Eco-friendly musical revue delivers sweet solar music

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This article was published 11/08/2021 (1579 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An annual music festival in northwestern Ontario hopes to keep on the sunny side this weekend.

The Rolling Trout Revue, a pandemic offshoot of the Trout Forest Music Festival that has been held in Ear Falls, Ont., for more than two decades, will be using a new solar-powered sound system to provide the current to microphones and amplifiers for performers at three locations today and Thursday.

A three-metre-by-two-metre set of solar panels built by Winnipeg musician Jaxon Haldane, who is also manager of Raysolar Inc., will travel to Anicinabe Park in Kenora for performances at noon today, to Bobby’s Corner in Vermilion Bay at 6 p.m. and Waterfront Park in Ear Falls at noon Thursday.

Performers include Kenora singer-songwriter Jackson Klippenstein, Ontario singer-songwriter Erik Bleich, and Fortune Block, the Winnipeg folk-country duo of Amber Rose and Richard Inman.

The solar cells, which were first used on July 17 in Winnipeg, the first day of the revue, will be backed up by hydroelectric and carbon-based energy systems, says Devin Latimer, the revue’s producer.

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William Prince has released the new single Run, a song he performed in the CBC special Terry Fox: The Power of One, which was telecast Monday and can be viewed via the CBC Gem app.

“Run. One foot in front of the other, for it could mean tomorrow for someone,” the Peguis First Nation artist sings on the show, which included performances by Alessia Cara and Tom Cochrane, as well as many celebrity tributes to Fox.

Fox lost his right leg to cancer in 1997 when he was 19, but three years later, on April 12, 1980, the long-distance runner began his Marathon of Hope in St. John’s, N.L., to raise funds for cancer research. He had to halt his run Sept. 1 in Thunder Bay after it was discovered the cancer had spread to his lungs. He died June 28, 1981.

Prince’s TV appearance follows him being named one of five anglophone finalists for the 2021 Slaight Music Emerging Songwriter Award, which celebrates the achievements and futures of anglophone and francophone up-and-coming songwriters from across Canada.

The public can vote for their favourite songwriter (there are six francophone contenders) at www.cshf.ca/songwriter-award until Aug. 15 at 10:59 p.m. Winnipeg time.

The winners will be announced in September.

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The Harvest Moon Festival in Clearwater will be an in-person event when it returns Sept. 17-19.

The rural music festival and farmers market will sell 500 full-weekend passes for $100 each, or $115 with camping, beginning Aug. 18 at its website, harvestmoonfestival.ca. A full musical lineup will be announced before tickets go on sale.

Attendees must be fully vaccinated and two weeks past their second dose to enter the festival grounds.

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter:@AlanDSmall