West Island Blues Festival celebrates 20th anniversary

The West Island Blues Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

As part of the celebration, the festival will be offering two free concerts this year.

• Saturday, July 8, from 3 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. at the Dollard des Ormeaux Park (12,000 de Salaberry Boulevard – in front of the DDO Civic Centre)
• Saturday, September 9 from 5 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. in Pointe Claire Village (at the corner of Lakeshore Avenue and Cartier Avenue)

 

“That is very important to us,” says the president of the West Island Blues Festival, Errol Johnson, about these two concerts. He encourages people who cannot afford to see live music at other festivals to attend the free shows.

Johnson adds that there will also be a VIP fundraising night at the Pierrefonds Cultural Centre on June 1. Tax deductible tickets cost $125 dollars which
includes a meal and cocktails.

The two main goals of the festival are promoting blues in the West Island and raising funds for local charities.

The West Island Women’s Shelter, Centre Bienvenue, West Island Black Community Association, AJOI and Literacy Unlimited are the local charities being supported by the festival this year. “It’s very important for us to support these organizations and we try to spread the funds we’re giving,” said the festival’s president Johnson.

Jim Beis, mayor of Pierrefonds-Roxboro, also says that supporting the charities on the West Island is imperative. “A lot of the people think, that because we live on the West Island, we don’t have a lot of the social issues that maybe folks in center cities deal with. But that is so untrue because we have pockets of needs within our communities,” said Beis.

The festival has given close to $300,000 to several community organizations in the West Island over the past 19 years.