In what’s hoped will be the first of many annual concerts, the Growing Opportunities Farm Community Co-operative is launching its first summertime celebration in a single-day two-part concert series.
Crop Circles will present two shows on Saturday, Aug. 6, hosted on the historical 19-hectare Cline Agri-Heath Centre farm, 2090 Skaha Dr., in Nanaimo.
The community co-operative organizing the concert series says its main focus is not only to ensure food security for low-income community members, but provide skills training and work opportunities for people with barriers to employment.
The co-op has worked alongside farmers and other non-profits to expand food production in the Nanaimo-area of central Vancouver Island for more than 10 years.
Event organizer Paul Manly said Growing Opportunities works with organizations such as the Nanaimo Association for Community Living, the Clay Tree Society and Nanaimo Foodshare which help bring in participants to work at the Cline farm.
“It’s quite a different model – we’re not a commercial farm. What we do is provide training and employment to people with barriers and challenges. We grow food for people on low incomes; we provide food to Foodshare and the Good Food Box program. There are several agencies that get food from us,” he said, and added that approximately 500 Good Food boxes are shipped out every week.
Part of the money raised by the Crop Circle event is to improve accessibility on the farm through the installation of shade structures and watering stations, as well as pathways for mobility. Manly said that eventually, the co-op hopes to put in permanent washrooms, too.
For four years, since 2018, the program at Cline farm has taught basic farming and gardening skills.
“They’re learning how to seed and plant and transplant and fertilize and weed and identify plants and seed saving – those are the basic skills that we’re training people in,” said Manly. “We’re looking at keeping people employed year round and adding value-added products and selling seeds and plant stocks and things like that to the general public.”
Due to the location of the festival, Manly said there are specific rules geared toward agricultural land reserves that have kept this year’s event to a single day. Because of those rules, he said ticket sales are capped at 150.
“Next year we’re hoping to do a larger event and include more community organizations that we’re connected to – when we’re not restricted by the number of people we can have on the farm,” he said.
In a release for the event, Growing Opportunities co-founder Craig Evans said organizers had some fun with the name.
“Crop Circle, for me, is about the circle of the seasons and growing food. When we grow food together, community grows around that activity.”
In the first concert, showing from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., the music will be geared toward folk, country, rockabilly and bluegrass. It will have performances by Patrick Aleck, Tony Turner, Carolyn Mark and Britt Hibbert, Slim Sandy and the Hillbilly Boppers, and Sarah Osborne and the Magic Buttons.
The second concert, showing from 5-10 p.m., will have more of a “reggae, dub-reggae, electronic and funk feel,” said Manly, with performances by Wass, David P. Smith, Gator, Monkey Dragon and Phonosonics.
With the varied genre lineup, Manly said he wanted to provide something for the area that it seemed to lack.
“One of the things that’s missing in Nanaimo is that we don’t have a music festival that is not just for one specific genre. We don’t have a festival with a wide spectrum of music … and I like all kinds of music.”
Spencer Cleave, lead singer, saxophonist and band leader for Phonosonics, said the Crop Circle concert will be first Nanaimo performance for the Victoria roots band, and said attendees can expect a high-energy show.
“Our sound is very respectful of authentic, vintage Jamaican sound … that style has a heavy emphasis on rich, vocal harmonies and horn lines. And we rely heavily on the soul end of that and we really try and bring that out and have a live, danceable show,” said Cleave.
He said access to food is important and a cause the Phonosonics can get behind.
“The band comes from all walks of life and all different sectors. We all recognize the importance of food and sustainable farming and so we’re very happy to support this,” he said.
Tickets for the event are limited and priced at $35 each. Attendees will need to purchase online in advance at www.growingopportunities.org/cropcircle.
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mandy.moraes@nanaimobulletin.com
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