First Edition of Santa Teresa Music Festival Goes Off Without a Hitch

Posted by Mark Di Franco in FringeBlog on May 2, 2017

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An illuminous, colourful stage decorated with pink flamingoes, fenced around a parking lot, gathering the local community of Ste. Thérèse and outsiders of the city for celebrating one thing only—music. This is the Santa Teresa Music/Arts Festival.

This year marks the festival’s very first edition. It was held inside a fenced parking lot behind the Sainte Thérèse D’Avila church, featuring an outdoor stage. Surrounding it were tents selling a variety of products such as music and beverages.

Kicking things off was the Montreal hip hop artist, Rymz. Throughout his set, he energized the crowd by splashing beer around and jumping off stage all while continuing to sing his hit “Fuctorie” without missing a single beat.

After his set, he gave the audience a glimpse of a new song from his upcoming album. He didn’t provide any details for the album or the title of the track, but the excerpt of the song filled the crowd with excitement.

Later on, the famous theme from Warner Bros. pictures begins to play and here out comes the Montreal’s rap group: Alaclair Ensemble.

The group is made up of five members: Kenlo, Maybe Watson, Claude Begin and Ogden on vocals and the last member is Mash, who rarely interacts with the vocalists, but provides them with the necessary beats to rap with.

They kicked off their set with one of their well-known hits, “Mon Cou,” wherein the crowd immediately began reciting the lyrics alongside the performers.

During the set, the members presented several rhythmic transitions such as slow and fast pace patterns within their tracks, familiarizing the audience with different levels of sounds.

What was surprising was how the band incorporated several sounds of musical riffs such as guitar, bass and drums into their repertoire, even if they were only using a laptop with several mixers.

Towards the end of the set, Alaclair created an improvisational track as a way of engaging with the audience. They asked the audience to find dance partners and introduced a slow love song. In no time, a funky fast paced drum beat kicks in and every member from the formation, descended from the stage and sang their part within the crowd.

After the impatient wait for the upcoming musical set, bright blue lights appear from the stage and in walks each of the members from the Franklin Electric

The members from the formation are made up of Jon Matte on guitar/vocals, Martin Desroby on bass, Ken Pressé as backing guitar and Adam Passalaqua on drums.

With no rush, the band quickly kicked off with their first tune, “All Along.”The tune kicked off with the sound of keyboards used to mimic a piano being lightly played upon. Soon, bass and drums softly incorporating a shuffling type of sound to accompany the piano melody. With no wait, the presence of both electric guitars playing electrifying repetitive riffs, while maintaining a consistent beat for the audience to follow.

Each of the songs performed accompanied different shuffling drum patterns, various instrumental solos such as guitars and drums, including percussion instruments such as tambourines used for elevating and providing a solid structure for each of the tracks presented.

The last set of the night was the Canadian electronic music group A Tribe Called Red. The formation consisted of three musicians, Ian Campeau, Bear Witness and Tim 2oolman. Each of these musicians, were set up behind their mixers and soundboards, incorporating pieces of other genres of music such as hip hop, reggae and latin influences into a single given beat.

They hope to expand their lineup next year, and continue to attract big crowds in future editions of the festival.