JAMFest music and arts festival returns to Pickering Village
Published June 15, 2023 at 11:25 am
The annual three day celebration of music, the arts and the history of Pickering Village will be celebrated this Father’s Day weekend with the return of JAMFest.
Originally known as the Pickering Village Jazz Festival, it evolved into the Pickering Village JAM Festival in 2011 and soon became known simply as JAMFest.
There will be concerts in the courtyard on Old Kingston Road and at various venues around the village, including a couple of dentist offices – Smileline Orthodontics and Kids Dentistry and Dentistry 4 Kids.
Boneyard, Sultans of Singh, Madhaus, Moka, Rachel & Ayden and the Toronto All-Star Big Band will kick off the event Friday (7 p.m. to 11 p.m.) before a ten band lineup takes to the stages Saturday, with Toronto All-Star Big Band, Moka, Boneyard and Rachel & Ayden making repeat appearances.
Other Saturday performers are Cece Pastor and the Word of Mouth, Hard Road, Old Man Flangan’s Ghost, The Philcos, The Bomb and Blue Thumb Envy.
There will also be plenty of vendors on the street including local artists, and food options for any palate. Street food vendors and local restaurants will be offering a diverse menu from Jamaican jerk chicken to poutine, and you can then burn off the calories and dance in the street while musicians re-create the sounds of 50’s rock and roll, blues, jazz and folk.
Or you just walk around the historic Pickering Village (part of the Town of Ajax), which dates back to 1807 and still has buildings from that century, including the Gordon House (1881) and Casa Verde, an Italian restaurant housed in a house built around 1890 that originally served as a birthing house and later as a rum runners’ hideout. The house of the original doctor, erected around 1867, features unusual metal spired cupolas and decorative brick work.
Sunday’s lineup (Noon to 8 p.m.) for JAMFest features Music4Life (Noon-1:30), Two For the Show (4 p.m.), Old ManFlangan’s Ghost (4 p.m.), Nathan Carr (4 p.m.) and three bands to close out the festival scheduled from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.: The Philcos, Sultans of Singh and Just Us.
For more information visit https://www.pickeringvillagejamfest.ca/
