Local bands focus at this year’s Five Acre Shaker

Out on a 5.46 acre lot just outside of Nipawin, a dream of having a large multi-genre music festival is taking shape.

Craig Day, the organizer of the Five Acre Shaker, said after three years, the event is starting to hit its stride, focusing on local acts like Breezin’, Constant Reminder, Rewind and Shockwave, all of which brought crowds from Nipawin and the surrounding region. Last year, the event featured George Canyon and the Northern Pikes.

Day, who also performed during the festival, said he used his connections to attract the local acts.

“I’ve been in the industry for the better part of 25 years and I just have a lot of contacts, a lot of friends.”

Kelly Kawula from Prince Albert played in the band backing up Day. He plays in three different bands: a hard rock band, a blues band and a country band. He said playing in those different styles has made him a better player.

“I was excited when Craig contacted me in June,” he said. “I just had to make sure I was able to commit to it because I’d knew there’d be a lot of preparation. We’ve been doing lots of rehearsing on my own and as a band, so I wanted to make sure before I committed that I would have the time to dedicate to it.”

Kawula also brought his son out, who plays guitar.

“I wanted him to experience Nipawin and to experience the Shaker.”

To a degree, the Shaker is a family affair. Day’s mother, son and cousins were helping out, doing a whole bunch of tasks to keep the festival running.

“I’ve had my family, for the most part, with us all the way through this.”

Day said it was a similar story for many of the performers at the event.

“Pretty much every band that’s here is camping here, all of their family is here. We love the way it’s growing. It’s going to be a great thing for the Northeast, I think.”

Day said the plan is to continue with the same local focus next year, but he dreams for even more growth in the future.

“It would be a wonderful thing to see us turn into a 15,000-person Craven type of thing with rock, country,” he said. “Nobody does the whole mix of all genres of music, so it kind of brings it all together and makes a family out of it, so it’s a lot of fun that way.”

What will be changing next year is the date. Next year’s event will happen during the August long weekend.

“We’ll be moving to a three-day event, so we’ll be looking for some blues, some folk, all kinds of things next year.”