Salmon Arm’s Biggest Weekend: The Roots, The Blues, and The Throwbacks

Another Roots and Blues festival has come and gone, and Salmon Arm is finally returning to its regular programming: everyone in bed by 8pm, falling asleep to the low rumble of semi trucks carving deeper and deeper grooves into the highway.

Locals know it’s Roots and Blues weekend when you walk past someone on Hudson or Alexander and think, Yeah, you don’t live here. There’s an aura to festival folks, like they just came straight from a week-long wellness retreat in Nelson where they were forbidden from speaking, showering, and wearing shoes. Throw in the odd shaman, a group of furries, and a warlock or two, and you've got yourself the quintessential music festival crowd.

Organizers are calling this year’s festival a “resounding success,” which is technically true if you measure success by the number of aging rock legends hauled out of semi-retirement to come to a small town they've never heard of and sing for seniors.

This year, Burton Cummings (yes, that Burton Cummings, the name you've heard of but don't know who he actually is if you're under 52 years old) took to the stage to belt out classics that once ruled the radio back when cassette tapes were high-tech. The crowd went wild, and by “wild,” I mean they stood up from their lawn chairs for almost an entire half of a song. He was an original member of The Guess Who, the band that graced us with the hit "American Woman."

If you asked most festival-goers if they are familiar with The Guess Who, they'd mostly respond with "Who?" To which you would say, "Correct." This could have set up a great Abbott and Costello promotional moment for the festival, by the way:

"Guess who is headlining this year?"
"Who?"
"No, you're supposed to guess who."
"Just tell me. Who?"
"Guess."
"Frank Sinatra."
"No. Here's a hint: The Guess Who."
"I just did."
"No, I mean the band—The Guess Who. That’s the hint."
"I don't know, dude. Who? I don't want to guess who anymore."
"Okay, here's another hint: American Woman."
"Taylor Swift."
"What?"
"She's an American woman."
"Not what I meant. It's the name of a song. Come on, put it all together and think. Guess Who, American Woman..."
"Leave me alone, man. I'm just here to buy my dad a ticket to Burton Cummings."
"...Bingo."

Look, if you’ve ever uttered the sentence “They just don’t make music like they used to,” this festival is for you. For context, headliners from recent years include the likes of Sarah McLachlan (because nothing screams festival energy like tearful piano ballads from the 1990s), Jann Arden (more nostalgic music that hits you in the feels), and Tom Cochrane (hey, at least he had an electric guitar). I heard a rumour that the festival organizers create the lineup based on the CDs they find at the thrift store.

But the boomers love it, and to be fair, they’re the ones bankrolling this whole operation. The Roots and Blues Festival has worked out a clever scheme to convince everyone 65 and older to dip into their retirement savings every summer and fund Woodstock: The Sequel, The Sequel.

It’s also undeniably family-friendly. The Whimsy Squad (yes, that’s their real name) was out keeping the kids entertained with games, arts and crafts, water balloons. At least a few kids undoubtedly got scared seeing someone on stilts with a wolf mask and ruined their parents plans of a weekend with free babysitting while they tried to pretend they were young again.

One huge win was that the festival actually took place this year. A couple summers ago it was shut down a few hours in due to wildfires in the area, but not this year. As Mayor Alan Harrison noted, “We’re happy it rained in early July because it set us up for a smokeless, beautiful festival.” Which is Salmon Arm’s way of saying “Hey, we’re just glad the town didn’t burn down this time.”

You have to hand it to them though, it’s an impressively organized event for a small city like Salmon Arm. With five stages, 750 volunteers, and a lineup that spans blues, folk, rock, and a sprinkling of jazz and soul, there's something for everyone. But the headliners will always and forever be favouring the older generation. I'm not actually saying this is a bad thing, this demographic won't be around forever so you gotta make hay while the sun shines. But there will come a time when this sweet spot of generations mixing and mingling is over and they will have to adapt to the younger demographics if they want to continue on for another 30 years.

I've got ideas on how to modernize this festival, attract more young folks that will post about it on their social media, and make more money. If any festival organizers are reading this and want suggestions on how to skew younger and bring in some extra cash next year, here are some ideas. You can have these for free.

• Focus less on good music.
  • Good music only carries you so far, and we might be reaching the end of that road after 30+ Roots and Blues Festivals. If they wanna future proof this thing, it's time to let that core value go.
• Streaming Stage
  • Setup a stage with a gaming PC and get some well known streamers cycling through games and live commentary. They'd be up there playing the game with their screen mirrored on a huge screen for the audience and have them mic'd up so everyone can hear their commentary. If you have gamers going through sessions of Fortnite, Minecraft, Elden Ring, GTA, Call of Duty, and League of Legends for the entire weekend, you'll make a lot of money, especially if you add a live tipping or super chat feature for the crowd. People that are into this stuff will spend money like crazy.
• TikTok DJ
  • Every night starting at midnight, there should be a DJ who only plays songs that are trending on TikTok. Kids will come film TikToks with their favourite songs IRL. I know, this one sounds dumb. It is dumb. But sell tickets to the 'TikTok Audio Rave' and you'll get cringe kids depositing their parents money directly into the Roots and Blues wallet.
• The Costco Guys
  • A group of Americans that got famous by screaming about food in Costco... that's all it takes these days to be successful. Much to the chagrin of real musicians, this family has hit singles that have achieved levels of fame most people only dream of. Get them to the Roots and Blues for a performance and meet and greet and you'll make enough money to fund the next several festivals.
• Setup a live podcast
  • Everyone and their dog is doing a podcast these days, and for some reason they all make money. Find the biggest influencer you can afford and pay them to do a live episode of their podcast during the day on a side stage somewhere.
• Saturday night headliner: JoJo Siwa singing Bette Davis Eyes
  • If you know, you know. Kids will fly in from every corner of the continent to witness this viral moment with their own iPhone camera. It'll feel like the world is coming to an end, but at least you'll have an internet sensation on your hands.

The Bottom Line

Roots and Blues is an institution. It’s part of Salmon Arm’s DNA, like mosquitoes and parking tickets. Sure, the music lineup feels like someone asked ChatGPT to create “the ultimate 1993 playlist,” but it's OUR 1993 playlist. And honestly? We can mock it all we want, but it’s kind of nice to see the town come alive. The festival is like that one uncle who still insists on playing acoustic guitar at family gatherings. You roll your eyes, but deep down, you kind of like it.

It’s Salmon Arm’s biggest tourist magnet. For one weekend a year, the town doubles in size, the restaurants get slammed, and local Airbnb hosts cash in hard. Whether you love it, avoid it, or just enjoy watching out-of-towners try to parallel park on Ross Street, you can’t deny that it puts Salmon Arm on the map.

My bet for next years headliner? Willie Nelson, he's only 92 years old.

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