Hillside *July 2-24, 2011*

Hillside Festival. Guelph, Ontario.

An every-year-I-look-forward-to-this-amazing-assembly-of-phenomenal-musicians-and-creative-souls festival. Without fail, I HAVE PURE AND FREE FUN every.single.year.

It was my 4th year in a row leading Nia classes at Hillside. Always a pleasure as, without fail, there are some pretty awesome folks beaming ear to ear while they dance and discover their own Joy of Movement.

See the line-up of musicians, workshops and spoken word artists for this year here.

My favourites?

Bands:

Image by ddkkpp via Flickr

Mother Mother They’re a 5 piece indie rock band from Vancouver. I loved the female vocals and the way the women were simply rocking out their keyboards. They were having FUN! And that’s so contagious!

Image by fairysari via Flickr

Hollerado These guys are a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2007, originally from Manotick, ON. Two guitars, a bass, drums and some amazing melodies won my heart. They gave such lively and energetic performance, inviting fans on stage and shooting confetti bombs. Not only that, but they were all over place – the drummer stood on his stool, one guitarist stood on the drums, and they were socializing with each other while performing. You can learn a lot about this band by visiting their website, which is hand drawn. Yes, hand drawn. That just screams personality, non? Also, *FREE* downloads are there for the taking! Go get yours!

Cover of Ganga Giri

Ganga Giri – A musician from Australia who mixes natural elements with tribal beats and funky bass to create a part, tribal part techno experience.  I cannot name the array of drums and instruments that was represented, but it was WILD fun to dance to his music. Ganga Giri was joined by rich dub/reggae dancehall vocalist  Jornick Joe Lick (from French Guyana), drummer Dan Pearson playing live electronic beats, Indigenous songman and dancer Gumaroy, and Yeshe Reiners on percussion and melodic world instruments.  There are also *FREE* downloads on his site – enjoy!

Cover of Emmanuel Jal

Emmanuel Jal I had not planned to see this artist, mostly because I was dreading the annual “Gospel Hour” in which he was playing (anything with even a remote connection to religion sends me running the other way). But am I ever glad that I got over myself and went! Emmanuel was a child soldier in his native Sudan, and through his spoken word performance, he shared what that was all about. When I saw him, he was part way into his performance (which was really a collaboration with the other artists that he shared the stage with).  I’m not certain what he was singing, but it was a song in his Afro-beat / Hip Hop / Soul style with beautiful lyrics related to peace, love and a desire for a safer and his commitment to advocate for a more harmonious world.

Workshops:

I didn’t get to a whole lot of workshops this year. Because I was mostly busy visiting the music stages, swimming and generally just taking it all in. But it really always amazes me the quality and variety of workshops that are offered. With more than 10 workshop tents on the offer, you can learn about anything from writing to gardening to bicycle mechanics to sustainability and menstruation to juggling to photography to raising backyard chickens. For real!

Body, Breath and Sound with Rose Gowling (Drum & Dance Tent)

I arrived part way through this workshop, and there was a whole lot of crazy fun dance activity happening! There were probably 20 drummers accompanying the dancers in a very funky African dance routine. I can’t find a website for Rose, but she comes up for dance activities in Hamilton. She was very very fun and a great teacher!

Image via Wikipedia

The Joy of Poi with Margie Johnson  (Active Living Tent)

Margie has been at Hillside every year that I’ve been there. In one short hour she had us spinning and doing tricks with tennis ball sets on strings.  I’d love to hang out with her and learn more (especially about using fire!)…but can’t find her in Google land…

Capoeira with Lang Liu (Drum & Dance Tent)

Capoeira is still a little mysterious to me, but is described as a blend of dance, fight, music, play and philosophy. And you don’t “do” Capoeira, you “play” Capoeira. I like that idea! The moves require lots of flexibility and agility, but Lang made it very easy and apparently teaches in Toronto. Gonna have to check out a class one day to get more play into my life (I can never have enough!). Learn more about classes with Lang here.