Music Fest brings old favourites and new fun to Shelburne

July 30, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Brock Weir

It might have a new name, but all of your Fiddleville favourites will be returning next week for the newly re-branded Heritage Music Festival, according to event organizing chair Lynda Buffett.

The festival, she says, was always about more than just fiddles and the new name for a new year will help the event realize its full potential.

“The reason why we changed it to the Heritage Music Festival is right now there are so many music festivals in North America that we wanted to focus in on it being more of a festival, while maintaining the Fiddle Championship, as a component of the Festival so that we can build on it and add more and more musical events, and a wide variety of music,” she says.

“It is a fun, festive event. If you look at any of the other music festivals throughout North America, you have a large component of camping, all kinds of food and a variety of things happening. You can’t do it all at once, of course, but you can build it all the time.”

As organizers put the finishing touches on the festivities, Ms. Buffett says she is particularly looking forward to the Jim Cuddy Concert, which she says is building a lot of buzz within Shelburne and beyond, Next Generation Leahy, and the tried and true fiddle championships.

“A lot of people were wondering if there was going to be a Fiddle Contest anymore and that was the discussion around town, I think, because of the name change,” she says. “But, I think everyone is pretty aware of what’s happening now.”

For a full roster of all the fun activities planned for the weekend festival, starting next Thursday, a well as a complete overview of what’s in store, please see our special section in this week’s edition of the Shelburne Free Press beginning on Page 9.