What do you think of when you hear the word ‘bash’?
Maybe a big party, lots of people having a great time, some rockin’ good music? Well, that’s exactly what the good folks at Bruce County Bash thought of when they named their annual Southampton music fest.
One of those good folks is Jeff Carver, owner of Three Sheets Brewing in Port Elgin, and he thought the name was a perfect fit for the inaugural festival in 2023. It was time for the good people of Bruce County to reconnect and have some fun after years of lockdowns. What they needed was a good old-fashioned Bash, he thought. So that’s what he gave them.
But he didn’t do it alone. He teamed up with the Saugeen Memorial Hospital Foundation and 97.9 The Bruce to do a combined Gran Fondo Charity Ride and concert with 54-40 as the headliner. And guess what? It was a huge success and ended up selling out.
Jeff wasn’t surprised. He knew that the Saugeen Shores area would respond to a big concert that really leaned into the local vibe and brought the Canadian rock scene to the shores of Lake Huron.
The only thing he was surprised about was that an event that size didn’t happen sooner.
“I couldn’t figure out why we didn’t have our own big concert for people in Saugeen Shores,” says Jeff. “We have such a beautiful area here, but we were missing that big concert event.”
There was no better time than post-pandemic to get it started. “It was time to break out of those two years of lockdowns and throw a party,” he says. Tracy Murray of the Saugeen Memorial Hospital Foundation and 97.9 The Bruce both agreed, and the Bruce County Bash was born.
“The three of us came together to do something cool. It was a tremendous success,” says Carver. “People absolutely loved it.”
That they raised money for the Hospital Foundation was important to Carver, who says that rural health care is near and dear to his heart. And working with the Foundation was as smooth as it gets, he says. With such great partners, and an amazing community response, it was a no brainer to keep bringing it back every year. “We wanted to keep it rolling and make it an annual thing.”
But it had become so big that it needed to be its own standalone event. They moved it to its own weekend and threw a Street Party in August to align with the Gran Fondo instead.
Part of the Bash’s success is its accessibility. Carver wanted an event that the community could walk to or bike to. The Southampton Coliseum was a perfect fit. It added a special home-town vibe to the concert that is antidote to typical big city concert experiences where you have to spend hours in your car, find expensive parking, spend way too much on accommodation, then spend hours in your car driving home the next day.
“I want people to feel that they’re at a really cool concert that they can ride their bike to,” he says. Southampton and Port Elgin are unique in that they’re super close and can be accessed easily by trails that run between them. They are also both situated on the water and have relaxed beach town vibes that makes riding your bike that much cooler. When you see the rows upon rows of bikes parked outside the Coliseum in June, you’ll witness his vision come to life. It’s a pretty cool thing to see. It’s definitely my kind of event. I’m tired of driving to Toronto for big concerts and love that this area is now host to so many big festivals. I can go see the Trews in my own backyard now.
Yes, the Rrampt crew will be bringing our bikes this summer to get a real Bash experience maybe even get a beach day in too. This is the perfect excuse to spend a few days in relaxation mode after months of furious writing and photographing. We’re up for a good Bash ourselves!
To make the production side of things even better, they brought local Hayden Hellyer on board last year and he’ll be joining them again this year. He has the same vision and brings the experience of running big concerts. And he’s a Bruce County local.
So if you’re up for a Bash, there’s no better than the one that happens in Southampton on June 27 This is their fourth annual and arguably their biggest with headliners April Wine, Dwayne Gretzky and local legends Grey Road One.
Tickets are available here and selling fast.
Written by Jesse Wilkinson
Photos by Adaptive Media Group
