Harvest Jazz and Blues
The Harvest Jazz and Blues is an annual community gathering to celebrate food, activities, and most of all music. Last year the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving thousands of vendors, musicians and participants saddened. However, this year the celebration has returned again, and crowds gather downtown Fredericton in anticipation and excitement.
The festival is a great opportunity for creators and vendors to set up a tent and sell their creations. Whether it be offering a service, such as henna tattoos, to selling handmade items such as clothing or original paintings. One of the vendors at the event this year is Jim Middleton, a self-taught artist specializing in oil paintings. Jim has only been painting for three years, originally beginning as a 100-day challenge then blossoming into the passion he has today. Jim has sold his paintings for thousands and was even featured on Global News for his painting of Canadian rock and roll legend, Gord Downie.
“It is an incredible feeling to be honored in such a large-scale way, being on Global News, especially doing something I’ve grown such an extreme passion for in the last few years. It’s crazy to me that this all started from a painting challenge that I didn’t expect to be any good at.”
Jim has made painting his full-time job, painting a variety of scenes ranging from the ocean to mountains to portraits. He says Harvest is an awesome opportunity to expose new people to his work and to receive commission paintings. More of his work can be found here.
Along with the vendors, another festival fan favourite is food! Locals love coming out and being able to explore new flavors from around their community. This journalist visited the new Avatar food truck, specializing in Indian cuisine. I tried the butter chicken, and I can confirm that it was incredible. I spoke with other locals about their favourite food trucks and answers ranged from curly fries, to simple burgers and hot dogs, and some even prefer the ice cream trucks most of all!
While the vendors and the food are exciting, the most important part of Harvest, and what draws the community in is the music. This year’s festival saw performances from varying bands. Some required a ticket to enter, but some, such as buskers, performed for free to entertain crowds walking up and down Queen street. This is a great opportunity for many to get their name out there and hopefully gain some publicity.
Nelson Millie, one of the bands who performed at Officer Square on Saturday, says that his favourite part about Harvest aside from performing is the community. “It really brings out the music community, the music fans, and we’re all here for one reason and that’s to celebrate music.” Millie believes the festival is a great opportunity for locals to be exposed to new musical artists and different genres, and he hopes they gain a new appreciation for music.
With COVID-19 affecting much of our normal lives, it’s relieving for locals to obtain some sense of normalcy with the returning of events such as Harvest. It’s a great opportunity for the community to be exposed to new musical artists, genres, vendors and street performers. This is Milly Squires, for St. Thomas Journalism.