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Lake Country’s second annual Winter Blues Festival helps people beat the mid-winter blahs
No R&B, no pop — just the blues.
For Lake Country’s cultural development coordinator, Ryan Donn, there’s really no better way to chase away the mid-winter “blahs.”
And he says that’s the concept behind the Winter Blues Festival.
Held at the Creekside Theatre in Lake Country, Donn’s popular event saw six impressive blues acts take over the community building for the second year in a row, and for the second year in a row, it sold out.
This year’s line-up included Papa Dawg,Vernon’s Brandon Schmor, Jim Byrnes, Sabrina Weeks and Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne with Sherman Doucette.
As a former president of Festivals Kelowna, and the man behind Kelowna’s New York New Years event, Canada Day concerts and Parks Alive, Donn admits, he knows a thing or two about pulling together a party — but even he was “surprised” by the success of the Winter Blues Festival.
That success, he added, has spurred him on as he begins planning next year’s festival, which will be headlined by the irrepressible Harpdog Brown.
Donn says he is also planning a Celtic Festival for 2019, and that will likely follow a similar format to the Winter Blues Festival.
