The last few months have been an interesting time for me. I have been caught in the middle of so many personal life questions that it was easy to find myself distraught. Coming from a life of constant music and devotion to my band, to what felt like a complete restart in Ontario was hard for me. It still can be challenging, but I have accepted this new challenge at this point and it only becomes more and more exciting.
I have taken a small break from gigging the last few months because I really wanted to focus on planning and properly executing my next moves. It has taken me a while to realize what exactly it was that I wanted to do next, and how to really mean it. Of course, my EP is something that is at the forefront, but I need more knowledge and wisdom in my life. I need to create opportunities for myself to play a role, to network, to help others like I hoped for people to help me when I was practicing my ass off and applying for festivals.
As some of you may know, I took on the role of Social Media Coordinator for The Carmel Fine Art & Music Festival in November. This was a huge excitement for me because I’ve never had the experience of being part of an actual board. I’ve shadowed festival producers before, but never was I an integral part of an event such as this. I worked on this for a few months, but the Festival President, the Festival Administrator and I soon came to realize that Social Media wasn’t exactly my strength. Though I’ve been doing great at my own social media for years, there were a lot of things that I didn’t know when it came to promoting something that I hadn’t nipped away on for years. Of course, I was always willing to learn and did my best – but the passion just wasn’t there, and they recognized where my passion truly belonged, and did something about it.
The position for Music Coordinator happened to open up a few weeks ago, and though I was tempted to apply for it, I didn’t want to commit to another huge task and not be able to execute it properly. Luckily enough, a new, intelligent woman came onto the board as Web designer, but she had more talents. She has gone to school and has real experience with social media and promotions, along with web design. It seemed as if the universe had heard my prayers, and I have now been offered the position as Music Coordinator for the 2018 Carmel Fine Art & Music Festival. I am so honoured and I feel blessed. This is a position that I’ve always wanted, and it begins now.
I now have the opportunity to directly work with the musicians that I will be able to bring into the festival this year. I am so excited to hear all of the amazing submissions, and I look forward to meeting all of the artists who will be a part of our event.
This is the position I have always been meant for. My entire music career so far, I’ve dreamed of creating and hosting a festival. This is the first step in gaining knowledge and experience in how to do so. Being behind the scenes in this way gives me a new perspective on my career, and allows me to realize yet again how important it is to have yourself in every corner possible so that when the time comes, you can do it all. You’ve got every skill and every talent in your field, and you will be the person people call on to make moves happen, as well as you will be able to call on yourself to make your own moves happen. That is what you want to be, a Boss.
I will also be helping to create one of the Friday night events for the 2018 Niagara Folk Arts Festival in St. Catharines. An amazing woman named Rhiannon who is also on the board with me for the Carmel Fine Art & Music Festival works with the Arts & Multiculturalism Organization in St. Catharines and has gracefully invited me to assist her in creating an amazing Friday night for their 50th Folk Art Festival. The Festival will run from May 3rd-27th and I will also be performing on the selected Friday evening. More details to come soon.
It is all coming together for me now. I am starting to realize that I absolutely do have the assist in creating amazing festivals and other events. The more experience I gain, the more knowledge I will have and right now, that is my main goal.
Along with that exciting news, I also have a gig coming up this week at one of Niagara Regions best venues, Warehouse. I will be opening the show for local St. Catharines bands J.I.N and Strange Love. Both bands have a beautiful sound and I am grateful to be in such a beautiful venue with musicians who just simply love what they do, and are good at it too. The venue owner Erik is also a great guy in the Niagara Music scene who I can tell has a great mind and I look forward to learning from him. To all my bands coming from out of town, Warehouse is the venue you want to play.
I also want to put a huge shout out out there to Deanna from In the Soil Arts Festival here in St. Catharines. I applied for this festival months ago, but I had no idea that I had been accepted to play. Deanna has been messaging me since December 13th. Yes folks – that is almost 3 full months that have gone by that I have not replied to her messages. For some reason, I hadn’t received a single one of the three messages she had sent me asking for my confirmation to play. She sent me a final fourth message from a different email and I finally received it last Thursday. I was so honoured that someone had put that much effort in to have me play in their festival. I have never experienced that before, and it humbled me. It also made me realize the kind of Music Coordinator I will be when I really believe in the talent of an artist. To me, her reaching out in such a manner goes further than the original acceptance to the festival. At this point, I feel like there are people who have never even met me, who have never seen me perform live that see something special in me that they know they would like to experience and bring into their event. It is the biggest honour to be sought after, and I think that this is a great start.
I am grateful for where I’m at right now. Looking back a year ago, I couldn’t have imagined myself in this position. Every day I still miss my band more than words can describe, but if I fill my time with positive things and helping others in the Music Industry, along with myself – I know that someday the pain of not being with my band wont be so strong anymore, and I’ll truly know that I’ve done the right thing in focusing on myself first.
Love Always,
Lindsay