JAMFest returns to Pickering Village in Ajax for Father’s Day weekend

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 dentist office – Dentistry 4 Kids.

Friday’s lineup begins at 7 p.m. and features The Philcos (103 Kingston Road), The Bomb (Courtyard), The Accolades (103 Kingston Road), Snooky Tynes Soul Express Band (Dentistry 4 Kids), Boneyard (100 Kingston Road) and Moka (71 Kingston Road).

Saturday’s entertainment kicks off at noon and boasts Back Alley Prophet (Dentistry 4 Kids), Concrete Soul (Envoy), Ajax Guitar Academy (Dentistry 4 Kids), Twisters (Courtyard), Old Man Flanagan’s Ghost (100 Kingston Road), Recovery Mode (103 Kingston Road), 96 K (109 Kingston Road), Moka (Envoy), Snooky Tynes (Dentistry 4 Kids), Boneyard (100 Kingston Road), Philcos (103 Kingston Road) and Madhaus (Courtyard).

The finale on Sunday will feature seven bands, including Back Alley Prophet (109 Kingston Road), Music 4 Life (Dentistry 4 Kids), Recovery Mode (103 Kingston Road), Just Us (Courtyard), Life of Exile/Incoming Sun (Dentistry 4 Kids), Old Man Flanagan’s Ghost (100 Kingston Road) and Nathan Carr (Dentistry 4 Kids).

Boneyard

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 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.

For more information visit https://www.pickeringvillagejamfest.ca/

Recovery Mode