An interview with Jon Ralston
Entering in to its sixth year, local Elora festival Riverfest has jumped a few massive star points in 2014, bringing in the likes of Blue Rodeo, and multi-Juno winner Serena Ryder to their lineup. Last week, one of the organizers, Jon Ralston, was willing to sit down and discuss this year’s line-up and what it all means for Elora.
Carly Jenkins: This year’s Riverfest lineup has made a huge departure from its origins as a small local night of music, what was the thought behind this?
Jon Ralston: We’ve been working on it for a few years, this is our third year as organizers and we’ve hit a really steep up curve in the size of the festival. Heavily canvassing for sponsors has meant a significantly larger budget for acts, and we think it’s sustainable as a larger event; we just have to get it there. We want Elora to be the music version of what Stratford was thirty years ago, a small community that is a destination because of the large events it hosts. We are building up to running a secondary event as well in the spring, coordinating with the Grand River Conservation Authority to have it on their grounds, hoping it will be just as big.
C.J: Do you think Riverfest losing some of its grassroots beginnings by featuring headliners like Blue Rodeo?
J.R: This year’s headliner Blue Rodeo appeals to such a wide group of people, we started with them, and tried to build a lineup around them of bands and music from lots of other genres, really trying to have something for everyone. Every year we want to incorporate young, local bands, education is an important part of the process. We’ll have workshops throughout the two days and this year a local music school will be performing in our tent show. This is really a community event; we want to bring business and people to the area.
C.J: Who are you most excited about seeing?
J.R: Elliott Brood, just because they’re such a great crowd experience, so fun, they just get everybody moving. And of course Charles Bradley just because he’s so f’ing cool! There’s a documentary called ‘The Soul of America’ about how Bradley is bringing back this style of music to the mainstream, and it’s going to show at the local cinema in the lead-up to Riverfest, just another way we’re trying to build excitement and anticipation about the event. It’s going to be great. We’re all just so excited about all of it.