The Southside Shuffle - 2014 Edition

Saturday's Street Shuffle. Pretty good turnout, as usual. And no rain.

One of the things I love about where I live is the festivals in the summer. There are three that happen just a short bike ride away from my home. The Southside Shuffle is one of the big ones, and one that I make sure to get to every year.

Horn players from the band "The Jive Bombers".
I bought a CD... I can't resist a horn section.

This year I decided I would help out. I haven't volunteered at a music festival for quite a long time. I was beginning to feel like I was jinxing the event. It never seemed to fail: if I volunteered, it would rain like hell. Well... seems that still holds true. I only signed up for Friday night, and at about 8pm a storm rolled through that was blowing over tables and sending performers and spectators alike running for cover. Figures. Saturday morning the sun was shining, and the rest of the weekend was beautiful. Thank goodness I didn't sign up for all three days.

One of the "Stilt Guys" dancing in the street.  They are regulars at
Port Credit events.

Saturday afternoon the crowds come out for the "Street Shuffle". Lakeshore Road is closed to traffic and there are bands set up on both sides of the street. The music goes for 6 solid hours, alternating sides so they don't interfere with each other. One band finishes their set, turn around and the next band is starting up. The last couple years I've taken the opportunity to get a load of working photos for potential paintings... this year I was trying to get photos that were decent as actual photos. It gave me a chance to play with the settings on my camera if nothing else. I'll never learn how to use the thing if I don't get out and actually use it. And some of those shots will undoubtably end up as reference for canvas. I just can't help myself.

Steve Strongman on stage Saturday evening. Big crowd for Steve this year... last year he did an acoustic set and there were maybe 30 people there. Obviously winning the Juno has gotten him a bit of attention.

The evening acts after the sun went down were interesting to shoot. The stage lighting in particular gave some cool effects. Most of my night shots didn't turn out that well... I still need to figure out how to do low light shots of people. If you are interested in seeing the rest of my pictures, I've signed up for a flickr account and have uploaded more there. I still have a load to go through, so I will probably be adding to the library for the next week or so. And maybe I'll upload some of my other shots as well. I seem to have a large collection starting...

My painting in the window of Imagemaker Gallery in Port Credit. Perfect spot along Lakeshore Rd. for my work to be
during the festival.