Archive

Orangeville Blues and Jazz Festival appears to be biggest yet

June 9, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

Downtown Orangeville was the busiest it’s been in more than two years with the long-awaited return of the Blues and Jazz Festival over the weekend.

While the final numbers are still being tallied, president of the festival, Josh Leitch said it’s their biggest one yet, based on observations, photos, and social media posts from the three-day event that ran June 3 to 5.

In addition to the growing excitement for Orangeville Blues and Jazz Festival after a two-year hiatus, the amazing weather over the weekend helped with the incredible turnout.

On behalf of the festival’s board of directors, staff and volunteers, Leitch said he’s very thankful to all the generous sponsors, funders, and partners for making the event such a success.

“This Festival has flourished as a result of the significant community engagement along with the tremendous support of our government and business sponsorship partners, the full participation of the Orangeville Business Improvement Association, our 230-plus Festival volunteers and especially the thousands of people who came out to experience all the Festival has to offer and to contribute to this successful community celebration,” Leitch remarked.

“We could not accomplish this without you. We delivered, after a two-year break, another festival we can all be proud of, partnering with the community, building on our successes achieved over the years and keeping the focus on presenting three days of high-quality music and experience.”

This year’s Blues and Jazz Festival saw three full size stages that featured over 75 acts, however several downtown restaurants and bars featured live music of their own over the weekend.

Some of the headline acts who played on stage over the weekend include the Downchild Blues Band, Blackburn and Miss Emily.

A variety of food trucks were stationed on Second Street, across from Alexandra Park, selling everything from Beaver Tails to grilled cheese for the duration of the festival.

On Friday (June 3), downtown Orangeville was filled with classis cars for the annual Blues Cruise and on Sunday (June 5), bikers took over downtown with a massive fleet of Harley Davidsons and motorcycles.

Several younger attendees enjoyed playing their air guitar and many people, both young and adult, got their groove on and danced their hearts out.  

Josh Leitch told the Citizen he’s thankful for everyone who attended this year’s festival as well as all the wonderful people who make it possible each year.

Readers Comments (0)