With less than a month to go until the 2023 edition of the Blueberry Jam Music Gathering, organizers are still finding new things to add on to the festival or new ways to find performers.
The next edition of the Jam is four weeks away as of this weekend and more changes are still being announced for the festival. For travellers coming to Flin Flon from outside the north, organizers have struck up a partnership with Calm Air which will mean deep discounts on flights to Flin Flon. From August 2-17, the airline, the sole one that regularly provides public passenger service to Flin Flon Airport, will provide up to a 65 per cent discount on plane tickets to Flin Flon. Fees and surcharges for those flights will still apply.
That measure is meant as another way to get people back up north for the weekend, either as audience members or as performers. Organizers say the performance slate is filling up quickly, including a mix of stalwarts and new talent alike.
“The performers are pretty much set - not much has really changed there. We’re still looking for volunteers,” said Thomas Duncan, this year’s marketing lead for Blueberry Jam.
The festival this year will take place from August 11-13 at its familiar home at the Flinty Campground and will still heavily feature either local talent or musicians with local ties. Other changes for this year’s event have already been made public, such as the reintroduction of the Rotary Wheel as the event’s second stage and removing the wooden dancefloor from the front of the main stage area. The dancefloor has already been removed from the site, which organizers said would allow for crowds to get closer, sound to be heard more clearly and would assist some musicians in carrying forward to the crowd.
Another change was moving the beer garden back to allow for vendors to set up shop on both sides of the main access road between the stage and rear camping area, creating a sort of market space.
Smaller changes are perhaps more trivial but may still help the event. Duncan, a transplant from Ontario, said when he came to his first Blueberry Jam, one thing stuck out to him.
“When we first arrived here, one of the first things we went to was Blueberry Jam and I was really disappointed there was not a single jar of jam to buy anywhere,” he said.
“I went there and thought, ‘Where the hell is the jam?’”
That will be rectified - organizers have already put orders in for dozens of jars of blueberry jam, specifically meant to be sold either at or in conjunction with the event.
Volunteers and vendors are still being welcomed for the event and can register online at flinflonblueberryjam.ca.
