Saturday brings the first full day of music, with workshops and individual concerts on 6 different stages that run almost non stop from 1030am until 530pm.

I definitely had some people I wanted to check out from what I had seen on Thursday and Friday, but I really wish I could have been in two (or three) places at once because the overlap from one stage to another made it difficult to get to see absolutely everything I wanted.

I think the best workshops are when the various artists put on a single stage interact and play together like they have been doing this forever. I’ve seen the other kind where artists just play their own songs and then it is the next persons turn, and I have to say the other artists look bored when they don’t get to play along. This distracts me from enjoying the music as much as I could otherwise, so I learned from last year that if you don’t like what you are seeing there are always 5 other stages to choose from that may be better suited to your tastes.

Fortunately, every group workshop I saw on Saturday had a lot of interaction, in some cases so much that I had a hard time telling who belonged to what band. Impromptu “battles” between people with the same instruments would break out, much to the delight of the crowd. The weather also cooperated, as it wasn’t too hot and the rain held off until the evening main stage performances began.

Unfortunately, most of us we were ill prepared for the rain. I had a raincoat, but my shorts, legs and feet were soaked and freezing within a few minutes of the downpour starting. I made a mini tent out of my coat, but that still didn’t cover everything (and I could no longer look at the stage / screen). Oh well, the music more than made up for the craptastic weather, and somehow the rain stopped long enough for us to fully enjoy Blue Rodeo’s set which closed out the night.

I was asked afterwards how long they played for, and my answer was simply “not long enough”. With 14 albums of material to draw from they could have easily played for 2 or 3 hours (but it probably wouldn’t have been enough even then). I’m sure it was over an hour, and I can remember they played over 10 songs… but this just makes me wonder why I haven’t gone to see them since their tour for Lost Together (1992). Simply amazing.

on the day, I’d say The Men they couldn’t hang, The Duhks, Sam Baker, Blue Rodeo, Wendy McNeill, Lau, Sonny Landreth, Los Straitjackets, Les Tireux d’Roches and the Widow Maker / Carolina chocolate drops all thoroughly entertained me. what a fantastic day of music