Ontario’s Forest Festival concerts link nature, ecology and music

The Haliburton Forest & Wild Life Reserve (no, not that Haliburton) has just announced the lineup of its 2009 Forest Festival concert schedule – a popular outdoor concert and events series set over a four-day weekend.

The festival will run from Thursday, August 20 through Sunday, August 23, 2009 at the Haliburton Forest and Wildlife Reserve, where audiences can gather to experience the work of fantastic local Canadian musical performers and artists against a stunning wilderness backdrop of tranquil lakes and unspoiled forest.

The Forest Festival is just one of many unique outdoor experiences offered through the year by Haliburton Forest & Wild Life Reserve, Canada’s first sustainable forest. Held each year, the festival offers unique outdoor concerts and musical performances that compliment the beauty of the surrounding wilderness.

This year’s festival will showcase six performances, including four evening concerts and two matinees, beginning on Thursday night with a concert by Porkbelly Futures featuring Paul Quarrington – a wildly popular, roots/blues band known for its unusual songs dedicated to fundamental folk, roots and blues.

This concert will also feature a “Wolf Howl” at intermission with the pack of captive Western Timber Wolves at the Forest’s Wolf Center. Porkbelly Futures and Paul Quarrington will also perform a matinee presentation of “Words & Music” on Saturday afternoon, where Mr. Quarrington will offer readings from some of his very popular novels prior to the concert.

Come Friday night, Anne Lindsay will join forces with guitar maestro Jason Fowler for a lakeside concert performance not to be missed. With a reputation as one of the most engaging and multitalented instrumentalists in Canada, Ms. Lindsay has worked with numerous musical luminaries including Blue Rodeo and John McDermott. She is also a member of the very popular Jim Cuddy Band.

Jason Fowler is one of Canada’s most gifted guitarists. An accomplished musician of amazing versatility, Mr. Fowler performs musical styles from folk, country and bluegrass, to blues, rock, jazz and classical. Mr. Fowler is John McDermott’s musical Director.

Having made their debut at The Forest Festival in 2007, The Forest Festival Brass is an ensemble of talented principal musicians from major Canadian orchestras who never fail to delight audiences with a varied selection of music, from Handel (Water Music) to Gershwin and R. Murray Schafer. Lead by former Canadian Brass trumpeter Stuart Laughton, The Forest Festival Brass, is slated for evening shows on Saturday and Sunday at the stunning Bone Lake Amphitheatre.

On Sunday afternoon, Anne Lindsay will return to the Bone Lake Amphitheatre with her amazing one-woman show, ‘String Sound Poetry’. In this concert, Ms. Lindsay plays a variety of musical instruments including the multi-stringed Scandinavian Nyckelharpa, the instrument she played as a cast member of the stage production of “The Lord of the Rings” in Toronto. A “not to be missed” performance by this extraordinarily talented violinist/fiddler.

Concert tickets are just $25 for adults, $20 for students, or $80 for all six concerts. For more information, visit www.theforestfestival.com.