Sweet Music and Some hard Truths At Blue Skies MusicFestival

Jeff Green | Aug 07, 2025

A warm, but not too hot, rain-free August long weekend is always good news for the Blue Skies Music Festival, which draws a couple of thousand people to a rolling site halfway down the normally quiet Clarendon Road, which runs east off Road 509 across from the Ardoch Road.

And this year was no exception.

After 53 years, the festival also includes a children's art and music camp in the third week of July, and an adult music camp, in the run up to the festival itself. Both camps and the festival itself sell out every year, although there are always day passes available to the festival even though camping passes are harder to come by.

Blue Skies artistic director, Kate Weekes, in her second year in that role, continued to focus on International rhythms, drawing on the Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa melting pots, and beyond, for world rhythms.

Innu artist Shauitt opened the festival on Friday night, followed by a queer Texan singer songwriter Creekbed Carter, and then the Toronto-based Moskitto Bar, returned to the festival to end the night with their complicated dance rhythms from Europe and the Middle East. It was the strongest Friday Night show in many years.

Kate Weekes has also developed relationships with other festivals in Quebec to be able to attract European musicians to Canada, to play.

This year, two trios, Trojka Nomad from France and the Lena Johnson Trio from Sweden, graced the stage on Saturday and Sunday Night, respectively.

Rebecca Campbell, who first performed at Blue Skies in 1986, as far as she remembers, brought her dynamic Toronto-based current project, Special Interest Group, as the Saturday Night Dance band.

And another Blue Skies veteran, of sorts, Kingston based (Piner) Claya Brackenbury, was the second to last band on Sunday Night. Although still in her mid 20s, Claya has been coming to Blue Skies with her family, attending kids camp and learning to play music, for most of her life. So bringing her full band and rockin' the night away was a big moment for her, even though she just came back from the Winnipeg Folk Festival which has 10 times the attendance, and profile.

Lara Klaus, a Montreal based Brazilian drummer and singer, arrived at the festival site just after noon on Sunday, but by the time she began her set at 10pm, she had infected the site with rhythm at a couple of workshops, including a drumming workshop at 5pm, that lasted 90 minutes.

Her night time set ended the festival on a triumphant, joyous note.

But there were other elements to this year's festival that added a certain depth,

The festival can be a reprieve from the world for performers and attendees, but with smoke in the air from wildfires out west as a reminder, there is no way to remove any event from the politics that are part of our lives right now.

Cairo born and Toronto-based Maryem Tollar, who has had a long career as a singer and musician in Toronto and around the world, often playing with her husband Ernie, came with their current band Al Qahwa. Al Qahwa means Coffee House in Arabic, the place where people meet to discuss their lives and what is going on in the world.

In addition to the Tollars, Al Qahwa includes Sudanese born bassist and singer Waleed Abdulhamid, percussionist Naghmeh Farmahmand, and Demetri Petsalakis on the Oud.

Their most recent recording, Weyn Allah, released in 2023, features original songs.

While for the most part Al Qahwa’s music is full of humour, romance, and joy, when Maryem Tollar introduced the title track from Weyn Allah, which translates to English as “Where is God” she talked about how the song has taken on added meaning, in the context of what is happening in Palestine at this very moment.

Her poignant vocal performance on Weyn Allah and on some of the other political songs that Al Qahwa performed, were powered by her conviction as much as her haunting voice.  The pain and suffering of an entire nation whose children are dying of disease, gunshots and starvation at the hands of an occupying force bent on death and destruction, put the party atmosphere of a summer festival into stark relief, if only for a short time.

The chorus of Weyn Allah says it all: “Indigenous, beige skin, brown skin, black skin, and across the ocean, don’t forget the Palestinians” is followed by the refrain “Rise up, where’s the justice in this world, Rise up, we must make our voices heard, Weyn Allah, Weyn Allah …” 

Another performer who pushed into the territory of hard truth was Leonard Sumner, the opening act on Sunday Night.

Leonard Sumner is Anishnaabe from Little Saskatchewan First Nation, which is located in Manitoba. He performed a 45-minute set accompanying himself on guitar.  His music mixes genres, combining hip-hop, country-roots (aka folk music) and spoken word, he talks about where he has come from, the role he plays as a musician, a truth-teller and a healer.

He originally performed under the state name of MC Lorenzo, but came to realise he did not have to take on anyone else’s persona to have an impact on audiences. He sang about joys and struggles, about love and loss, life and death, but also about what Canada is really all about. One of his more powerful pieces is called “I knowYour Sorry” which is available for viewing on Youtube:

The song needs to be heard in its entirety, and like Maryem Tollar’s “Weyn Alla” it cannot be forgotten once it is heard.

“I know you're sorry. You say you’re not to blame. You Fill your heart to brim with guilt, But not an ounce of shame. Break branches off our family trees, And tell us times have changed.”