REFRAIN MUSIC

This weekend Refrain traveled to the 2nd Annual Nashwaak Music Festival! Filling the New Brunswick day weekend with three days of music, events, swimming, and free camping on the beautiful Nashwaak River.

2nd Annual Nashwaak Music Festival

The Festival is a fun little family oriented event nestled in a great little valley next to the beautiful Nashwaak River.  A three day event that features not only great live music that centers around country, folk-rock, and bluegrass on all three days, an artist village with local artists displaying and selling their works, great food vendors, and fun for the kids.

For those not spending the whole weekend at the festival, which I encourage to fully get engrossed in the event, there is plenty of parking near the festival grounds.  Easy access from the road you circle behind the main stage to the main gate where your ticket is taken and you are given an access bracelet so you can wander the festival grounds at your leisure.  A nice feature is the young university students selling 50/50 tickets in support of a local university athletics programs.

Sherman Downey & The Ambiguous Case – 2nd Annual Nashwaak Music Festival

A couple items I may suggest that would improve the ‘village’ is a ‘healthy food’ option, the options were heavily meat, fried, and greasy options that won’t appeal to everyone that is more health conscious or has a sensitivity to certain kinds of foods.  It’s ok for the individuals that are camping all weekend and can bring their own, but for those just coming for a day or evening show may find themselves with no or little food options.

2nd Annual Nashwaak Music Festival

The wonderful countrified portable and reusable stage is set up with viewing and dancing in mind, with multiple covered tents for spectators with chairs to sit an watch while a large area is left open in front of the stage for dancers and the more energetic concert goer.  With the heavy rains that fell over the weekend though it was rapidly turning into a muddy pit that many were appearing to avoid unless they didn’t mind being barefoot or remembered to bring their rubber boots.  One feature that correlates to this is no ‘glass bottles’ are allowed on the festival grounds which is a nice safety feature, they will even provide you with a plastic cup in order to keep the potential of broken glass and injury to a minimum.  I’d recommend to the festival, that if they always are planning to have the stage in the same place to perhaps place a ‘gravel’ pad directly in front of the stage to allow for drainage in that area.

The Lonesome Line – 2nd Annual Nashwaak Music Festival

Another great feature is that you are allowed to bring in camp chairs which opens up, in my mind, the attendance that you receive.  Some just can’t physically ‘stand’ for the periods of time involved in these festivals and this allows more concert goers to plant themselves in a little spot of their own and enjoy the weekend.  Also I really liked seeing that they sectioned off an area of the camping section as the ‘quiet camping’ area for those that wanted a peaceful area to retire to at the end of the day.  Many features were standard that you will see at outdoor festivals everywhere like the ‘potty zone’, but I must confess I’ve never seen a bright ‘pink’ porta-potty before.  Some nice features is that just offsite nearby there are tube rentals for lazing down the Nashwaak River, and golfing at Riverbend Golf Course.

Potty Zone (pink?) – 2nd Annual Nashwaak Music Festival

Due to logistics we managed to only take in Saturday evening’s festivities but enjoyed every minute of it, and commented that next year we see an RV/Camper and the whole weekend in our future in order to immerse ourselves in the event.  One other thing we might suggest is a ‘licensed’ area for adults to enjoy a beverage of another sort, for those spending the weekend it’s fantastic to be able to bring your own onto the festival grounds, but for those only partaking of an afternoon or evening, it may leave them wanting a bit more.

Overall I think this festival is going to continue to grow, learn, and become a steadfast part of the summer festivals in New Brunswick and the Maritimes.  I encourage you next summer to look for the “3rd Annual” Nashwaak Music Festival and add it to your list of summer events…fun for all ages, of 20 great live music acts and a long weekend…what more could you ask for!?

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