“Heritage” fest aims to become new Shelburne tradition

February 5, 2016 · 0 Comments

The Old Time Canadian Fiddle Championship will become the foundation of a new Shelburne tradition, says Lynda Buffet, Chair of the new Heritage Music Festival.

This is just the first of several major announcements to come from the Shelburne Rotary Club about the format changes for the 2016 event.

The Rotary Club’s 65-year history of hosting the Fiddle Championship is one the Heritage Music Festival Committee wants to build on “by creating a new tradition.”

To achieve this, Ms. Buffet says the organization “will be showcasing a variety of talented Canadians of all musical styles during our festival.”

“[Rotary wants to] create a new level of excitement in the Town, especially now that we have so many new residents moving into our area,” says Buffet.

The Club wants to “include as many new venues as possible,” she said, “so that all the thousands of cars that drive through Shelburne every weekend would see that this was going to be an exciting and dynamic music event that they would have to attend.”

The goal is to attract all ages and demographics to the area, she says.

“We have a large campground that could be booked to maximum capacity with a variety of music venues all over town. It seems to be already morphing into a much bigger event than first thought and I believe that because the ideas are new and exciting, we are attracting more ideas and talent from within the community to make this first year a really great kickoff as a new music festival.”

Ms. Buffet, who also serves as Chair of the Town Hall Art Gallery and the Performing and Visual Arts Committee, says she is eager to get started on making the festival a success.

“Whenever I take on a responsibility for a project, I jump right into it and with this project what gets me really excited is all creative ideas that come from working with an ever-expanding group of other creative thinkers,” she says. “It helps make the workload more manageable.

“These committees will quite likely become more involved as the project comes together, as well as all the other service clubs in town and any other new groups that we may attract.”

Rotary wants their community partners, other service clubs and sponsors, to be aware of the changes to the event.

“We want to have everyone on board together,” says Buffet.

Well known locally as a talented artist, Ms. Buffet is taking over the publicity for the festival and unveiled the new logo last week.

She says the new emblem, designed for the Heritage Music Festival, reflects its “look and feel” and “depicts both the colourful vibrant events we have planned as well as creating a sense of fun and excitement you won’t want to miss.”

In order to fund the festival entertainment, the Rotary Club depends on the generous support of sponsors to make the event a success.

Ms. Buffet says she is “pleased to announce that we have a brand new major sponsor on board to kick off our fund raising campaign.”

The new sponsor and the details of their long term commitment to the new festival will be revealed on March 3 at the Rotary dinner meeting.

The organization will also reveal further information about their plans at that time, as well as announcing the charitable fund that will receive proceeds from the festival.

“The Rotary Club is a non-profit organization with a registered Charitable Trust whose goal is to support local community needs as well as international projects through our volunteer efforts by organizing these types of events,” the Chair reminds the community.

Ms. Buffet says the mood at Shelburne Rotary around the changes is one of excitement and enthusiasm. “I think from talking to everyone in town, these feelings are contagious and it’s a very upbeat positive reaction so far.”

The new Heritage Music Festival will be taking place the first week of August from Wednesday, August 3 to Sunday, August 7.

By Marni Walsh