The Five Acre Shaker has announced its first headliner.
The Alberni Valley’s biggest music event will kick off its fifth year from August 9-11. What started as a memorial for Zakkaree Coss in 2014 on a private five‐acre property has grown into a full‐scale music festival on 37 acres at McLean Mill Historic Park. The music festival attracted 2,400 music lovers last year, and this year organizers are hoping for up to 3,000 to come check out the exciting list of entertainers lined up for year five.
“We want out fifth year to be one for the record books,” said Five Acre Shaker founder Lance Goddard in a press release. “If we had five days we’d do five headliners, but since we have three days, we decided this year to have a headliner every night. There should be something for everyone at this year’s festival.”
Legendary rock band Harlequin will be headlining Classic Rock Sunday on August 11.
Harlequin has been performing together since the 1970s when they were discovered in the Toronto bar scene by representatives of Jack Douglas, producer of big names like Aerosmith, Patti Smith, and John Lennon. With Douglas’ help, Harlequin signed a record deal and released their first single, “Victims of Crime,” in 1979. After that, the hits just kept coming, and the band soon earned a reputation as a workhorse of the Canadian road. They have been on multiple cross‐Canada tours with bands such as Triumph, Nazareth, April Wine, and Pat Benatar.
Unlike many bands of their era, Harlequin is still a staple of rock radio in Canada, where the band’s old and new hits still receive remarkable amounts of airplay. Fueled by this continued success at radio, the band still tours, gaining new fans all the time, and attracting anyone who loves Canadian rock at its finest. This summer, they will include Port Alberni in their list of stops.
Harlequin is the first of many great performers due to hit the stage at this year’s Shaker Music Festival, which will be three full days packed with more than 40 multi‐genre artists and performers, games and contests, on‐site camping, food, merchandise, artisan vendors and lots of workshops.
Tickets are on sale now. Get yours at https://www.fiveacre.ca.
