The Capitol Centre’s SHARED BENEFIT summer concert series resumes on Thursday, July 16 this time with North Facing Folk headlining.
The series was brought to life by the Capitol Centre and launched last week. It features a free concert on their Facebook page. Donations are welcomed with all proceeds being split between the centre and the musicians.
North Facing Folk is made up of Verdon Vaillancourt and Ken Hull. The two have been active in the music industry in North Bay for many years and have been a duo since 2013. The band plays a wide variety of folk and roots songs of all sorts, with a primary focus and passion for Canadian songs.
“These pandemic times have been really hard on musicians, as it has with so many of us” said Vaillancourt. “It’s not just the loss of income, but music and performance are as much a part of who we are, as what we do. Normally this is our busiest and most enjoyable time of the year. There have been so few opportunities to express this part of who we are, this performance will be especially enjoyable. Ken and I are really looking forward to this upcoming concert at the Capitol Centre!”
NorthFacing Folk has been active in the music industry in North Bay for many years. Sometime around 2012 or 2013, a chance conversation led to the idea of seeing how a duo would work out and they haven’t looked back since. North Facing Folk plays a wide variety of folk and roots of all sorts, with a primary focus and passion for Canadian songs.
“We were pleased with the viewer turnout and supportive donations for our first Shared Benefit concert last week! We hope that continues through the summer as people tune in to support their favourite local musicians through our summer concert series,” says Dan Misturada, Director of Programming and Events for the Capitol Centre. “Our last shared benefits show did fairly well… and just based off of our Facebook page, nearly two times the amount of people are going to be attending this virtual event.”
The entire series is now booked, and will feature Fox Glove next week, and Eleven Eleven who will end the month of July.
“We had a lot of interest from out of town artists as well,” added Misurada. “Acts from Sudbury, Deep River, Timmins… I wish I had more dates to give them. We were thrilled with the response.”
With Stage 3 announced, the Capitol Center says that they are not ready to open up to the public quite yet.
“Stage 3 opens up some possibilities for us. But for us to operate in a financially responsible way, we need to be able to have at least 100 to 200 people in the building. If we bring in an artist and do a concert for say, 50 people, the ticket prices would have to be ridiculous to cover the costs.”
