Georgetown folk festival books Bruce Springsteen’s world famous saxophonist
Over the past decade, Cloggeroo - The Island Folk Festival has evolved and so have the acts it has drawn to the Kings County capital, Georgetown.
This summer, Bruce Springsteen’s saxophonist, Montrealer Jake Clemons will hit the stage alongside his namesake ensemble, The Jake Clemons Band.
“He’s an amazing musician and he’s just a nice human being,” said festival board chair, Kathleen Flanagan of DeGros Marsh. “I think he’ll love it at Cloggeroo and I think everybody’s going to love him too.”
Mr Clemons will be busy touring with Springsteen through the summer, but decided to carve out time between performances with The Boss to make sharing music with festival goers part of his musical journey.
Mr Clemons has been a mainstay on Springsteen’s core E Street Band since 2012, shortly after the group’s original saxophonist and Mr Clemons’ late uncle, Clarence Clemons, passed away.
He has also played with The Killers, Eddie Vedder, Glen Hansard, Tom Morello, Prophets of Rage, Roger Waters, US Girls, Arkells and Grouplove.
Ms Flanagan said booking a musician of this calibre is something to celebrate but so are all the other musicians who have and will play the festival.
Over the years, the board has focused on Maritime-based musicians that locals may not have had an opportunity to hear live - such as Adam Baldwin of Dartmouth. They have also made an effort to identify and feature up-and-coming artists from the Maritimes and across Canada that show a high level of potential.
“We’ve had some bands when they were just sort of beginning and now they’re big names. And you know, people say, ‘oh, I first heard about them at Cloggeroo,’” she said.
The board has also been keen to shine a spotlight on a diversity of music performed by Indigenous, women and francophone artists.
While some may be surprised to hear a world-famous rocker and saxophonist will be playing the local folk festival, Ms Flanagan said, people often misinterpret the genre.
“Folk music is the music of the people, the kind of music that people like. So it includes all genres. So we would have blues, we would have jazz, we would have rock, we would have bluegrass, we would have, you know, a whole assortment of different genres.”
Other art forms have also started to grow at the festival. Last summer, Abe Waterman performed sand sculpting live on site, community art projects and a tie dye station have proved popular and so have a variety of family events.
For Ms Flanagan, a lifelong interest in live music tied into her goal, shared by the Cloggeroo board, to curate an accessible and engaging series of shows and events that transforms the area into a destination for artists and music enthusiasts over the course of the event.
She’s confident this year’s lineup of acts, which will continue to be announced over coming months, won’t disappoint.
The 11 annual festival is set to take place August 9 to 11.
Rachel Collier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Graphic
