The Hornby Festival

The Hornby Festival is the highlight of summer for many, whether it is dancing under the stars down at Olsen Farm or being enthralled by a string quartet at the community hall. With an eclectic programme of world renowned and innovative artists from genres such as world beat, alt-traditional, classical or jazz, there is definitely something for everyone.

The Festival is committed to supporting local artists and 2008 will showcase many of Hornby's finest. The Tony Wilson 6tet will open up the Festival as the mainstage performer with the Canadian CD release of "Pearls Before Swine" on Friday, August 1st. Also gracing our stage, you will get a chance to see our wonderful luthier and guitar player, Lawrence Nyberg who will be opening for Tony Wilson 6tet. On Sunday August 3rd, Ken Clark and friends will be warming up the crowd before Celso Machado takes the stage. There are plans afoot for other Hornby musicians to be part of Festival 2008.

The Hornby Festival 2008 will begin with a bang at the opening reception Thursday, July 31 (everyone welcome) and continue until Saturday, August 9.

See you there!

Visit www.hornbyfestival.bc.ca for the latest news.

The Marc Atkinson Trio

Marc Atkinson is one of Canada's finest JUNO-nominated, Western Canadian award-winning musicians. He is the leader and composer of the internationally renowned Marc Atkinson Trio (and co-founder, composer and performer in the acclaimed, The Bills). The music of this virtuosic group is melodically captivating, sensually charged and ferociously, technically awe-inspiring.

Embracing a lifetime of musical influences, Marc and the Trio have just released their fourth CD, The Marc Atkinson Trio IV. The music is inspired by Marc's one-year-old son, Arlo Walker, and reflects the island life of a toddler from the raucous to the touching. The new CD sports compositions that are punchy, driving and rhythmically inventive with titles such as Vorizo, The Toddler, Walker and Bright-Eyed Waltz.

The Trio, formed in 2000, has toured North America, England and Europe and has received standing ovations everywhere they perform from the Montreal Jazz Festival to the Vancouver International Folk Festival to DjangoFest Northwest. Marc is joined in the Trio by bassist Joey Smith (formerly with the Glen Miller Orchestra), and most recently on rhythm guitar by Hornby's very own talent Reuben Wier. Reuben has now been on several tours with the Trio from Northern BC down to southern California and will be joining the Trio on much of their future touring.

Listen to a sample of Vorizo from The Marc Atkinson Trio IV.

Visit marcatkinson.com to hear more, learn more and find out where you can see the Trio on tour in 2008.

Melisa Devost

Melisa Devost is a singer/songwriter whose musical style varies from blues-tinged heaviness to heartfelt non-denominational gospel to quirky folk-pop. She writes introspective and observant songs about life patterns and choices, love or lack of, and the refinements of what it means to be human on this planet. Combining fingerstyle guitar, drawing influences mainly from country blues and folk music, with a voice that has been described as "powerful, beautiful and dynamic," Melisa weaves her tales of woe and whoa! into a show that is engaging and emotionally stirring.

Melisa is currently hanging her hat in Vancouver where she teaches music and is preparing to record her next CD (but her heart is never far from Hornby Island). 2008 will see Melisa heading overseas for the month of June for a tour of Britian, Sweden and Denmark before heading up to the Artwells Festival, August 1 to 4. It wouldn't be summer without a chance to see Melisa perform at least once, and this year she will again grace the stage at the Cardboardhouse Bakery, August 17th.

Visit: melisadevost.com
Contact: mino@melisadevost.com.

Pest

Pest is a wharf rat, a shape-shifter whose contorted, distorted view of life can be attributed to such influences as her nomadic origin, fireball whiskey and poverty. With tantalizing intensity and searing vocal resonance, Pest's stage show combines punk, poetry and circus to create a stunning feast of sound and visuals. Whether standing on a wood-round outside the Hornby Island community hall animating poetry, or thrashing with her punk band Prink Insurgency or armed with two fists, an acoustic guitar and a voice of absurdity and rage, Pest demands your attention because she's poor, she's punk, she's perplexed and she has something to say about it. So listen.

Pest: bloodofsaints@yahoo.com
Ms. Manager: Melisa Devost, mino@melisadevost.com