There's nothing confidential about the excitement over this year's ArtsWells Festival of All Things Art. One of the headline acts is legendary Canadian rocker Carole Pope. The cutting edge leader of the art-rock band Rough Trade is joining a high tide of musicians coming to Wells-Barkerville at the end of the month. Other main draws include Coco Love Alcorn, Kris Demeanor, Oliver Swain, Rae Spoon, Ken Hamm, Liz Stringer, and many others.
"One of the new things for us this year is how many acts there are," said ArtsWells associate producer-curator David Harder. "We had 90 music acts booked last year, and really it was more like 100 when everyone got here, but this year it is closer to 130 booked. We saw we had some acts playing too many sets, we had some room there to bring in additional talent, so we made some adjustments to spread them all out better and have more options. And we just like to be inclusive. The more the merrier."
There are about a dozen active music sites and stages during the festival, two of them in the historic town of Barkerville. Only a couple of spots are outdoors, so no matter what the weather, the event rolls ahead.
"We are so excited to have Carole Pope this year, and also Dan Bern is coming in too," said Harder. "Carole Pope is famous for High School Confidential and Dan Bern is famous for writing the songs in the movie Walk Hard. Both of them are loaded in other great material, too, so we get to know them better at ArtsWells, right there at our little party."
ArtsWells has become a legend itself in Canadian music circles. It's always so popular the little village of Wells is bursting at the seams with audiences and artists. The co-mingling is such a part of the show that it's often impossible to tell the headliners from the fans.
"Everyone feels this sense of equality, no matter what brought you to the festival," said Harder. Which is why collaborations often spring up. Some are set up in advance, but many of them just unfold organically.
"It may say so-and-so on stage next, but you just never know who all else will be there, too," Harder said. "Last year, Bend Sinister had something like 35 other musicians on stage with them by the end. They gathered an adjunct choir."
There is considerable pressure from acts to get themselves re-booked at the festival, and ArtsWells organizers like to accommodate their alumni talent, but this year they put more emphasis than usual on bringing in brand new names.
A documentary team from a crew called The Road Less Travelled will be filming this year's proceedings, and they are contributing a bus that will act as a shuttle between Wells and Barkerville to better connect the two neighbouring sites.
The ArtsWells Festival of All Things Art happens from Friday through Monday.
