Fill up a van with your closest friends, burn some CDs (people still do that, right?) and hit the road. This weekend, November 5-8, east coasters will roll into Yarmouth from all over for the annual Nova Scotia Music Week. The fest is two-fold: concerts and conferences neatly packaged into one big week of musical fusion.
There are over 100 performers in the line-up, local and household names, performing at a variety of venues throughout the infamous Nova Star ferry's Canadian home port. Genres range from Celtic to psychedelic-pop to hip-hop, so you're guaranteed to hear something you're into. Rich Aucoin, Dub Kartel and Wintersleep are just a few of the names to look out for on the jam-packed roster, and you're bound to discover a new local favourite.
Party Boots, a Halifax-based urban-pop band (pictured below) will be performing this year. Frontperson Rankin MacInnis says the week is a great occasion to network and grow as an artist: "It's a chance to take in what Nova Scotia has to offer in one week, in one spot."
Running parallel to the shows is a conference featuring four tracks of talks about everything music. One track, titled "Deeper Issues," deals with gender, race, mental illness and the LGBTQ+ community within the context of the music industry. An awards brunch will be held on Sunday to decide who will take home bragging rights for Nova Scotia's very best.
Nova Scotia Music Week
Thursday-Sunday, November 5-8
Various locations in Yarmouth