Sunfest is one of the great free festivals in London, and this year’s 11th edition had as good a world-music and jazz lineup as I’ve seen. Alfredo Caxaj and the rest of the organizing committee deserve a lot of kudos for bringing in acts as diverse as The Mighty Popo (fresh from his Live8 performance in Barrie), stride piano virtuoso Michael Kaeshammer, madcap circus jazz group L’Orkestre des Pas Perdus, and Scottish-Latin mergers Salsa Celtica to name but a few. Apparently Saturday’s performances generated the largest attendance for any event in Victoria Park ever, no small feat when you consider the draw of the ten previous Sunfests, 30+ Home County Folk Festivals, and events like Queen Elizabeth’s 1997 visit.
Another indication of the wide-ranging audience the festival brings in: I actually saw people I know at a London festival. (In the crowd, that is, since I’m friends with several performers who show up at the Home County Folk Festival.) I ran into at least four people from work, plus always-friendly Stephanie G. (with her boyfriend) and Jessie S., a once-close friend who I last saw two years ago almost to the day.
With the bouquets come some brickbats, unfortunately. The first is for the sound tech at the jazz stage (a well-known local musician whose name I won’t print) who gifted the amazing Michael Kaeshammer trio with not one but two full non-consecutive sets of constant, loud, high-pitched feedback. (That also led to the funniest moment of the weekend, though: bassist Marc Rogers doing some subtle editorializing with a vamp on the theme to The Mickey Mouse Club during the second set’s extended sound check.) The same tech also neglected to turn on the trumpet mics for at least two sets that I was present for; with Duane Andrews’ group the problem was fixed by the third song—too late for the folks at the back to hear the nice muted solos, sadly—but it took at least half of l’Orkestre’s set to give Maxime St-Pierre sufficient volume to hear him at all over the rest of the brass group.
The second big raspberry is for the total disdain the administrative body for the city of London has for the arts, shown by two facts:
- City council sponsored the festival with $7000, which happens to be the exact amount they charged for renting the park.
- Council issued a permit allowing the Pride Parade to encircle the park in the middle of today’s festival performances.
Just as the François Bourassa trio was starting into a nice, quiet piece, around the corner of Richmond and Central came the deafening noise of a gay pride anthem from the lead float… and when it passed, another blaring song from the next float… and again, and again. Only after a full third of the trio’s alloted time had been wasted were the streets quiet enough to continue, and even then there was a constant stream of people walking through the area in front of the stage while the band played. Emcee Barry Woodey apologized profusely to the trio and exhorted the crowd to express their displeasure to the city councillors who approved the obvious conflict. Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco, Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell, and Councillors Rob Alder and Joni Baechler are going to get a few well-deserved earsful tomorrow morning.
(In case it’s not evident from the above, my problem is with the stupidity of council’s approving a parade route that brought the parade by the park, not with the Pride organizers having a parade in the first place. There’s more reason now to celebrate gay and lesbian freedom than any time in the country’s history, so good on them!)