Rock the Boat Music Festival was another great success in 2019!
Last weekend’s Rock the Boat Music festival had something for everyone. The annual festival, an extension of the Tyne Valley Oyster Festival took place at the scenic Green Park Provincial Park.
The day’s events were hosted by Joee Adams of East of the Dial.His humour and stage presence were a big hit with the crowd and with each artist announcement, he’d fire up the eager crowd more and more, getting them excited for each act to approach the stage next.
The first act of the festival were Summerside, PEI’s own, Soul Filter, featuring the founding husband and wife duo of Karen and Mike Penton. They featured songs from their latest album, A Minor Conspiracy, released in December 2018 to get the crowd going!
A PEI party “Up West” would not be the same without the wonderful, The Ellis Family Band (featuring Brian, Rick, Steve, Dave Ellis and Greg MacDonald)! As always, The Ellis Family Band were a huge hit with the crowd performing some of their classic hits like “Easy to Love”, paired with great covers like Brooks and Dunn’s “Brand New Man”
The next act to grace the stage was another PEI favourite, and a favourite of the day – Haywire! After almost 40 years together, members David Rashed, Paul MacAusland, Marvin Birt, Ronnie Switzer, and Sean Kilbride still have that amazing spark and the crowd ate it up! With the performing of classics like “Bad Bad Boy,” “Standing in Line,” and “Dance Desire,” to name a few, the crowd were dancing and singing along throughout their entire set, and were left wanting more and more!
The nostalgia vibes continued with Honeymoon Suite hitting the stage next! Members Johnnie Dee, Derry Grehan, Dave Betts, Gary Lalonde, and Peter Nunn brought the house down with classic hits like “Burning in Love,” and “New Girl Now,” along with some new tracks that are to be released later this month!
Up next were Canadian Country- Rock powerhouse group The Road Hammers consisting of Jason McCoy, Clayton Bellamy and Chris Byrd. They ROCKED that festival to it’s knees and had the crowd in the palm of their hands through their entire set, which consisted of hit, after hit, with tracks like “Mud” and “I’m A Road Hammer,” along with their amazing versions of “East Bound and Down” and “I’ve Been Everywhere.” They’re always welcomed performers on Prince Edward Island and it was clear by the crowd that night the love was definitely mutual!
The final act of the night was the highly anticipated Canadian- rock group Big Wreck, consisting of Ian Thornley, Dave McMillan and Chuck Keeping. The group this year faced a lot with the very recent passing of bassist and brother in arms, Brian Doherty, but they pushed forward together, as I am sure he would have wanted them to, and played hard for the Tyne Valley crowd with hits like “The Oaf (My Luck Is Wasted)” from their debut smash “In Loving Memory Of..” along with new singles like “Locomotive” from their upcoming new album, “…But for the Sun.”
This year’s Rock the Boat Music Festival was one for the books, for sure. Fans are already excited to see what will happen in 2020, and like always, you can count on ACR to bring you updates as they come!