The Grist Mill and Gardens has now started planning our 2018 schedule of events and have numerous opportunities for musicians and other entertainers.
1) Summer Concert Series
The Grist Mill is a 12 acre Provincial Heritage Site in the heart of the Similkameen Valley featuring western Canada’s only working waterwheel-powered flour mill and stunning gardens. Our Summer Kitchen provides an intimate, rustic outdoor venue for folk, roots and world music for audiences of up to 200 from June to Sept.
Over the last five years, we’ve hosted a very successful evening concert series and will be doing the same again for Summer 2018. We love the line-ups we’ve pulled together, from Juno-winning folk legends like Valdy, Shari Ulrich, Lester Quitzau and Bill Bourne, break-out stars like Old Man Luedeke and Pharis & Jason Romero, rising up-and-comers like Sarah Jane Scouten, 100 Mile House and Scott Cook and crowd-pleasers like Tal Bachmann, Mae Moore, The Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra, The Sweet Lowdown, and The Eisenhauers.
We love acoustic instruments played with skill. We love stories. We love both original compositions and traditional tunes, performed with heart and soul. In terms of genre, we love anything that suits our rustic venue.
Our annual series typically features one outdoor evening show a week from late-June to early September, timed to coincide with the spectacular sunsets here in the Similkameen Valley. Exact dates are somewhat flexible, but we’d prefer Thursday to Saturday evenings to ensure the largest possible audiences.
If you’re part of a group of no more than four members that might be suitable for headlining one of these shows, we’d love to hear from you.
2) Special Event Days
Each year, the Grist Mill hosts a number of special event days with our partners including Victoria Day, Father’s Day, Canada Day, BC Day and Labour Day as well as our Fall Fair in September and Apple Day festival (in October). We’re always looking for musicians or other performers interested in being a part of these family-oriented events and we can accommodate amplified performances in our Summer Kitchen, roving or busking style performances throughout our site and more.
These events are great opportunities for us to work with groups that may fit outside of the genres associated with our concert series.
3) Private Events
The Grist Mill often hosts events such as weddings, reunions or private receptions are are often asked for a list of recommended musical acts to play unamplified in our gardens for their event. Classical guitar, wind or string trios or quartets would be ideal for these sorts of opportunities.
Get in touch so we can add you to our list of suggestions, or even book you ourselves.
4) Use Our Venue
Perhaps none of these other opportunities are quite right for you; maybe you’d like to organize your own performance, and just use us as a venue. If you’re a theatre or dance troupe interested in doing an outdoor show, a band looking for an affordable (and memorable) venue or an event organizer looking for a big space that can do many different things at the same time, please get in touch. For the right event, we can help promote your event, sell your tickets and more. We also have our own sound system suitable for audiences of up to 200 people.
If you’re interested in any of these opportunities, please contact us at entertainers@oldgristmill.ca no later than Feb 15, 2018 so that we can start planning our season’s schedule. We’d appreciate some or all of the following information:
- Group/Artist Name
- Main Contact and contact information (phone #, email address, etc)
- Theme/Style of Music or Type of Act
- Number of performers in act
- Available Dates & Times
- A brief overview of the experience and background of the act
- The rundown of the equipment requirements for your performance
- Compensation expectations
- Any other information you think would help us find the perfect opportunity for you
We would also appreciate a sample of you performing, either a video or audio recording. You can email us links or mail us CDs or DVDs, whatever is most appropriate. If you don’t have recordings, we may request an in-person audition.
Please direct all questions or submissions to Chris Mathieson, Site Operator at entertainers@oldgristmill.ca.