ENT: Festival marks five years celebrating 'analog traditions'

Also, Fiver returns to Kingston to play a solo show, and a fundraiser to help Ryandale Transitional Housing.

Even though her maternity leave started a few weeks ago, Laura Kelly still has a few items left to check off on her to-do list. “I’m seven months pregnant right now,” Kelly said before she made her way to a doctor appointment Wednesday morning. “I know it’s kind of crazy organizing a festival at this moment.”

That festival is the Analogue Island Music Festival, which takes place from Friday to Sunday at the Hotel Wolfe Island. The three-day events blends film, live music, and deejays. “A lot of the artists that we showcase are rooted in analog traditions,” Kelly said.

“So we have a lot of DJs that exclusively use vinyl records. That’s a perfect example of the analog ethos, and a lot of our live performers live up to that as well.” Kelly started the festival five years ago — it was Wolfechella before changing its name two years ago — soon after she became the music booking manager for the Hotel Wolfe island.

Before that, she had been working at Toronto record store Sonic Boom, where she met a host of creatives, including deejays, bands, and artists. “Having grown up in Kingston, (and) this place is so special to me, so when I started working on the island I really wanted to bring a lot of those people and share it with them, and also showcase some of the talent from where I had been working in Toronto on the island,” Kelly said. “It’s kind of like these two places I love coming together, and a lot of these people just fell in love with the island and have given so much of their energy into making the festival happen each year.”

The festival begins Friday at 5:30 p.m. with the premiere of a film called “Look Across the Water,” which was shot and takes place on Toronto Island. “It’s being premiered on Wolfe Island, and it’s a horror film about being trapped on an island,” Kelly chuckled. And the live performers include Strip Lacquer and High Alpine Hut Network (Friday), His His and Dorothea Paas (Saturday), and Wallace and Potions (Sunday).

“I’m very excited that she’s coming,” Kelly said of Paas. “I would say she’s one of my favourite Canadian artists ever, and her first concert, or one of them anyway, was in my old living room in Kingston.” The lineup of deejays includes performing includes Maria Taifour, Ben Rositsan, Raf Reza, and Kelly herself.

Tickets are $30 for a day pass, or $60 for all three days. “It started as a one-day festival,” Kelly said, “and it’s grown because so many people now want to be a part of it. We’re just so thrilled about that.”

And if hosting a festival wasn’t enough, Kelly, through her Many Moons events company, is presenting a concert this week, too. On Wednesday, singer-songwriter Fiver, aka Simone Schmidt, will be performing a solo show at 12 Cataraqui St. (Unit 1). Schmidt — whose catalogue includes 2017’s “Audible Songs from Rockwood” that features songs about the former Kingston asylum — has released a new record, Cleaning House.

Opening the show will be Kingston’s Piner. It begins at 7 and is a pay what you can show ($20 is suggested). “These are my last shows, I think, probably until next summer,” Kelly concluded.

“So I’m really excited at all of the talent we get to showcase in these events.” * Just steps from 12 Cataraqui St. is the Broom Factory, which hosts just one concert this week.

Oakland’s Souls of Mischief will be performing there Tuesday evening at 7:30 p.m. Opening will be Bag$ and Swordwall. Tickets are $47.59, which includes a $10.09 fee.

* The Spire will be the site of a fundraiser Saturday night for Ryandale Transitional Housing, which provides housing and opportunities “for people rebuilding their lives.” Hosted by Carrick McAllister, “Rock for Ryandale” will feature performances by Lukey Pell, Stun Seed, Starfish Psyche, Creatures of Habit, John Torres, and Mike Brown.

It runs from 6 to 10 p.m., and tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. * While the Buskers Rendezvous pushed pause on the Downtown Business Improvement Area’s free outdoor concerts, they will be returning this week.

The “Kickin’ it Country” concert Friday evening will feature Scott Owen at 7 p.m., followed by an hour’s worth of line dancing lessons starting at 8. This week’s “Saturday Sessions” will feature Time for Two. It begins at 12:30 p.m.

And lastly, it’ll be an other instalment of “Swingin’ Summer” Wednesday evening in the amphitheatre behind City Hall. This week it’s the Michael K. Myers Quintet playing from 7 to 8 p.m. (look for a story about Michael Myers in The Whig in the coming days). phendra@postmedia.com