West Island Blues Festival celebrates 22nd anniversary

Errol Johnson founded the West Island Blues Festival 22 years ago, alongside the current mayor of Montreal’s borough of Pierrefonds, Jim Beis.

And over the years, the festival has raised approximately half a million dollars for Montreal non-profit organizations, including the West Island Black Community Association and West Island Mission.

“The West Island Blues Festival has become a signature on the West Island that we have a festival of our own,” said Johnson, the Deputy Mayor of Dollard-des-Ormeaux.

The festival consists of live music, delicious food and performances all for a great cause.

“Well, it’s the big family of the West Island. You know, I’ve always looked at it that the West Island is a giving community,” Johnson said. “People participate and people believe in supporting charities. You know, I’ve always looked at it that way.”

Pine Beach in Dorval will be the backdrop for the West Island Blues Festival on Saturday — a free concert where performers will take the stage with the mission of giving back to the community.

“The West Island Mission is providing a service that is very important because as we know, there are a lot of hunger and people are needing things to eat,” Johnson said.

“After COVID, we kind of hovered (at serving) around 250 families,” added Suzanne Scarrow, the executive director of West Island Mission. “We’re at 450. So that shows you the demand. We’re seeing we have 35 per cent of our database are seniors, seniors living below the poverty line. These are fixed income pensioners. Something’s wrong.”

The West Island Blues Festival offers free family-friendly events throughout the West Island all summer long, allowing community members to gather, celebrate, and enjoy world-class blues performances in vibrant outdoor settings. Whether it’s Pointe-Claire, Dorval, DDO or the VIP night in Pierrefonds, each location reflects the diverse and dynamic spirit of the West Island.

Johnson sheds light on The West Island Black Community Association (WIBCA): “They’re dealing with helping the youth to be more constructive and balanced in the society that they can do things.”

Joan Lee, the President of WIBCA, added: “Without them for over 22 years, we wouldn’t be able to offer the free programs for the youth, seniors and our community at large. It really makes a big difference. Just serving the community, having a safe space, especially for the youth to gather and feel safe.”

Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough Mayor Jim Beis co-founded the Blues Festival with Johnson.

“There aren’t many festivals or any as far as we know that their primary focus is raising funds for nonprofit charities,” Beis said. “And we’ve been able to do that through the years raising in the neighbourhood of over half a million dollars through the 23 years or 22 years that we’ve done this on the West Island. It’s been successful.”

After Saturday at Pine Beach in Dorval — from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. — the festival is on again on Sept. 6 in Pointe-Claire Village.

Beis shares that it’s the second year that Dorval is participating in the festival. “The notion of having the West Island Blues Festival was to have it in West Island. Even though the early years were primarily in Dollard, we do it in Pierrefonds, in Dollard, in Dorval for the second time and once again in Pointe Claire in September. So we’re very excited about it.

“You know, 23 years ago, Errol and I sat around. I know that his wife Veronica had also this vision of having something local on the West Island that would raise money, for local charities, primarily the West Island Black Community Association, which was in dire need of funding.

“And so we thought about this and we looked at how can we do this that sort of is similar to what the Jazz Festival does in Montreal, keeping people local, allowing for families to benefit from this, but also raise much needed funds for nonprofit organizations, which really created a one of a kind model.

“I have many memories, but probably my favorite memories are the ones where we have some of the youth that have participated in the Blues Festival that now have become renowned Blues artists worldwide. I mean, look at Justin Saladino that’s performing here as the headliner in Dorval. He started probably our first or second year as a little boy under a small tent performing with a guitar that was probably bigger than him.

“And now he’s one of those artists now that has really made inroads in the Blues world and has become now recognized as played all sorts of festivals throughout North America. So we’re excited to have him back with us in Dorval.

“And so he is probably one of the most memorable moments for me because who would have expected 23 years ago this little boy that could barely play the guitar but was playing it so well even at that age that now has become a Blues artist of that level.”

For West Island Mission, a donation from the Blues Festival makes a huge difference.

“We didn’t expect it,” Scarrow said. “So it’s an added bonus to add to our budget and be able to take care of the community that’s struggling with food insecurity.

When asked what the single most important service West Island Mission offers, Scarrow replied: “I would say our single most important thing is our mental health support. People come for food assistance but food has nothing to do with food insecurity.

“Our mental health department asks how you came to us? What made you food insecure? Did you lose your job? Are you struggling with mental health? Did someone pass away? We get to the root cause and try to get people back on their feet by providing food assistance. Food is an imminent need but there’s a bigger picture behind that we try to help people with.”

Scarrow is looking forward to Saturday night in Dorval. “When we see a mass in the community, a mass crowd, it just lets us know that people have our back. People understand what’s provided, what services are provided to those in the community.

“This is our first year being a recipient and it’s about building awareness. It’s about letting people understand that there is a huge food insecurity issue on the West Island. We’re honored to have been asked to participate and it’s not a given. There’s many organizations that have come in and out of the life of the Blues Festival but to know that something’s been around for 20 (plus) years, we’re super touched to be involved and we’re looking forward to Saturday. It’s going to be a great night.”

Scarrow shared that one of the primary missions of West Island Mission is to normalize poverty.

“People are having a bowl of soup amongst our politicians, amongst volunteers, amongst clients, amongst staff. So coming out to the Blues Festival for our recipients is just a normal day. So absolutely, we believe community is in its entirety and we tell everybody please come out to the Blues Festival or any of our events.

“We are seeing male recipients between the ages of 55 and 70. Men tend to hold on to their pride and wait until they’re absolutely starving. We’re seeing disease. We’re seeing scurvy, malnutrition. This is the West Island of Montreal. So you can now physically see poverty on the West Island.”