BLUES RETURNS TO THOROLD THIS CANADA DAY WEEKEND

THE BLUES FESTIVAL ACTS A TRIBUTE SHOW TO ITS FORMER ARTISTIC DIRECTOR TIM SINNETT

The Blues comes back to the Battle of Beaverdams Park.

"Rock N Blues on the Battlefield" will take place on Saturday July 2, from 2 to 10 p.m.

Bob Liddycoat, organizer of the event, said they have some great bands lined up.

"It's going to be a great show," he said. "We've got five tremendous bands. Two local rock bands, Figure Four, and The Associates, and then we have three top-notch blues bands."

The three blues bands are supergroup GodBoogie, and Thorold-favourites Vanessa Collier and Jack de Keyzer.

"We don't have a hard time getting bands," Liddycoat said. "Bands know us all over the world. We were the biggest festival (outside of the United States) to the Blues Hall of Fame ... we put Thorold on the map. Every time we go to those places, and we still go to those places, people know Thorold. They want to come."

For those looking for more than one day of blues, Liddycoat said there will be concerts at Donnelly's Pub on the Friday night where Chuck Jackson will play and on the Sunday afternoon Max Hillier will play.

"There will still be three days of Blues in Thorold," said Liddycoat. "At this point it's a different animal."

Liddycoat said they ran the Canal Bank Shuffle, a blues festival in October, for 18 years to make Thorold a blues destination.

After 15 years, he said the city got involved, and asked them to run the Canada Day weekend

show to build on the idea of making Thorold a blues destination. They did that for three years before the pandemic shut everything down.

What makes this event extra special, said Liddycoat, is it's being held in tribute to Tim Sinnett.

Sinnett was the festival's artistic director for 18 seasons before he passed away last year.

"He was the guy who knew everything about the blues," Liddycoat said of Sinnett. "He travelled the world, he would scout out bands all over the U.S. and Canada. He really knew everybody; he knew the business. He was the artistic director for all those years, and he was the guy who ran 18 festivals plus three Canada Day festivals."

Liddycoat said stepping into Sinnett's shoes as show-runner this year has given him a new respect for all the work he did.

Along with Sinnett, another one of the original team members and former Thorold Senior of the Year, Rudy Walters, passed away recently.

For the kids on July 1 from 4 to 10 p.m., the park will have a magic show, live music, and fireworks.

"Bringing back live music is a big deal," said Liddycoat, adding that this will be the first time in three years international bands can come.