Details about the 2024 Surrey Fusion Festival lineup will have to wait until May, but the news this week is another award for the multicultural showcase of music and food.
Special Events magazine gave Surrey’s annual two-day festival the nod for Most Outstanding Spectacle, Fair or Festival during a gala event in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 15.
The award celebrates the festival’s international status as a unique, community-driven and free multicultural event that brought close to 110,000 people to Holland Park last July.
The music will return there July 20-21 with more than 200 local, national and international performers on the festival’s eight stages. Look for details on surreyfusionfestival.ca.
July will be a busy month at Holland Park with the return of FVDED in the Park musical festival, staged by Live Nation Entertainment and Blueprint Events. Two days of ticketed concerts (July 5-6) will feature music by Swedish House Mafia, Kx5 (the collaboration of Canadian DJ deadmau5 and American producer Kaskade), Diplo, John Summit, Dom Dolla and dozens of other artists.
‘WALK’ & ROLL
I’ve heard great things about Paquette Productions’ “Walk Right Back,” a concert-based musical focused on the legendary Everly Brothers.
Now touring B.C. and Alberta, the show follows the siblings’ rise to fame from humble country beginnings to superstardom, through a decade-long feud to an eventual reunion. The Everly’s “harmonies from heaven” are showcased throughout, of course, on iconic songs including “Bye Bye Love,” “All I Have to Do is Dream,” “Bird Dog,” the show’s title track and more, along with hits by Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison.
“The Everly Brothers were an original and unique act that had a sound like nothing else,” notes Trevor Payne, show producer. “Their harmonies were so tight that every group wanted to emulate them. Before that there was a singer, a band and backing vocals. The Everly’s entwined all of them and created ‘the harmony group.’”
Check it out at Surrey’s Bell Performing Arts Centre on Sunday, March 24, a 7 p.m. curtain.
As always, the Sullivan-area theatre is busy with many musicals and tribute concerts. The calendar on bellperformingartscentre.com includes dates for Dan Hare’s “American Rock Legends” (March 14), “Four by Four” (a tribute to the music of The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Bee Gees and Motown, on March 25), Moon Coin Production’s ABRA Cadabra (April 9), a Hotel California tribute to The Eagles (April 20) and, later this year, a “Rumours” show of Fleetwood Mac music (Oct. 19).
VERY HIP POSTERS
KPU design instructor John Belisle has marked the 40th anniversary of The Tragically Hip with a series of posters paying tribute to the beloved Canadian band.
Belisle and partner Adam Rogers designed eight travel posters featuring communities mentioned in the band’s songs, including Golden, B.C. (“The Luxury”), Brandon, Manitoba (“100th Meridian”), Saskatoon (“Wheat Kings”) and, of course, “Bobcaygeon” (hit song of the same title).
The pair came up with the idea after Mitchell Press tasked them to create something to spotlight the capabilities of its Landa Printing Press. “When you’re asked to design something with very few limitations, it’s both exciting and challenging,” says Belisle, who lives in North Van. “I really wanted to do something Canadiana.”
The limited-edition “Hip Trip” posters are sold for $80 a set on thehip.com/pages/poster-cellar.
Eight years ago, Belisle and Rogers created another Hip poster to commemorate the band’s last performance at Rogers Arena in Vancouver during its 2016 farewell tour. The poster features a float plane with the word “HIP” under the wing flying by the Lions Gate Bridge.
“I went to a pub for lunch, and the concert started playing on TV,” Belisle said of the Hip’s final show in Kingston, broadcast to millions on Aug. 20, 2016. “There was a table of 15 people next to me, singing along to every song. Tears were flowing, and I realized how this band touched so many Canadians.”