Kirk Friederich - Photographer
A love of challenging photography and amazing access to top flight entertainers will bring Kirk Friederich back to the Vancouver Island Music Fest this summer for his second year as a volunteer.
"I've been into photography for a long time and I'm into it because it's not easy," he says. "If it was easy I probably wouldn't be doing it. It challenges my brain and that's probably what I like the most about it. I also get to make a living out of it."
His love of photography has been growing for years, at times growing more than he wanted. Kirk started shooting weddings in the early '80s and joined the digital revolution back in 2001. By 2006 his photography had become more than a full-time job. He moved to the Comox Valley from North Vancouver three years ago "looking for less work."
"I worked too much in the city, 70-hour weeks," he says. "I decided to break that down and get away from the city, get some farm land and be a hobby farmer."
The change of pace was the right move for Friederich, giving rise to another of his passions, growing flowers.
"I'm a master gardener and I have three acres on which I am growing 200 varieties of hydrangeas," he explains. "So far, so good."
Why hydrangeas?
"Because there is nobody in Western Canada that is actually growing them for breeding purposes," he says. "It's a hobby, but there are some great side benefits to it because the flowers are sellable to stores in town. We do weddings with them and all sorts of stuff."
But that's not to say he's any less committed to his photography. Kirk still shoots home games for the CFL's BC Lions. He's into wildlife photography too.
"I have a terrible amount of camera gear," he laughs. "It fills a whole room. When people see me coming, it's with three or four bags of camera gear."
For Friederich, volunteering for last year's Vancouver Island Music Festival just felt like a natural fit.
"I saw it as a great opportunity to advance my career," he says. "It certainly makes my portfolio look good, and with the headliners that I saw coming in, I was just so excited to get a chance to get up close and photograph them."
Not surprisingly, photographing performers the likes of k.d. lang and Emmylou Harris was a dream come true for Kirk, as well a career highlight.
"As far as event photography, it was probably the most impressive time I've had," he says. "I look back at those shots a lot and still can't believe I've done it."
Since then Friederich has been working with the Music Fest, shooting performers at other venues like the Cumberland Hotel, for the Music Fest's Concert Series.
"It's quite a challenge," he says. "I find it quite interesting because it's probably photography at its hardest.
"When people shoot with cameras, you've got all sorts of meters to tell you what to set your camera at. But with this, you have to completely go and wing it, because the settings do not apply. It's pretty much experience and trial and error. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It's definitely difficult. Throw in a full house of people and it becomes a challenge and a half."
It's that digital photography revolution that often makes the great shots possible. Friederich might shoot 4,000 photos at a Lions game, hoping to be lucky enough to come away with 75 he considers good enough to submit to the team. A night at the Cumberland Hotel might see him shooting more than 500 pictures.
"Out of that 500, by the time I get home and I edit them, I'm lucky if I've got a dozen good photos," he says. "It's one of the things I've learned about photography. It's all about the volume of photos to get the one good shot."
No doubt Kirk won't be skimping on the shots at this year's Music Fest. His excitement started building as Music Fest organizers began rolling out the names of this year's performers.
"I'm a big fan of John Hiatt and I'm actually getting pumped already," Friederich says. "I'm very much looking forward to it."
"I've been into photography for a long time and I'm into it because it's not easy," he says. "If it was easy I probably wouldn't be doing it. It challenges my brain and that's probably what I like the most about it. I also get to make a living out of it."
His love of photography has been growing for years, at times growing more than he wanted. Kirk started shooting weddings in the early '80s and joined the digital revolution back in 2001. By 2006 his photography had become more than a full-time job. He moved to the Comox Valley from North Vancouver three years ago "looking for less work."
"I worked too much in the city, 70-hour weeks," he says. "I decided to break that down and get away from the city, get some farm land and be a hobby farmer."
The change of pace was the right move for Friederich, giving rise to another of his passions, growing flowers.
"I'm a master gardener and I have three acres on which I am growing 200 varieties of hydrangeas," he explains. "So far, so good."
Why hydrangeas?
"Because there is nobody in Western Canada that is actually growing them for breeding purposes," he says. "It's a hobby, but there are some great side benefits to it because the flowers are sellable to stores in town. We do weddings with them and all sorts of stuff."
But that's not to say he's any less committed to his photography. Kirk still shoots home games for the CFL's BC Lions. He's into wildlife photography too.
"I have a terrible amount of camera gear," he laughs. "It fills a whole room. When people see me coming, it's with three or four bags of camera gear."
For Friederich, volunteering for last year's Vancouver Island Music Festival just felt like a natural fit.
"I saw it as a great opportunity to advance my career," he says. "It certainly makes my portfolio look good, and with the headliners that I saw coming in, I was just so excited to get a chance to get up close and photograph them."
Not surprisingly, photographing performers the likes of k.d. lang and Emmylou Harris was a dream come true for Kirk, as well a career highlight.
"As far as event photography, it was probably the most impressive time I've had," he says. "I look back at those shots a lot and still can't believe I've done it."
Since then Friederich has been working with the Music Fest, shooting performers at other venues like the Cumberland Hotel, for the Music Fest's Concert Series.
"It's quite a challenge," he says. "I find it quite interesting because it's probably photography at its hardest.
"When people shoot with cameras, you've got all sorts of meters to tell you what to set your camera at. But with this, you have to completely go and wing it, because the settings do not apply. It's pretty much experience and trial and error. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It's definitely difficult. Throw in a full house of people and it becomes a challenge and a half."
It's that digital photography revolution that often makes the great shots possible. Friederich might shoot 4,000 photos at a Lions game, hoping to be lucky enough to come away with 75 he considers good enough to submit to the team. A night at the Cumberland Hotel might see him shooting more than 500 pictures.
"Out of that 500, by the time I get home and I edit them, I'm lucky if I've got a dozen good photos," he says. "It's one of the things I've learned about photography. It's all about the volume of photos to get the one good shot."
No doubt Kirk won't be skimping on the shots at this year's Music Fest. His excitement started building as Music Fest organizers began rolling out the names of this year's performers.
"I'm a big fan of John Hiatt and I'm actually getting pumped already," Friederich says. "I'm very much looking forward to it."
Eric Benson - Backstage Security
We all have our reasons for coming back to the Vancouver Island MusicFest. For some it's the music. For others it's the people, or the amazing atmosphere of cooperation and common beliefs.
For Campbell River's Eric Benson, volunteering for MusicFest 2012 was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to turn an old, crushing disappointment into a dream come true.
An accomplished singer/songwriter, Benson comes from Cambridge, Ontario. He spent time in Detroit as a teenager before heading west and settling in Campbell River in 1982.
"I always packed a guitar around with me, played a few chords," he says. "I couldn't sing, and I pretty much destroyed people's songs when I tried to sing them, so I had to write my own if I wanted to keep singing."
That philosophy has carried Benson a long way. He's released four CDs with another on the way. He's hoping one of his recent compositions might be picked up by a major recording artist. There's always something new in the works.
"You just got to keep going," he explains. "It's something I've always done and always wanted to do."
But that drive and determination took a beating a little more than 10 years ago. At the time, Benson was signed to a record label with connections to a number of major U.S. recording artists. Plans had come together to hit the road with a band, opening shows for Emmylou Harris, but at the last minute the plan fell apart when another band got the nod.
"We had a whole set put together and a band ready to go," he recalls. "It all fell through, a big disappointment."
Fast forward to last year, when Benson volunteered to work on backstage security at the urging of friends who've worked backstage at MusicFest for a number of years. Up until then, he hadn't had much experience with the festival.
"I was actually at the MusicFest maybe 10 years ago, just went there for a couple of hours and wandered around, took in a couple of the acts, but I was on my way to Victoria so I couldn't stay," he says. "Last year's MusicFest experience was way, way beyond what I had expected. It was quite a thrill."
Of course the line-up had something to do with Benson's decision to volunteer.
"Emmylou Harris was one of the headliners, so I was thrilled to get a chance to be that up close with one of my idols. It was terrific. I was in the pit out front when Emmylou was performing. Security had let three people into the pit to sit down on these low seats to watch Emmylou. I saw this lady in front of me with a plate of food and I thought 'she looks familiar.' I took a second look and here it was Buffy Sainte-Marie.
"I got to hang out with Buffy Sainte-Marie for about half an hour backstage. I met her band, another thrill of a lifetime. My music teacher in Grade 7 was kind of a hippie and just totally in love with Buffy Sainte-Marie, so she would play her albums all the time for us. And here I was walking on the grounds of the MusicFest talking with Buffy Sainte-Marie."
A friend of Benson's had given him a photo of Emmylou, taken at the Edmonton Folk Festival in the 1970s. Benson had been instructed to get the photo signed. Backstage after her performance, Benson showed Harris the photo and asked if she'd sign it.
"She looked at it, and she pulled it really close, and said 'Oh my God! You have to come to my trailer.'
"Next thing you know, I'm sitting on a couch in Emmylou's trailer. I got a picture taken, she signed my shirt, gave me a big hug. We didn't discuss this missed opportunity. She didn't know who I was, but for me it was almost full circle, that I'd missed this opportunity years and years ago and here I was sitting on a couch in her trailer talking with her.
"It was really a dream come true. It was quite amazing."
Benson will be back at MusicFest this year, even though Emmylou won't. He admits he's hooked on the MusicFest experience and jumped at the chance to volunteer for MusicFest 2013. He says he's coming back not only for the musicians performing on stage.
"This was just amazing," he says. "It wasn't just all this non-stop talent, but afterwards, all these people in Security backstage, most of them were musicians, and very talented musicians. After the last performance, the audience would leave, we'd clean up and then head back to our campsites, get a fire going, set up chairs and everyone brought out a guitar or a violin, banjoes, mandolins. I was stunned at the amount of people who were accomplished musicians that worked this festival.
"So it was just non-stop music. I was in Heaven."
For Campbell River's Eric Benson, volunteering for MusicFest 2012 was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to turn an old, crushing disappointment into a dream come true.
An accomplished singer/songwriter, Benson comes from Cambridge, Ontario. He spent time in Detroit as a teenager before heading west and settling in Campbell River in 1982.
"I always packed a guitar around with me, played a few chords," he says. "I couldn't sing, and I pretty much destroyed people's songs when I tried to sing them, so I had to write my own if I wanted to keep singing."
That philosophy has carried Benson a long way. He's released four CDs with another on the way. He's hoping one of his recent compositions might be picked up by a major recording artist. There's always something new in the works.
"You just got to keep going," he explains. "It's something I've always done and always wanted to do."
But that drive and determination took a beating a little more than 10 years ago. At the time, Benson was signed to a record label with connections to a number of major U.S. recording artists. Plans had come together to hit the road with a band, opening shows for Emmylou Harris, but at the last minute the plan fell apart when another band got the nod.
"We had a whole set put together and a band ready to go," he recalls. "It all fell through, a big disappointment."
Fast forward to last year, when Benson volunteered to work on backstage security at the urging of friends who've worked backstage at MusicFest for a number of years. Up until then, he hadn't had much experience with the festival.
"I was actually at the MusicFest maybe 10 years ago, just went there for a couple of hours and wandered around, took in a couple of the acts, but I was on my way to Victoria so I couldn't stay," he says. "Last year's MusicFest experience was way, way beyond what I had expected. It was quite a thrill."
Of course the line-up had something to do with Benson's decision to volunteer.
"Emmylou Harris was one of the headliners, so I was thrilled to get a chance to be that up close with one of my idols. It was terrific. I was in the pit out front when Emmylou was performing. Security had let three people into the pit to sit down on these low seats to watch Emmylou. I saw this lady in front of me with a plate of food and I thought 'she looks familiar.' I took a second look and here it was Buffy Sainte-Marie.
"I got to hang out with Buffy Sainte-Marie for about half an hour backstage. I met her band, another thrill of a lifetime. My music teacher in Grade 7 was kind of a hippie and just totally in love with Buffy Sainte-Marie, so she would play her albums all the time for us. And here I was walking on the grounds of the MusicFest talking with Buffy Sainte-Marie."
A friend of Benson's had given him a photo of Emmylou, taken at the Edmonton Folk Festival in the 1970s. Benson had been instructed to get the photo signed. Backstage after her performance, Benson showed Harris the photo and asked if she'd sign it.
"She looked at it, and she pulled it really close, and said 'Oh my God! You have to come to my trailer.'
"Next thing you know, I'm sitting on a couch in Emmylou's trailer. I got a picture taken, she signed my shirt, gave me a big hug. We didn't discuss this missed opportunity. She didn't know who I was, but for me it was almost full circle, that I'd missed this opportunity years and years ago and here I was sitting on a couch in her trailer talking with her.
"It was really a dream come true. It was quite amazing."
Benson will be back at MusicFest this year, even though Emmylou won't. He admits he's hooked on the MusicFest experience and jumped at the chance to volunteer for MusicFest 2013. He says he's coming back not only for the musicians performing on stage.
"This was just amazing," he says. "It wasn't just all this non-stop talent, but afterwards, all these people in Security backstage, most of them were musicians, and very talented musicians. After the last performance, the audience would leave, we'd clean up and then head back to our campsites, get a fire going, set up chairs and everyone brought out a guitar or a violin, banjoes, mandolins. I was stunned at the amount of people who were accomplished musicians that worked this festival.
"So it was just non-stop music. I was in Heaven."
James Lithgow - Piano tuner
The Vancouver Island MusicFest main stage has seen no end of musical variety over the years, from the music, to the artists, to the instruments they play.
But within that variety there is a constant that keeps James Lithgow coming back year after year. That constant is the piano, and the amazing, varied landscape of sounds it offers to the appreciative ear.
You could call it 'Zen and the art of musical maintenance'.
Lithgow is the MusicFest piano tuner. He takes to the stage long before the performers, under conditions far from what most of us see.
"I try to get there a little before 6 a.m., 5:30 or so," he says. "That way I can get my vehicle up close to the stage, because I've got a lot of tools in it. I'm kind of battling the back-up alarms on the trucks, but it's well before the guys get there to do their sound check, so I can have relative peace and quite. It's interesting, MusicFest before there's any music.
"It's very Zen-like for sure. It's very meditative. You have to focus. The instrument is starting to warm up for the day. Over the course of the day they go out of tune and every so often I get a chance through the middle of the day to see if anything has gone totally wonky. I get there early in the morning work and watch the place fill up."
Lithgow is the James in James' Piano Service. He's been tuning, servicing and restoring pianos from the mid-Vancouver Island area to the Sunshine Coast since 1995 after he and his wife Kim moved up to the Comox Valley from Victoria.
It was the piano that led him to MusicFest, and MusicFest to him.
"We had a piano store and they needed a keyboard one year," he recalls. "Doug Cox came in and arranged with Kim for the keyboard. That's kind of how we first heard about it. It was the second or third year they were going."
James and Kim have been going to MusicFest ever since. This year will mark James' fifth as MusicFest piano tuner. He says there's no substitute for the real thing.
"There's nothing like a real piano over a keyboard, and if you're going to have a real piano you're going to need to have it tuned. Every so often you get the gravy things to do, like the Vancouver Island Music Festival. The Filberg Festival has always had a real piano and features piano artists and I get there 5:30 a.m. too. So as long as there are real pianos, there'll be a need for piano tuners to work at festivals and things like that. A lot of artists will play a keyboard but if they're offered a piano, the vast majority of them would rather play a piano unless they need a keyboard for a particular sound. It's nice to be involved in making music that way."
Luckily for the rest of us attending MusicFest, the piano speaks to Lithgow on so many different levels. He's long been drawn to the history of the instrument, the craftsmanship that goes into it, the structure of music and a host of other intangibles. There's no doubt he finds great satisfaction in it.
"I love it. It's very interesting work," he smiles. "I know a lot of people think it's like watching paint dry but it's all in the details. It's in the way sound behaves I guess, and the piano produces beautiful sounds. And just the way sound behaves as you move pitches around, what's acceptable to the ear, what the ear doesn't like and why the ear doesn't like certain things, and how we all hear a little differently."
Working on high performance pianos offers Lithgow additional variety.
"With a great many people, their home piano is the only piano they ever play. You sort of go out of tune with it. You go out of condition, the same way that the instrument might go out of condition. You don't notice it because it happens so gradually. But a performer is going around playing a lot of different pianos that are generally well tuned and looked after. So they get to know quite well what they want a piano to do.
"It's the details of that sort of thing that I find intriguing because I see a lot of pianos too. For a pianist who spends hours and hours getting good enough to perform in public, they get to know their instrument pretty well, but they don't always know the technical aspects of it because it's reasonably complicated inside. If the touch is a little heavy, or something like that, they might ask if there's something you can do. Sometimes the way they play will cause a note not to fire the same way, so you need to make adjustments.
"Generally speaking, the pianos that we get at MusicFest are seen by a lot of good technicians doing good work so they arrive to me in very good condition. There's very little to do other than to tune it and just make sure that nothing falls off, make sure that all the latches are in place."
Of course it's an added bonus that Lithgow gets to see some great performers working with the instruments he's tuned.
"Piano-wise, Randy Newman," he says. "He was a treat. What a great song writer and a very good pianist too. He sits down there and it pours out of him.
"There's been a different piano every year. We had a Steinway for Randy Newman and when Holly Cole was there. A good grand piano is an expensive thing, so when a company wants to rent it out they put it on the road like the musicians. The piano goes on the road too. k.d. lang last year had a little upright that her piano player used and they dragged it around with them. It was tucked into the back of their 18-wheeler so they had to empty the truck, take the piano out, and put all the stuff back in the truck. That was a little upright like you might find in anybody's home but the guys who do the sound are pretty good and they made it sound like a million bucks."
And like the performers, the great pianos – with help from Lithgow – bring their own personalities to the MusicFest stage.
"Oh yes, every one is different, and every one tunes differently," he says. "Hand made instruments, certainly, every one has quite an individual character. All pianos, over a period of time, they do develop their own voice like any instrument. The soundboard that helps to produce the beautiful tone of the instrument, it's the same sort of wood as is in the finest violins and cellos and basses and guitars, so yes, over time, properly cared for, they do develop their own voice and their own character."
But it's more than a love of the piano that brings Lithgow, a jazz musician himself, back to MusicFest every year.
"It's the music," he explains. "There's always just enough jazz in MusicFest to keep me there all day, every day.
"I'm here in the Comox Valley. I'm surrounded in trees and beauty. I don't have to put up with a smelly city, and all this great music comes right to my back yard. That's pretty good. I don't have to go into the big city to hear that kind of stuff. It comes here once a year. I can get a great fix that way."
For many more thoughts on the piano, check out his website at jamespianoservice.ca
But within that variety there is a constant that keeps James Lithgow coming back year after year. That constant is the piano, and the amazing, varied landscape of sounds it offers to the appreciative ear.
You could call it 'Zen and the art of musical maintenance'.
Lithgow is the MusicFest piano tuner. He takes to the stage long before the performers, under conditions far from what most of us see.
"I try to get there a little before 6 a.m., 5:30 or so," he says. "That way I can get my vehicle up close to the stage, because I've got a lot of tools in it. I'm kind of battling the back-up alarms on the trucks, but it's well before the guys get there to do their sound check, so I can have relative peace and quite. It's interesting, MusicFest before there's any music.
"It's very Zen-like for sure. It's very meditative. You have to focus. The instrument is starting to warm up for the day. Over the course of the day they go out of tune and every so often I get a chance through the middle of the day to see if anything has gone totally wonky. I get there early in the morning work and watch the place fill up."
Lithgow is the James in James' Piano Service. He's been tuning, servicing and restoring pianos from the mid-Vancouver Island area to the Sunshine Coast since 1995 after he and his wife Kim moved up to the Comox Valley from Victoria.
It was the piano that led him to MusicFest, and MusicFest to him.
"We had a piano store and they needed a keyboard one year," he recalls. "Doug Cox came in and arranged with Kim for the keyboard. That's kind of how we first heard about it. It was the second or third year they were going."
James and Kim have been going to MusicFest ever since. This year will mark James' fifth as MusicFest piano tuner. He says there's no substitute for the real thing.
"There's nothing like a real piano over a keyboard, and if you're going to have a real piano you're going to need to have it tuned. Every so often you get the gravy things to do, like the Vancouver Island Music Festival. The Filberg Festival has always had a real piano and features piano artists and I get there 5:30 a.m. too. So as long as there are real pianos, there'll be a need for piano tuners to work at festivals and things like that. A lot of artists will play a keyboard but if they're offered a piano, the vast majority of them would rather play a piano unless they need a keyboard for a particular sound. It's nice to be involved in making music that way."
Luckily for the rest of us attending MusicFest, the piano speaks to Lithgow on so many different levels. He's long been drawn to the history of the instrument, the craftsmanship that goes into it, the structure of music and a host of other intangibles. There's no doubt he finds great satisfaction in it.
"I love it. It's very interesting work," he smiles. "I know a lot of people think it's like watching paint dry but it's all in the details. It's in the way sound behaves I guess, and the piano produces beautiful sounds. And just the way sound behaves as you move pitches around, what's acceptable to the ear, what the ear doesn't like and why the ear doesn't like certain things, and how we all hear a little differently."
Working on high performance pianos offers Lithgow additional variety.
"With a great many people, their home piano is the only piano they ever play. You sort of go out of tune with it. You go out of condition, the same way that the instrument might go out of condition. You don't notice it because it happens so gradually. But a performer is going around playing a lot of different pianos that are generally well tuned and looked after. So they get to know quite well what they want a piano to do.
"It's the details of that sort of thing that I find intriguing because I see a lot of pianos too. For a pianist who spends hours and hours getting good enough to perform in public, they get to know their instrument pretty well, but they don't always know the technical aspects of it because it's reasonably complicated inside. If the touch is a little heavy, or something like that, they might ask if there's something you can do. Sometimes the way they play will cause a note not to fire the same way, so you need to make adjustments.
"Generally speaking, the pianos that we get at MusicFest are seen by a lot of good technicians doing good work so they arrive to me in very good condition. There's very little to do other than to tune it and just make sure that nothing falls off, make sure that all the latches are in place."
Of course it's an added bonus that Lithgow gets to see some great performers working with the instruments he's tuned.
"Piano-wise, Randy Newman," he says. "He was a treat. What a great song writer and a very good pianist too. He sits down there and it pours out of him.
"There's been a different piano every year. We had a Steinway for Randy Newman and when Holly Cole was there. A good grand piano is an expensive thing, so when a company wants to rent it out they put it on the road like the musicians. The piano goes on the road too. k.d. lang last year had a little upright that her piano player used and they dragged it around with them. It was tucked into the back of their 18-wheeler so they had to empty the truck, take the piano out, and put all the stuff back in the truck. That was a little upright like you might find in anybody's home but the guys who do the sound are pretty good and they made it sound like a million bucks."
And like the performers, the great pianos – with help from Lithgow – bring their own personalities to the MusicFest stage.
"Oh yes, every one is different, and every one tunes differently," he says. "Hand made instruments, certainly, every one has quite an individual character. All pianos, over a period of time, they do develop their own voice like any instrument. The soundboard that helps to produce the beautiful tone of the instrument, it's the same sort of wood as is in the finest violins and cellos and basses and guitars, so yes, over time, properly cared for, they do develop their own voice and their own character."
But it's more than a love of the piano that brings Lithgow, a jazz musician himself, back to MusicFest every year.
"It's the music," he explains. "There's always just enough jazz in MusicFest to keep me there all day, every day.
"I'm here in the Comox Valley. I'm surrounded in trees and beauty. I don't have to put up with a smelly city, and all this great music comes right to my back yard. That's pretty good. I don't have to go into the big city to hear that kind of stuff. It comes here once a year. I can get a great fix that way."
For many more thoughts on the piano, check out his website at jamespianoservice.ca
Lyle MacGregor - Airport Shuttle
It's no secret that many people bring workplace skills to their volunteer roles at the Vancouver Island MusicFest. Lyle MacGregor is one of those. When he's on the job, he drives a bus for BC Transit in Victoria. When he's at the MusicFest, he shuttles performers back and forth from the airport. This will be his third year on the airport crew.
"One of the things I like about it is we're the first and the last point of contact for all the artists," he says. "So it's really important for the airport crew to be good ambassadors for the festival."
He'd been volunteering as a driver for the Victoria Jazz Festival and found it was a great way to get to know the inner workings of the event.
"I'm more a behind-the-scenes kind of guy so this seemed to be a good opportunity to get to know how things actually operated," he says. "A good friend of mine, Kelly Nakatsuka, is a producer with CBC Radio and he comes up every year to the Vancouver Island MusicFest. We were out for coffee one day and he said 'I'm going to this festival. You should check it out.' I never looked back. So thank you CBC.
"I had looked at volunteering on any of the crews and the only one that was available at the time was the airport shuttle. You need a specific driver's license to do that. I have a Class 2 bus license."
But even though his work and his volunteering both involve driving and people-handling skills, volunteering for the airport crew offers MacGregor a much-welcomed change which doesn't feel like work.
"As a Transit driver you're just picking up people and your interactions with them are very brief. Picking up the artists and transporting them around from the airport and to their hotels, we really get to know the artists, and not when they're performing," he says. "We get to see the real side of who these people are, see them at their worst, hopping off a plane after doing a concert in Toronto the night before. They're usually fatigued and tired, sometimes talkative and sometimes not. We get to see them when they're not on the stage. I really enjoy that part. It's extremely refreshing to see them just as regular people."
But that's not to say Lyle is eager to tell stories about this other side of the artists he's encountered. He's transported a number of high-profile artists, but he's also the picture of discretion.
"What happens in the van, stays in the van." he says. "One of the neat things about how Doug (Cox) runs the festival is that we try to make it a really positive experience for the artists, not putting any pressure on them and keeping everything fairly confidential when we're driving. Making sure that they have a really good, relaxing experience, that they don't feel pressured or anything like that.
"One of my favorite parts of the experience, is when multiple artists show up at the same time, and we'll transport them together in the vans. This is what Doug's version of the MusicFest is all about, this collaboration. What we'll overhear in the van is the artists meeting each other for the first time. They may have heard of each other somewhere and they start sharing stories about different gigs that they've done, different venues that they've played. Sometimes they'll be sharing a stage together and this is the first time that they have a chance to meet.
"It's also really neat to witness people who have played together before, sometimes as long as 20 years ago, and they're seeing each other for the first time in 20 years. A lot of that happens at the airport when they come in off different flights. It's definitely a privelidge. This is a part of MusicFest that a lot of the other volunteers and the audience never get to see. This is the behind-the-scenes stuff where relationships are made or rekindled and where the masks are put aside, the performance is put aside, and people are just having a chance to connect and be real."
Lyle says it's not at all strange to be volunteering from as far away as Victoria. So many people come to MusicFest from the South Island and many of them come to volunteer as well as to enjoy the music and the MusicFest experience.
He also likes working on the airport crew because it doesn't offer set shifts, "because of the nature of what we do."
"We start around five o'clock in the morning and we can go to 11:30 or 12:00 at night, but not all in one shot," he says. "We may end up taking an artist to the airport for a 5:30 flight, hanging around the airport until 7:00 when the next artist comes in, taking them to their hotel. We're finished by 8:15, then we go back and do it again at 11:45. It's a very sporatic schedule. The downside is if you want to spend the afternoon in front of a stage, for six hours, watching that stage all day long, it's not the crew for that. We certainly try to accommodate. If there's a specific artist that's a must-see for a particular volunteer, then we'll try to accommodate that particular wish and we'll have another volunteer do the driving.
"It's a great way to see the fesitval. On occasion I'll miss an act that I want to see. That can be frustrating. This year's line-up is incredible so there's certainly going to be a lot of negotiation around which people I'm picking up and when. I'm really juiced about Walk Off The Earth coming, and the 24th Street Wailers. I was absolutely blown away by them (last year)."
He says the job is very dynamic in other ways. The crew size and cast varies from year to year, and the best laid plans are still only plans.
"We may have a plan on Thursday before the festival starts, and by Thursday night it's changed already, and it'll continue to change throughout the weekend as people's travel plans change. Flights may get delayed, or somebody might miss a flight. So we have to be really flexible and really dynamic, available to change at a moment's notice, depending on what's going on with the artists.
"There's never a dull moment and you always need to be ready."
Volunteering for the airport crew offers MacGregor another unique insight into the seemingly contradictory life of performers. They live in a world that often sees them arrive for work exhausted, only to leave after work excited and invigorated.
"A lot of them will come in and the first thing they want to do is just sleep in the back of the van," he says. "(But coming off the stage) they're different. As any performer will know, once you've performed, there's definitely a different energy that happens, especially at MusicFest. There's such an incredible energy that comes from the crowd, that a lot of these artists are really, really charged up, really enthusiastic.
"I've never had someone come off the stage and say 'oh, thank God that's over.' They're always coming off with big grins on their face and really enjoying their time at MusicFest, so it's nice to see the switch. They'll come in fatigued, they'll do their gig at MusicFest and they're just charged up by the audience."
"One of the things I like about it is we're the first and the last point of contact for all the artists," he says. "So it's really important for the airport crew to be good ambassadors for the festival."
He'd been volunteering as a driver for the Victoria Jazz Festival and found it was a great way to get to know the inner workings of the event.
"I'm more a behind-the-scenes kind of guy so this seemed to be a good opportunity to get to know how things actually operated," he says. "A good friend of mine, Kelly Nakatsuka, is a producer with CBC Radio and he comes up every year to the Vancouver Island MusicFest. We were out for coffee one day and he said 'I'm going to this festival. You should check it out.' I never looked back. So thank you CBC.
"I had looked at volunteering on any of the crews and the only one that was available at the time was the airport shuttle. You need a specific driver's license to do that. I have a Class 2 bus license."
But even though his work and his volunteering both involve driving and people-handling skills, volunteering for the airport crew offers MacGregor a much-welcomed change which doesn't feel like work.
"As a Transit driver you're just picking up people and your interactions with them are very brief. Picking up the artists and transporting them around from the airport and to their hotels, we really get to know the artists, and not when they're performing," he says. "We get to see the real side of who these people are, see them at their worst, hopping off a plane after doing a concert in Toronto the night before. They're usually fatigued and tired, sometimes talkative and sometimes not. We get to see them when they're not on the stage. I really enjoy that part. It's extremely refreshing to see them just as regular people."
But that's not to say Lyle is eager to tell stories about this other side of the artists he's encountered. He's transported a number of high-profile artists, but he's also the picture of discretion.
"What happens in the van, stays in the van." he says. "One of the neat things about how Doug (Cox) runs the festival is that we try to make it a really positive experience for the artists, not putting any pressure on them and keeping everything fairly confidential when we're driving. Making sure that they have a really good, relaxing experience, that they don't feel pressured or anything like that.
"One of my favorite parts of the experience, is when multiple artists show up at the same time, and we'll transport them together in the vans. This is what Doug's version of the MusicFest is all about, this collaboration. What we'll overhear in the van is the artists meeting each other for the first time. They may have heard of each other somewhere and they start sharing stories about different gigs that they've done, different venues that they've played. Sometimes they'll be sharing a stage together and this is the first time that they have a chance to meet.
"It's also really neat to witness people who have played together before, sometimes as long as 20 years ago, and they're seeing each other for the first time in 20 years. A lot of that happens at the airport when they come in off different flights. It's definitely a privelidge. This is a part of MusicFest that a lot of the other volunteers and the audience never get to see. This is the behind-the-scenes stuff where relationships are made or rekindled and where the masks are put aside, the performance is put aside, and people are just having a chance to connect and be real."
Lyle says it's not at all strange to be volunteering from as far away as Victoria. So many people come to MusicFest from the South Island and many of them come to volunteer as well as to enjoy the music and the MusicFest experience.
He also likes working on the airport crew because it doesn't offer set shifts, "because of the nature of what we do."
"We start around five o'clock in the morning and we can go to 11:30 or 12:00 at night, but not all in one shot," he says. "We may end up taking an artist to the airport for a 5:30 flight, hanging around the airport until 7:00 when the next artist comes in, taking them to their hotel. We're finished by 8:15, then we go back and do it again at 11:45. It's a very sporatic schedule. The downside is if you want to spend the afternoon in front of a stage, for six hours, watching that stage all day long, it's not the crew for that. We certainly try to accommodate. If there's a specific artist that's a must-see for a particular volunteer, then we'll try to accommodate that particular wish and we'll have another volunteer do the driving.
"It's a great way to see the fesitval. On occasion I'll miss an act that I want to see. That can be frustrating. This year's line-up is incredible so there's certainly going to be a lot of negotiation around which people I'm picking up and when. I'm really juiced about Walk Off The Earth coming, and the 24th Street Wailers. I was absolutely blown away by them (last year)."
He says the job is very dynamic in other ways. The crew size and cast varies from year to year, and the best laid plans are still only plans.
"We may have a plan on Thursday before the festival starts, and by Thursday night it's changed already, and it'll continue to change throughout the weekend as people's travel plans change. Flights may get delayed, or somebody might miss a flight. So we have to be really flexible and really dynamic, available to change at a moment's notice, depending on what's going on with the artists.
"There's never a dull moment and you always need to be ready."
Volunteering for the airport crew offers MacGregor another unique insight into the seemingly contradictory life of performers. They live in a world that often sees them arrive for work exhausted, only to leave after work excited and invigorated.
"A lot of them will come in and the first thing they want to do is just sleep in the back of the van," he says. "(But coming off the stage) they're different. As any performer will know, once you've performed, there's definitely a different energy that happens, especially at MusicFest. There's such an incredible energy that comes from the crowd, that a lot of these artists are really, really charged up, really enthusiastic.
"I've never had someone come off the stage and say 'oh, thank God that's over.' They're always coming off with big grins on their face and really enjoying their time at MusicFest, so it's nice to see the switch. They'll come in fatigued, they'll do their gig at MusicFest and they're just charged up by the audience."
