By Cecilia Nasmith
As far as Linda and Tony Armstrong of Headwaters Farm are concerned, their regular outdoor concert series is pretty well on as usual, and this year's series starts Friday with Jimmy Bowskill and Carlos del Junco.
With the Northumberland community allowed to enter Phase 3 of reopening during the coronavirus pandemic, outdoor concerts with no more than 100 people are allowed. That's the Headwaters series to a T, Linda Armstrong said in an interview this week – and the fourth annual concert season at their Hamilton Township farm will open July 25th at 7 p.m. with the amazing team-up of two legends delivering a program of blues and harmonica stylings.
This is just one of many things going on at Headwaters, Armstrong said.
“We are working farmers, and the other half of our business is an education centre where we bring the people on the property for workshops, tours and concerts,” she explained.
“We were able to start up our kids' camps when they were allowed. We have been able to run those outdoors – Kids Can Cook on Tuesdays and Kids Can Film on Wednesdays. They filled up rapidly, because we were only able to have nine children in each one.
“The bigger events where we could get a lot of people on the property we could not do, but the musicians have been asking about the concerts.”
A Headwaters concert will normally have 80 to 100 people, and they seem to social-distance naturally around a beautiful piece of their property that forms a natural amphitheatre-type bowl.
“We bring in a big hay wagon to set up a stage at the bottom of the hill. People bring their own lawn chairs and choose where they want to sit, and there's a lot of space for 100 people.”
And just to be sure, she added, the Headwaters staff (all properly masked) will walk around and scatter them further if need be.
Armstrong is even planning to retain the pizza portion of the evening, to make use of their outdoor wood-fired pizza oven. It used to be a pizza dinner before the concert for up to 60 people, but now they are figuring out how to serve the pizza on a paper plate to concert-goers at their seats as opposed to serving in a sit-down setting. Just order in advance, choosing from three varieties of authentic Italian pizza, and prepay on the website.
In fact, everything is pre-ordered - $25 tickets for the concert or $40 for concert plus pizza - so there is no cash exchange and minimal transaction upon arrival. Their composting outhouse will be open with an additional port-a-pottie and sanitizing stations.
The July 25 show is confirmed, Armstrong said, and they're finalizing their line-up as we speak – though the Aug. 12 show is confirmed and also can be announced. Bowskill returns for this show, accompanied by popular musicians Saskia Tompkins and Ted Staunton.
“The three of them together are an amazing trio, and they're so funny together because they just jam,” Armstrong said.
Anyone marking a calendar for this show will notice it's on a Wednesday. They always include mid-week dates, she said, and the turn-out is quite strong as everyone is pretty well home mid-week.
The musicians are all local and, in many cases, familiar to local audiences through the variety of appearances they have made.
The concert series runs through mid-September with this simple set-up. No special lighting or other special effects are needed anyway, she said, with the show that Mother Nature puts on.
“We have a long, long view of the Northumberland hills that goes all the way down to Lake Ontario. As people watch the concert, behind them there's this tremendous view as the sun goes down and the sky, the colours, the brightness soften. You get this beautiful metamorphosis and it kind of becomes twilight time, and the band finishes in time for people to be able to find their way to their cars and get away safely.”
You can get your tickets on the Headwaters Farm website, where you can also keep up to date on the concert series as it is finalized.
