By Ralph Lange

It was a great start to summer at Vegreville’s first Downtown Street Markets for the season with musical entertainment once again provided by Perogies and Jam.

The June 22 event was led by MC Ralph Lange, as Don Harfield, our usual MC, organizer and jack-of-all-trades was away at a family wedding in Calgary. Randy Kereliuk provided the sound system and was stage hand extraordinaire. The day started out grey and with a bit of scotch mist in the air, causing high humidity, making fiddle bows sag, and the weather cleared up and was fine for the rest of the day. Just as the day came to a close at about 4 pm, and after all the equipment was packed up and the tents folded, only then did rain come down.

Our appreciation goes out to Perogies and Jam regulars Ralph Lange, Randy Kereliuk, Rob Hughes, and Lorne Fill, and our friends from Vegreville (the great all girl performing group B-Cuz, country singer Bob Ashmead and aspiring young keyboard player Tobin Fell), Two Hills (young fiddle and guitar/vocals Leeland Bachelet, fiddle coach and player Heather Soldan), Willingdon (Susie Fehr) and Tofield (Barb Mohr).

To get the day’s music started at 10 am, Ralph (fiddle), with Randy (guitar), played a couple of Bob Wills tunes and a popular Ukrainian dance song “Kolomyka”. The music in the air carried well on Randy’s sound system and could be heard all downtown including at the pancake breakfast at the Rotary Rendezvous Park. Other musical numbers included Randy’s version of ”Wagon Wheel” by the Old Crow Medicine Show and Bob Dylan, which turned into an extended jam with all musicians on hand joining in. Barb Mohr played an excellent set, including a great acoustic version of “Sweet Child o’ Mine”. Lorne Fill was his usual inimitable self, performing folk songs and filling out the sound on other’s sets with guitar improvisation and rhythm accompaniment. Our much appreciated percussionist, Rob Hughes spent almost all day on drums, and when he wasn’t playing, he was taking photos.

Much appreciation goes to the folks with the Town of Vegreville setting up the tents, and to the street vendors for adding to the warm and inviting street market filling our streets downtown. Good job Vegreville!

Photo Gallery
Photography by Rob Hughes