What an amazing day for a Street Market in Vegreville! This was the second Street Market for this year, and the streets were alive with vendors, residents, visitors and musicians alike. They came from all over and enjoyed the good music, food and shopping in the heart of Vegreville. Of note were Bob and Rae Nurse of Moose Jaw Saskatchewan who made this street market event in Vegreville as a destination point on their prairie holiday travels. We also were pleased to have visitors from England and the USA as they came for family events in town.

Starting off at 10 am, the Off Ramp Boys (known as Vegreville’s tallest band), consisting of Randy Kereliuk, Ralph Lange, Rob Hughes got the music going with Big River, Faded Love, Cajun Fiddle, Long Time Gone, and Wrapped Around. Lorne Fill was up next with songs including Mr. Bojangles, Nickelodeon and an original instrumental called Tango in the Street.

Roger Harrison from Holden, with Rob Hughes on drums sang songs including a collection of original songs including Romance Flats, Rum & Whatever and a couple of Tom Petty songs. Rob Hughes joined him on drums. The Barter Trio (Malachi, Micah and Mike) from Chipman played a collection of fiddle tunes including Red Wing and St. Anne’s Reel with Malachi on fiddle, Micah on Ukulele and Mike on 12 string guitar. Bailey Stefan continued the music through the lunch time with songs including Hold Back the River, Sweater Weather, Jolene, and Pumped Up Kicks.

The weather was sunny all day and the Perogies & Jam white tent was great for keeping temperature down as the music heated up.

In the afternoon, The Off Ramp Boys, Lorne Fill, Bailey Stefan, and The Barter Trio performed second sets. Andy Bouchard from New Brunswick helped out on acoustic guitar on a couple of numbers with Lorne Fill and Bailey Stefan. What a great day it was! By the time the Street Market closed at 4 pm, the temperature was 26? C and the music audience was cooling off under the shade of the street tent with cool beverages.

Perogies and Jam thanks the Vegreville Chamber of Commerce and the Town of Vegreville for continuing to include us as an important part of these Street Markets and we’re pleased that this was another successful event. We look forward to vEGGfest on August 29 at the Vegreville “EGG” and another street market on September 12.

Photography by Rob Hughes