'More than just a concert': Vox Popular records musical performances for upcoming festival

Eight Thunder Bay musicians and bands will get some time in the spotlight at an upcoming media arts festival.

The Vox Popular Media Arts Festival is bringing back its concert series this year, recording musical performances at Trinity Hall earlier this week.

Those concerts will be shown at the festival, which is taking place online in September.

"To work with other artists and who work through their own instruments, whether it be the camera or the microphone or whatever, it's really, really nice," said Rodney Brown, one of the performers who took part in the weekend's recordings. "It becomes more than just a concert."

"The only thing we missed was an audience, for sure," he said. "But, yeah, I've learned to live with that."

The other artists who took part were:

• Danny Johnson.

• Danielle Pollari.

• Jake Vaillant and the Town.

• Action Cat.

• Pedestrian Lifestyle.

• Morning Light Acoustic Quartet.

• Wrong Odds.

Vox Popular festival director Adrien Harpelle said 2021 will mark the second year the festival has included a concert series.

"We're going to mix [the concerts] professionally," Harpelle said. "Basically turning it into a high-quality concert performance video, just to elevate it a bit past the live-streaming."

"We decided we just didn't want to do live streaming because [there are] too many variables," he said. "And because we're a media arts festival, we just believe in strong content that's really accessible and will last forever."

"We just really wanted to capture all of these artists in the best light, picture, sound, imaginable."

The concert series, he said, is important to the artists and the festival.

"It's really important for us to provide these opportunities, and we're just so grateful," Harpelle said. "All the performances are amazing. We have the first time Danielle Pollari is playing with a band, we have Wrong Odds debut, and we have Action Cats last show ever, maybe, and so it's a really special event."

"We're just really happy to have all these people."

Harpelle said Vox Popular, overall, is coming together "amazingly," with a slate of films from Thunder Bay, Canadian, and international filmmakers lined up to screen during the festival.

This year's event will also include a virtual art gallery, he said.