One of the food vendors at the Ponderosa Art and Music Festival was Crystal Creek Orchard out of Oliver. Rosa and Ross Zahrabi were there offering a healthy food choice that was much appreciated by all the campers and musicians.
I didn’t get around to asking, but I think Rosa and Ross are the parents of Kia Zahrabi who, along with Kris Hargrave, organized the event. Kia and Kris seemed to have a good attitude about the light turnout for this inaugural year, saying they gained valuable experience that will help them in promoting next year’s event.
Essentially Kris and Kia brought some of the best Indie groups in B.C. to Rock Creek for an end-of-summer experience that will be long remembered.
Throwing that much raw talent together in one place for a weekend, there is no telling what new sounds might come out of it in the future.
The musicians themselves seemed very happy and many were encouraging Kia and Kris to get started on next year’s Ponderosa.
The dais provided a stage for many bands on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons and a professional quality main stage was trucked in for the nighttime show.
I don’t know if synth players go around with resume’s or not, but listing your attendance at the 2013 Ponderosa would certainly provide a conversation starter for potential employers.
Ponderosa promoters brought a class act to the community and if they can make it go in the future there could be some solid positives for the West Boundary.
One thing that rural areas are desperate for are young families.
Many people at the festival said the community impressed them. Quite likely, a sizeable number of those who came were in the Boundary for the first time.
Perhaps some of those young folks will find that the friendly people and the beautiful scenery of the Boundary just won’t leave their heads and they will find an excuse to keep coming back until they find an excuse to stay. That’s how a lot of folks have come to call the Boundary home.
Families, kids, schools—attracting people can be as good for economic development as attracting investment.
These young folks are smart and creative.
I spent a lot of time over the weekend trying to understand Indie music. Something of a challenge for me because I pretty much gave up on listening to new music back when KISS came along (that pretty much corresponds to the time I moved to the Boundary). Of course, back then I could only pull in two signals: CBC radio or CBC TV.
Special K, who grew up in Boston during those years, is constantly amazed at how much I missed. For instance, I didn’t actually know who John Belushi was until he died.
But this Indie genre and the people who make it impressed me—and I’ll be looking forward to seeing them again next year.
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If you happened to be a wasp researcher looking for a good place to set up an experiment last weekend then the fruit stand at the Ponderosa was about the best place going.
When I walked past on Saturday afternoon there was Rosa waving her arms all over the place shooing the wasps away. So when I went back on Monday morning I made a point of asking Rosa if she had found anything that worked to solve a wasp problem.
Her advice was grapefruit juice—four inches poured into the bottom of a pop bottle or used to bait a wasp trap really got their interest.