Some of Canada’s best and brightest bands and musicians will take the stage in Sarnia’s Centennial Park on June 23, 24 and 25 as part of the long-awaited return of Bluewater BorderFest.
Thousands of music fans, both from Sarnia-Lambton and beyond, have already scooped up tickets for the three-day outdoor festival, which will feature big-hitters ranging from Sloan, Our Lady Peace, Alessia Cara and Marianas Trench, as well as homegrown talent such as Aces High, Coobie and Born Riot.
Like most performing arts festivals, BorderFest has had to deal with a two-year hiatus thanks to pandemic restrictions, but the bands, the fans and the non-for-profit group that organizes the festival are all eager to get back to the business of rocking and rolling, said Bluewater BorderFest organizer Mark Perrin.
The idea to showcase Canadian artists as part of this year’s BorderFest was a conscious decision, Perrin said, an attempt to lift up local and national talents, artists who have also suffered greatly from the lack of live concerts since Covid shut most in-person venues down.
“We decided to focus back on the Canadian music scene, it was a big push for us wanting to support the industry and having an all-Canadian lineup,” he said. “We tried to have something for everyone. We’re really excited about having Alessia Cara, that was someone who we’ve looked at booking over the past number of years. It’s great to have Alicia come and play and have her headline at one of our shows.”
A few of the bands performing this year had been booked, long, long time ago, Perrin said.
“The Saturday night lineup – Our Lady Peace and Finger Eleven –both of them have been booked since just before the pandemic. We actually announced them playing in early March 2020,” he said with a laugh. “As weird as that is to say, we’ve been waiting for them ever since.”
On Thursday, June 23 Canadian rock royalty in the form of the Tea Party and Sam Roberts Band will kick off Bluewater BorderFest, with openers Sky Wallace and Born Riot also joining in.
Friday, June 24 will see Juno winners Alessia Cara and Marianas Trench take center stage, with Ryland James and Coobie opening the evening concert.
And on Saturday, June 25, legendary rockers Sloan and Finger Eleven will be headlining, with Sarnia’s Aces High supporting.
All shows begin at 6:30 pm and ticket information can be found at www.bluewaterborderfest.ca.
Along with enjoying a magical weekend of top-notch musical entertainment, local residents will also feel the positive economic impact of the festival, Perrin said. Turnout will be high for the shows, he said.
“We’re expecting over 10,000 people throughout the weekend,” he said. “Our Friday and Saturday Night VIP tickets are already all sold out.”
“For Sarnia-Lambton, that’s a huge event, having 10,000 people attend. And most of those people – I’d say anywhere from 60 to 65 per cent – are people coming from outside the Sarnia-Lambton area,” Perrin added. “So it’s a large amount of people coming, and they’re coming from as far away as Newfoundland out east to British Columbia and Alberta out west. It’s so nice to know we have cross-country travelers coming for this three day festival, putting Sarnia-Lambton back on the map from a music perspective.”
In preparation for the influx of visitors, BorderFest has encouraged local businesses to lay out their welcome mats, Perrin said.
“One of the campaigns we’ve done locally is trying to encourage our local businesses and our hotels and restaurants – our hospitality industry – to post ‘welcome to town’ signs, because we expect six to seven thousand people from out of town to come here for the weekend, which means millions in terms of the economic impact it brings for the community.”
All in all, Perrin is expecting a raucous and rocking kickoff to the summer, and a promise of better days ahead.
“This festival is put on by a community group of volunteers, they’ve worked extremely hard and it supports a dozen local community partners and charities,” he said. “I’m just happy to get everybody back and involved – it’s been a couple of tough years for everyone on the event side and this really kicks off the summer in style – it’s pretty exciting for the whole area.”