Neighbourhood spirit brings music fest to life

Second annual festival encourages community to support local talent

Skeleton Park Music Festival volunteers Greg Tilson
Image supplied by: Season Kam
Skeleton Park Music Festival volunteers Greg Tilson

It’s not often that talk around the neighbourhood turns into action in the shape of a sweet summer festival. But for Greg Tilson, the dream became a reality in the form of the Skeleton Park Music Festival—with a little help from his friends.

Now in its second year, the Skeleton Park Music Festival is held at what is officially called McBurney Park, a large park at Clergy and Ordnance Streets. It has all the requirements for a festival whose mission is to bring a community together: tall, leafy trees, a playground, and a folkloric name.

The “Skeleton Park” name came from the park’s history as a burial ground for Irish and Scottish immigrants in the early to mid-nineteenth century. Remembering the park’s history is something Tilson said is important to the festival’s intention.

“It’s helpful for any community to understand its history, you know, where we’re living and that we’re walking on the graves of people that came here during that time,” he said.

Before the festival began, the McBurney Park Association had an already existing summer solstice celebration, consisting of games and other family- and kid-oriented activities.

Because of the number of musicians and music-lovers living in the neighborhood, members of the association and folks from around the area started talking about getting a festival going.

“It’s a fabulous neighbourhood of young families and artists and musicians,” Tilson said.

After a successful first year, the group of volunteers has grown to about 50 or 60 people who participate in a number of diverse roles, from selecting artists to co-ordinating site logistics.

Volunteers are an important part of any summer festival, according to folk singer Jenny Whiteley, who will be performing at Skeleton Park this year.

“The volunteers [and] the organization are what really makes the difference,” she told the Journal. “Luther [Wright] and I both talked to Greg quite a bit when he was getting started up and we both said ‘Get your volunteers lined up first.’ ”

And while he has “his volunteers lined up,” Tilson is far from an iron-fisted leader. Instead, he said he’s interested in seeing the community as a whole work together to build the festival, and does his part through coordinating subcommittees and chairing meetings.

“The festival strives to be really grassroots, and kind of neighbourhood and community based, and so I see my role as a mediator in that.” Tilson said. “There’s no artistic director or paid staff, which I think is good, because there’s no hierarchy. All the decisions are made by consensus.”

Sometimes, especially when it comes to serious matters like choosing musicians, consensus isn’t as easy as it sounds. A committee of five people of very different backgrounds, ages, and musical tastes gathered to discuss and select the artists.

“There was some heated debate, because with some 50 or 60 applicants from around the community, it’s tough. There’s a lot of amazing applicants,” Tilson said. “The mission is to promote local talent, so the committee is a nice mix of people who have their own perspective on how we can showcase the talent.” Though the narrowing down process was tough, Tilson said he’s happy with the end result, which includes artists like Juno award-winner Whiteley and Luther Wright, as well as emerging artists like Christina Foster, Krista Muir and high school jazz band, the Tangible Ears.

A number of regional artisans and crafters will also be participating in the festival, by displaying and selling their work. Tilson said this is a festival with a clear commitment to the artists who make it happen.

“The idea is that Kingston needs to be creative to find ways to help local artists and musicians make a living,” he said. “We can just create more recognition of the talent in Kingston and help them feel supported and as well, we try to pay them as best we can.”

Taking care of musicians hasn’t come at the expense of festival-goers. Another commitment the festival has made is to be completely free, in an effort to make the festival as accessible and welcoming as possible.

“As soon as you have gates and ticketbooths, there’s going to be a significant number of people that want to come but they can’t. So we’ve worked really hard at getting grants and fundraising, and community sponsors have been amazing,” he said. “We’re so thankful to all the volunteers who have put in the hours to make it happen.”

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content