Roots and Blues Festival draws big crowds

The 30th annual Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival had massive turnouts, including what is believed to be a record turnout Friday.

“We had record breaking numbers through our gates on Friday, which was pretty exciting, slightly overwhelming at first, but we were so happy to have all the folks on site,” Althea Mongerson, marketing and sponsorship coordinator for the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Society, told Vernon Matters.

“I don’t have [the exact numbers], but I think we had around 5,000 to 6,000 people through our gates on Friday, which was a pretty big deal. Everyone showed up and wanted to see Tom Cochrane on the main stage, which was pretty great.”

Tom Cochrane rocks the main stage at the Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival. (Photo credit: SARBF/Facebook)

Mongerson said the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Society have yet to have a wrap-up meeting to determine the exact amount of people who had passed through the gates between Aug. 19 and 21, but said it was roughly around 30,000 patrons.

“It’s definitely up there as one of our top years. I can’t quite say if it’s record breaking for our whole weekend, but it is up there.”

Mongerson was not aware of how much money they collected through ticket sales, which will go to support future Roots and Blues events.

William Prince, First Nations singer at the Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival Aug. 19. (Rebecca Barton/Vernon Matters photo)

The 2022 event was the return of in-person concerts, as the society had held virtual festivals the past two years during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mongerson stated that having the in-person festival return not only benefited the society, but the region’s economy as well.

“We bring so many people to town, so we know we get benefits when we bring all these people in,” said Mongerson.

“This year we worked really closely with our Downtown Salmon Arm Association and the City of Salmon Arm to bring our festival off of our festival grounds and into town to increase economics in our businesses and get people into our community. That’s really important for our festival and important for our community as a whole.”

She added that this year’s event also saw several small free concerts held throughout Salmon Arm, and that the campgrounds sold out.

Mongerson stated that, aside from the long lines at the gates, there were no issues with having people flock to Salmon Arm for the festival, including no incidents that require police intervention.

Looking at the festival’s operations as a whole, Mongerson told Vernon Matters that the organizers and volunteers were a little rusty returning to an in-person event, but they managed to move past it and put on a successful event with some great musical acts.

“We had really incredible diversity on our stages, diversity of artists, I think our mix of music this year was really spot-on for our audiences, and the flow of our festival and music went really, really well.”

She added they may look to having a larger venue and capacity in future festivals after seeing the turnout this year.

The Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Society plans to hold a wrap-up meeting in the coming days to determine exactly how many tickets were sold, how much money was collected, and brainstorm ways to improve the festival in future years.