Summer Recap and Fall Update!
Hello dear friends,
Life is beautiful on my end, after about 8 years of hanging out in British Columbia during the summers, I’m finally here for fall and working my tail off to stay engaged and helpful.
Brief recap for the summer, I helped host and performed at 5 festivals this summer, Hootstock, Artswells, MoM festival, Quadrapalooza and Koksilah. Each one was beautiful in it’s own brilliant way.
MoM festival in Fort St James was one I helped promote with and we gained some serious momentum. Our numbers were up a little, folks loved our new t-shirt designs and there was a heavy rowdy energy running through our Friday night crowd. Sadly a fire evacuation alert came Saturday morning and many attendees had to part. Overall it was a beautiful experience and I’m grateful to be part of that team.
Koksilah was another other festival of note. It's a fundraiser for indigenous resistance movements around the area known as Western Canada. For only it’s second year it sold out all early bird tickets, was able to book high caliber musicians and brought together some powerful up and coming 1st nations performers. It was a dry event, no alcohol, I ended up having some of the most meaningful and thought provoking conversations of the summer.
It was a festival of healing: young settlers and indigenous folk coming together to work towards something new, more just, that recognizes the suffering that’s occurred through colonialism for centuries.
It was an honour to be able to host a stage, I’m already thrilled for next year.
In other news I’ll be teaching three 8 week guitar classes in Fort St James this coming October. Check out the Lessons tab for more info!
Hosting festivals seems to be gaining momentum for me! I'll be hosting Northern Exposure, in Wells, BC October 19 to 21. It's a conference where festival organizers gather and discuss best practices. I'm ever so looking forward to it!
Otherwise, I'm teaching lots of music online these days. Skype is the place to be, please get in touch, maximk7 at gmail.com and we can organise a first lesson free.
The new record is finished. It'll be out in the next week or so. Onward and upward!
Max
