Fredericton festival provides sweet music in the age of physical distancing

Music lovers in Fredericton, N.B., gathered on a sunny Sunday morning to enjoy some live music, a first for many since the pandemic quieted the industry in March.

The Living Roots Music Festival was scheduled to take place at the end of May. This year would have been the festival's fifth year.

But when COVID-19 began sweeping through, organizer Eddie Young knew it was just a matter of time before he would have to cancel this year's festival.

"Obviously disappointed, but I wasn't surprised, I was kinda ready for it," Young said between sets Sunday morning from the patio of The Cap.

The music promoter optimisticallycircled this weekend on his calendarin March with hopes that the industry would be started back up again.

As it happens, a mid-August weekend lined up perfectly for a scaled-back version of the festival with enough restrictions lifted to make it possible.

"A lot of people were feeling down about the whole music scene and things like that, and I really wanted to build, so we can have something left when the whole pandemic is done," said Young about why he decided to hold a smaller version of the festival with public health restrictions in place.

Young said this weekend's music festival looked a lot different than what hehad scheduled for May. The pandemic brought physical distancing at venues, facemasks and hand sanitizer.

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4 years ago

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Outdoor concerts in New Brunswick will now include smaller crowds, masks and physical distancing.

"Smaller, obviously not as many people restricted audience," he said. "But everybody's been loving what's been happening so far."

Maisie McNaughton, an avid concert-goer, missed live music so much that she drove two hours from Richibucto to be in Fredericton for the festival this weekend.

She said it was incredible to see live music again, even if it was strange not being able to dance in front of the stage.

"Now you kinda boogie in your chair, but you still get your claps in and you can hear all the good stuff."

Tickets were sold in advance and people could sit at tables in their bubbles. Each table was spaced apart to give enough room for distancing.

The Cap has three patios that were able to hold 58 people for Sunday's outdoor show, while the performer had the front of the lower deck to themselves.

Musician Michelle Morrison kicked Sunday's show off, and said it was different to perform a show with so many people sitting farther away. Shemissed seeing people mingling in front of the stage.

But she said the new COVID-era music venues work for her music.

She said it was all worth it to be performing live music again with her friends.

"I really missed seeing all these people, you know. And I missed being inspired by other artists and I missed being able to just go support what they're doing."