Good Hunting in Festival Season (08.01.08)

There’s wabbit season, duck season and as anyone who’s been in this corridor over the summer knows, there is definitely a festival season.

In Squamish alone we have an art, mountain bike, rock climbing, Caribbean, solstice, and of course, dog festival, just to name a few. This doesn’t even include our neighbors to the north who boast another lengthy list of reasons to celebrate. Yet this past weekend our corridor made history hosting what was the biggest music festival BC has ever seen. While over 40 thousand people enjoyed the show, thousands more were given a glimmer of what is to come.

What became horribly apparent that weekend to everyone in the corridor and especially Squamish, is how completely screwed we are when the highways is jammed. Getting from one end of town to the other is all but impossible and good luck if you have to go to the hospital. This also puts pressure on our back roads which are obviously not set up to handle that sort of traffic.

Even so, the spectacle lover in me is slightly disappointed I couldn’t participate in Pemby’s particular craziness. Luckily I had other commitments with craziness in town as the always delightful Gearjammer celebrated its 6th successful year (nicely done!).

And now, what talk of festivals would be complete without mentioning the festival going on this weekend that is now in it’s 50’s: Squamish Days Logger Sports. The entire weekend is definitely entertaining, but the main attraction for me is the sandwich at the logger sports show. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Rotary Beef Barbecue is truly one of the few sandwich feasts worthy of a 364 day countdown. Could be the amazing feats of saw skill, could be the mustard, most likely it’s the smoked alders binding them all into meat so good it’s probably a sin. While the entire weekend is good, if you have only a moment to spare, give yourself a treat and stop by the show for a rich taste of history.

While you’re there watching crazy people playing with axes, take a look at the venue. This amazing space has been around for so long and it simply seems insane that it’s only used a couple of days a year. It is flabbergasting for me to think no one has ever used the spot for a music festival. Seriously, that place is just screaming for a full day of music.

It’s not like no one has ever rocked the place out before as many know, the man in black actually performed on those grounds decades ago. Oh how I’m jealous I of those who got to see Johnny Cash strut his stuff in Squamish. So why can’t we get Corb Lund to play there or a million other acts that would easily sell the place out? Like everything else, the potential is endless but people’s time is short.

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