns at a hunter distracted by a bathing beauty removing her top. Domestic violence was represented by husbands getting thwacked and pummeled. Folk art seems to bring underlying feelings to the surface, perhaps a result of extended solitary hours in the workshop.

When I left, rigging was slapping a tattoo on masts in the marina. I had planned to stop at three more lighthouses on the way home, but I ended up pulling into the parking lot at Summerville Beach for a nap.

Must have been the big breakfast.