German celebration

As the autumn chill sweeps in, Morinville Festival Society is warming up the town with the Oktoberfest Food and Jam Festival.

A salute to the town’s German heritage, the one-day festival focuses on a beehive of day activities that range from a guitar exhibit and pumpkin carving to a rock climbing wall and a car show.

But the Saturday festival really comes to a head in the evening with Rocktober, an explosive evening of music with Edgore and The Paul Smith Band.

The family friendly event kicks off at 11:15 a.m. with a street walk starting at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre heading down Main Street to St. Jean Baptiste Park.

At the park, two outdoor stages will be set up for a lazy afternoon of non-stop music from noon to 4 p.m. Acoustic sets will be performed on one stage rotating with a secondary band stage.

The band stage hosts pop rockers Death by Robot, the pop country Jason Bandera Band, 7th Gear and Morinville’s own pop-rock band If We Were Kings.

On a mellower note, the acoustic stage presents the old tyme country guitar of Emma Barrik, country singer-songwriter Justin Hogg, pop singer Shay Esposito and St. Albert’s own Julia Nicholson. Thrown into the mix are acoustic folk duo Gear Sebastian and pop duo Poppy Dream.

Hogg, Nicholson, Esposito and members of 7th Gear are also invited to perform at Rocktober.

“They’ve performed for us before. This time we wanted to give them an opportunity to perform in a $10,000 stage show full of smoke and lights,” said Paul Smith, festival society chair.

The event hub is the beer gardens set up in the park and a free community lunch from noon until 2 p.m. Kelly’s Deli and Bakery is dishing out bratwurst, potato salad, pretzels and strudel.

The festival closes with Rocktober, a splashy evening of music dedicated to dance music.

“We’ve put a catwalk at the front so the audience gets to see local musicians at the same level as someone on TV,” Smith said.

The five-piece Paul Smith Band and the Edgore foursome have planned a full-throttle delivery from the catalogue of Pink Floyd, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Michael Jackson, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Beatles to name a few.

“We want to show Morinville can do big stage shows and we want to develop long-term relationships with musicians and dancers.”