{"id":16377,"date":"2017-01-26T12:43:18","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T17:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=16377"},"modified":"2017-01-26T12:43:18","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T17:43:18","slug":"musicaurora-launches-three-festival-mandate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/musicaurora-launches-three-festival-mandate\/","title":{"rendered":"MusicAurora launches three-festival mandate"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Music lovers filled an Industrial Parkway South warehouse transformed into Aurora\u2019s premiere music venue on Saturday night for the formal launch of the Aurora Winter Blues Festival \u2013 and its new \u201cparent\u201d MusicAurora.
\nOver 200 revellers filled the warehouse of Almac Industrial Systems for the invitation-only party headlined by award-winning singer Angel Forrest and featuring The Cara Lea Band.
\nIt wasn\u2019t just a party to set the tone for February\u2019s month-long program all leading up to the Aurora Winter Blues Festival on February 24 and 25, but the true launch of the newly-formed collective MusicAurora, which aims to bring three music festivals to Aurora and be a \u201chub\u201d for local talent.
\n\u201cMusicAurora really is an umbrella organization and we\u2019re rolling three festivals under MusicAurora \u2013 the York Simcoe Youth Music Festival, the Aurora Winter Blues Festival (AWBF), and the newly-launched summer music festival,\u201d said AWBF co-founder Jamie Macdonald. \u201cIt is going to give us huge economies of scale and will mean bigger and better things coming to the Town of Aurora moving forward.\u201d
\nThis year, the sounds of summer will ring out from Town Park thanks to the relaunch of the Aurora Music Festival, which debuted last summer at Highland Park.
\nA passion project of John Abel, the Councillor was on hand Saturday night to give the new festivals a boost.
\n\u201cThe summer festival will be in August and will feature Youth in Music and some great headlining acts,\u201d said Councillor Abel. \u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to seeing you all on the long weekend in August at fabulous Town Park.\u201d
\nIn the meantime though, the attention of MusicAurora is focused squarely on the Aurora Winter Blues Festival.
\nThe fun kicks off Saturday, February 4 in the showroom of Highland Automotive with the AWBF Blues Bash, headlined by the All-Star Jam Band. Featuring great music, door prizes, a live and silent auction, and lots of food, the event also serves as a showcase for CHATS (Community and Home Assistance to Seniors) and Blue Door Shelters, two local non-profits that will once again benefit from festival proceeds, along with the AWBF Youth in Music Program.
\nContinuing from February 4, Aurorans can take part in several pop-up music performances in various locations around Town, as well as enjoy programs organized by Festival partners the Aurora Cultural Centre and Royal Canadian Legion.
\nOn Friday, February 10, the Aurora Cultural Centre hosts the Friday Night Blues Party featuring Diane Brathwaite and Chris Whitely. The following weekend, on Saturday, February 18, Groovestra will blow the proverbial roof off the Royal Canadian Legion at the \u201cRaise the Roof\u201d Rhythm & Blues Dance, which will also help support the Legion\u2019s fundraising efforts for a new roof.
\nThen, the following Friday, February 24, the AWBF kicks into high gear with the first night of the Festival proper.
\nStarting at 7.30 p.m. at St. Andrew\u2019s College \u2013 a first for the Festival, which previously used Theatre Aurora as a base \u2013 \u201cMasters of the Blues\u201d takes the stage, featuring the Downchild Blues Band with special guests the Spencer MacKenzie Band.
\nThe Aurora Winter Blues Festival concludes Saturday, February 25 at 7 p.m., again at St. Andrew\u2019s College, with \u201cLady Plays Guitar\u201d featuring renowned musicians Sue Foley, Suzie Vinnick and Cecile Doo-Kingue.<\/p>\n

Tickets for the February 4 Blues Bash are available online from the Festival website, www.awbf.ca, as well as from CHATS and Blue Door Shelters. Tickets for the February 10 and February 18 events are also available online as well as from the Aurora Cultural Centre and Royal Canadian Legion respectively. For a full roster of activities, and tickets to the February 24 and 25 Festival, visit the website.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Music lovers filled an Industrial Parkway South warehouse transformed into Aurora\u2019s premiere music venue on Saturday night for the formal launch of the Aurora Winter Blues Festival \u2013 and its new \u201cparent\u201d MusicAurora. Over 200 revellers filled the warehouse of Almac Industrial Systems for the invitation-only party headlined by award-winning singer Angel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4g9","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 09:11:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}