Prince George's fall fair is about cows and tractors, but also about guitars and actors. Entertainment is as much a focus of the BC Northern Exhibition as the agriculture and home crafts. All day long, all fair long, music and comedy and performance of all kinds can be found all around the grounds.
The fair organizers have learned some tricks and lessons over the 100-plus years of the fair. One of them is to impress people with a headline act. This year, that has taken on a massive presence. Nobody can downplay a band that has sold 20 million albums, garnered eight Grammy nominations, put 10 singles into the Top 10 (two of them got to No. 1), and are considered one of the pioneers of modern rock.
Alice In Chains are peers with Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam on the spearhead of the Seattle Sound, otherwise known as Grunge. They are the spearhead of the entertainment offerings at this year's BCNE.
"We are trying to take the BCNE to the next level, give people that higher notch of talent, and we have Alice In Chains as that really big name for a rock-heavy city. We hope that makes a statement about where we plan to go with the entertainment value," said Tim Yule, the BCNE's director of entertainment.
Another major name coming to this year's event is an entertainer of a different sort. Cuisine is very much an art, and has its performance elements. Someone known around the world for his television and literary forays into food is celebrity chef Bob Blumer. He will be the anchor attached to a new feature at this year's fair. There's no better way to celebrate local agriculture than with live food demonstrations and competitions, and that's what you get with the Northern Taste Market. It includes head-to-head culinary competition between local professional chefs and there's a division for amateurs on the knife edge of kitchen creations.
While the Northern Taste Market takes care of the smells of the fair, Yule has two sets of musicians to tantalize your ears. The daytime Community Stage acts and the evening Mainstage Acts also got extra care and attention this year, after careful market research was done.
Yule, a School District 57 principal and a pro-am musician, books more than 100 acts per year into local schools. He also performs off and on with his rockabilly band The Chevys. He contacted the national booking agents and trade publications to drill into what forces were driving today's audiences.
"For reasons that make a lot of sense, and I know from experience here in Prince George, the classic rock tribute bands are what's owning audience attention right now," he said.
The BCNE will be a festival of these acts - bands and soloists that don't merely cover the songs of their favourite stars, they recreate that star's presentation persona. Audiences could hardly expect KISS or Tom Petty to detour into the BCNE, or Guns 'n' Roses to reform for a Prince George gig, but fair goers get all these plus Stevie Nicks, Pat Benatar, Chrissy Hynde and Blondie.
Augmenting the direct references to the biggest names in rock, other mainstage acts are interspersed to give some extra context to the classic rock theme. Local band The Statistics and Vancouver group The Faceplants will give all-original modern infusions, while Akimbo and Triforce come from elsewhere in northern B.C. to truly link the region into the BCNE. All, said Yule, were vetted for material and presentation values. He's even calling out The Chevys to walk the talk.
During the Community Stage time slots, Yule is planting acts he has studied all year, and longer, seeking proven high-caliber performers, not novice bands.
Miss Guided was at the BCNE last year and they really deserved to have their profile raised," Yule said as an example. "I'm trying to get people for you who I know have earned a higher place on the stages of Prince George and who deserve to have some help getting their name out there. I want the Community Stage to be more than background music - they are each going to put on a show for you. These are performers who stand out and I think the audience will appreciate the fair more because of that."
Counter-intuitively, the higher talent focus went in the opposite direction of ticket prices. It is cheaper to go to the BCNE this year, and there are more sights, sounds and experiences.
Yule and his team found these acts by trolling the many other events and functions Prince George provides during the year. He and his fellow BCNE volunteers were attending PG Idol, PG's Got Talent, Cold Snap Music Festival, Caf Voltaire, Art Space and Nancy O's (etc., etc.) not just to have a good time but also to scout talent.
"I've been a part of the local music community a long time, and I'm still constantly surprised at just how great a night of live music you can find in this town, and 90 per cent of it is for $10 or less," he said. "There aren't enough of those opportunities, but that just makes you appreciate it even more, because, man, some of these bands, wow. They are the real deal, I don't care who you are, and you get to be up close and personal with them."
The Community Stage will feature the likes of Black Spruce Bog, Scott LaPointe, Vanessa Wittstruck, Rosina and the Big Guns, Dance Your Hart Out, Brooklyn Derkson, Paige and the Gasoline Experience, Bollywood Dancers, Sarah Davys, Funk Yeah, Kim Warren, Sean Wood, Emma Faulkner and Raqqaset Al Qamar Eastern Dancers, Acoustics Anonymous and others.
One of those "others" is in a category all by themselves. Splash 'n' Boots is a duo of Nick Adams (Splash) and Taes Leavitt (Boots). They are fresh off their 2014 Juno nomination and they are three-time SiriusXM Independent Music Award winners for their entertainment for children.
"We wanted to bring in a legitimately big kids' act for Sunday," said Yule. "These guys just signed a deal with Treehouse Network for their own show. They are top-of-the-heap children's performers. When you look at the price of BCNE tickets, you would pay the same price or more to see these guys just by themselves, but you get to see them and you get to enjoy the whole rest of the fair as well, so that's a Sunday value I don't see how you can beat." (The same deal applies to Alice In Chains: buy a ticket to the concert, you get the whole rest of the fair that day for free.)
There is more to the inclusion of Splash 'n' Boots than mere lineup diversity. Yule holds live music for children near and dear to his educator's heart.
"The more you can bring kids into contact with live music, the better they are going to enjoy music as a 100 per cent different experience," he said. "Seeing an act and hearing them on the iPod or seeing the video on TV is just one level of what music is. When anyone has it happening in front of their eyes, it becomes a skill, you can't miss that these people learned and practiced a craft like a carpenter learned how to work with wood. It also becomes a form of communication. That's a lot bigger and, to be honest, more important than just dancing or feeling entertained."
The BCNE happens at Exhibition Park (CN Centre, Kin Centres, Agriplex, etc.) Aug. 7-10.
