Robyn Cyr is one hip and awesome grandma. During the day she plays with her grandkids, aged 10, six and two, at the Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival. They romp in the bouncy castle and play games in the Family Fun Zone and pound on bongos, shake tambourines and dance in the interactive Playzone. Of course, there are drinks and treats from food truck alley afterward. Then the kids go home to the babysitter and Cyr gathers her husband, daughter and son-in-law. 

The adults return to the Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival for one of the Saturday night’s headliner concerts – Celtic trio McGoldrick, McCusker & Doyle. Roots & Blues truly is the multi-generational family-friendly music fest. It’s not too loud or too rowdy. And with 40 acts playing daytime and nighttime on four different stages, you’re sure to discover some amazing blues, folk, country, bluegrass, boogie, soul, funk, gospel, jazz, Celtic or reggae sounds.

The 25th anniversary fest in 2017 featured Cuban-Canadian jazz master Alex Cuba, 17-time Grammy winner bluegrass prince Ricky Skaggs and Indigenous DJ Shub. My wife and I grooved to Alex Cuba, while our 15-year-old daughter and her friend were off catching the Talking Dreads’ beach-themed reggae. And we didn’t have to worry about two teens being off on their own on the grounds. 

The 26th annual festival will be held in 2018 from Aug. 16 to 19 and will again attract 35,000 to not just revel in the music, but also bask in Salmon Arm’s summer sunshine. Headliners include six-time Juno winner Colin James, blues rockers MonkeyJunk, electric blues singer/songwriter Big Dave McLean, country-jazz artist Cindy Church, accordian-playing singer/songwriter Geoff Berner, blues evangelist Harpdog Brown and the West African rhythms of David Thiaw.

On the shore of Shuswap Lake in British Columbia’s idyllic Southern Interior, the region is a water sports, hiking, biking, wine and dine super-destination. You can combine the best of both worlds and use a houseboat as your floating hotel suite while attending the 2018 fest.

Roots & Blues and Waterway Houseboats has partnered to meld the two iconic experiences with fest packages. Moor your luxury vessel at Salmon Arm Wharf and you are only a 15-minute walk through downtown Salmon Arm to the fest grounds. A houseboat is an incredible family holiday headquarters. Waterways has multiple models that sleep 10 to 30. There’s no roughing it with comfy beds, air conditioning, gourmet kitchen with dishwasher, living room, dining room, fun decks for lounging and hitting the waterslide and both indoor and outdoor command centres to pilot the boat.

Read more on the FestivalSeekers website.

This is a guest post written by Steve MacNaull of FestivalSeekers.