See the rest of M.D. Shorter's Mukwah photos here.

Mukwah Jamboree is a different sort of music festival.

As much as it’s about camping in the woods and hearing a wide range of great music (ranging from dubstep to ska), there is an element of community that’s hard to duplicate at larger festivals. Between 250 and 300 people attended the three-day f

estival this past July and everyone - bands, fans, organizers – camps together, creating an experience that’s more akin to a family reunion or a large long weekend camping expedition than a music festival.

Danny Vescarelli, who is largely responsible for pulling the whole thing together, says that’s part of the reason why he puts so much work into the festival. He spends hours upon hours of mostly unpaid time preparing for the event because it means a lot to the people involved.

“I’ve always been of the understanding of if you want some things to happen, you have to make them happen for yourself. I don’t mind putting all that in because there is a festival that’s small enough that it’s special and unique to a certain group of people in the community, but it’s also a real and legitimate enough thing that it’s something to look forward to,” he says.

The festival has its origins in a birthday party for a friend of one of the rafters from Mukwah Tours, the company which operates white water rafting expeditions on the nearby Red Deer River. That year it was rained out, but instead of wasting the efforts, it was planned as a standalone festival the next year and around 50 people attended, mostly the bands and their friends.

“We jammed until 4 a.m., until the generators died,” says Steve Rozitis, guitarist of the Firm Handshake. The Firm Handshake have played every festival since, and plan to keep on coming back as long as they are a band. “It’s the highlight of our social calendar,” Rozitis says

From that small group of 50 people, the festival has grown every year. Vescarelli isn’t too worried that the festival will lose its community feel because there’s a natural limit to how big it can grow.

“I think what’s good about it is that the site doesn’t allow for much more than that. I don’t think we’ve reached sell-out point yet, but it couldn’t grow much more. It’s not like we’re going to go and clear cut more trees just so it can keep growing or we’re going to move Mukwah to another location,” he says.

Mukwah is Mukwah because of its location, just west of Sundre about two hours from Calgary. The trails, the Panther River (a slower moving, not too deep off shoot of the Red Deer) - all of it makes the festival what it is.

And it keeps improving every year. Vescarelli and Rozitis both say this was the best Mukwah so far.

“I wouldn’t say it went off without a hitch, but I almost feel like saying that because it went that well,” Vescarelli says. “Everyone learns something every year and we just get better at doing it. This was the first year we had a volunteer coordinator. This is the first year we had vendors and more of an organized crew helping in general as far as lighting and everything. The only reason we do that is because we forget to do it the year before and we realize we should work on that next year. We just refine it every year. In my eyes, it makes perfect sense it’s always getting better.”

“It’s ideal already,” says Rozitis. “There’s nothing more ideal about camping in the middle of nowhere and playing a show.”

Next year, Vescarelli says they’ll be looking at improving the stage, which was protected by a wind-ravaged tarp this time around, among other things. He plans on meeting with the rest of the group who helps plan and organize the festival to put together a list of what to improve.

They carried over a bit of money from the festival to help, and so far it’s been running along as a break-even proposition. But each year they find ways to help make it easier for the artists to come out.

“It’s come to the point where it doesn’t cost us to play,” says Rozitis. “We would still pay to play Mukwah, because it’s Mukwah.”

Where it’s about coming together with good people and camping as much as it is about coming to play or hear music.

(Danny Vescarelli, a member of the now dissolved the Consonant C, plays in Deadhorse, who played a fantastic set at this year’s festival, and the Doer and the Doddler. The Firm Handshake play regularly around Calgary. Check out their MySpace or their website)

       

Written by :

M.D. Shorter