Statement on Today’s Ticketing Situation 

We understand this is a disappointment to you – trust us, it is a complete disappointment to us, as well. 

We recognize what happened this morning is unacceptable and Ticketpro accepts full responsibility.

It’s still unclear what factors contributed to the failure of the Ticketpro system to perform as expected and Ticketpro has been investigating since 11AM to understand what appear to be many factors that impacted the system.

We, too, are frustrated and disappointed. For the sales that have gone through, we will honour these, of course. For everyone else, we beg your patience and forgiveness as we are working on next steps to address this.

Our online sales have been deactivated and further ticket sales will not occur today. 

Again, we can’t say how disappointed we are but we are doing everything we can to make this as right as we can.

-Harvest

Thank you to our Harvest 2021 Sponsors!

The Harvest Music Festival is proud to announce our wonderful partners for our 2021 festival! Harvest has been built on the continued support from community, regional, and national partners, and their support has been vital to our continued success over the past 30 years. With support from this amazing group of community-minded, music-loving businesses, we’ve been able to present our patrons with the best festival experience in Atlantic Canada! 

You can find our partners throughout the festival grounds; whether it’s the Moose Light Blues Tent, Rocket’s Street Experience, ANBL’s Safe Ride Program, or checking out Volvo’s sweet rides, there is no doubt our partners love Harvest. So when you visit Harvest this September, make sure to give our partners some love for supporting the Harvest Music Festival. 

Click here to see a full list of Harvest’s 2021 partners.

And watch this space for some exciting news over the next couple of weeks as we’ll be sharing news about our brand new Virtual Harvest, presented by the TD Ready Commitment. 

For information about becoming a 2021 Harvest Partner, please contact josh@harvestjazzandblues.com

Live @ the Park: Summer Concert Series

We’ve teamed up with our friends at Skate Fredericton, Capital Arts Support Inc., and The Cap to bring some live music downtown this summer. This Summer Concert Series will be a FREE, ALL AGES series located in the Garrison Skate Park! 

The series will bring even more live music back downtown and showcase some incredible emerging artists and local bands. With free admission, this series is accessible to absolutely anyone who would like to attend.

We’re kicking it off with an amazing show this Friday, July 9th at 7PM, doors open at 6:30, featuring Motherhood, Diner Drugs, and Maiden Names.

We ask that everyone wear masks and social distance, when not skateboarding.

We can’t wait to see you all there!

Special thank you to the Fredericton Community Foundation for supporting this series. More dates will be announced soon!

Harvest returns with spectacular 30th Anniversary Line-up!

Get ready for a super spectacular, stacked line-up for Harvest’s 30th anniversary, September 14th to 19th in Downtown Fredericton! Harvest is proud to announce a sensational 30th anniversary line-up, including southern rock and alt-country-soul legends, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, pop/rock chart toppers, The Revivalists, heartland roots rocker and singer-songwriter John Hiatt and the Jerry Douglas Band, vintage rock and soul singer-songwriter, Grace Potter, and many more!

This year we are pleased to welcome back many returning artists who have previously performed at Harvest. In honour of our 30th anniversary, favourites from over the years are coming back to Fredericton to help us celebrate. It will be a true Harvest homecoming – a reunion of old friends after too long apart!

Along with Jason Isbell, The Revivalists, John Hiatt, and Grace Potter, Harvest 2021 will feature gritty and growlingJuno Award-winning July Talk, one of the first ladies of soul, Grammy nominee Bettye Lavette, Juno Award winning singer-songwriter Serena Ryder, a rare performance of material from his new solo album from David Shaw of The Revivalists and his new band, alt-country, roots rocker Lilly Hiatt, blues and gospel wonder Ruthie Foster, blues and soul powerhouse Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar, hometown star David Myles, Atlantic Canadian gem Joel Plaskett and the Emergency, Toronto’s pre-eminent party cover band Dwayne Gretzky and many more!

“We’re back! And we’re going to be presenting an absolutely incredible array of the best talent we could bring to Fredericton during this crazy summer of re-opening” said Brent Staeben, Harvest Music Programmer. “We wanted this year’s event to feel familiar while also being a joyful re-emergence into big live concerts, so we’re welcoming back many old friends who know how to deliver exceptional performances and raise our audiences higher – because that’s the goal with this year’s event – to give everyone a huge lift after such a hard time apart.”  

Last year, COVID-19 paused our original 30th anniversary celebration. The pandemic threatened to do the same this year but, given how well New Brunswick is progressing on its Path to Green, the province’s increased vaccination rate has become the path to Harvest. 

A survey conducted in May indicated that patrons were comfortable returning to Harvest this September if the province hit all of its vaccination targets. 

“The Festival will work with the province and the city throughout the summer to ensure we offer a safe experience this September,” said Jeff Richardson, Harvest General Manager. “We’ve been monitoring best practices across North America, and will be adjusting patron requirements as the province’s emergency order changes.” 

Harvest expects patrons to be fully vaccinated prior to attending the festival. The Festival may update its policy based on Public Health guidance throughout the summer. All updates will be communicated to patrons at least two weeks in advance of the festival.

Harvest will provide further updates related to its safety policies in advance of its ticket sales. 

Tickets and passes will be available for purchase through TicketPro on July 16th at 11am. Harvest runs September 14th-19th, 2021 in the beautiful heart of Downtown Fredericton. There will be a Blues Tent behind City Hall, shows at the Playhouse, and more free programming in Officer’s Square than you have ever seen. There will also be free performances put on by our partners at The Hilton as part of our Pubs & Clubs series, and ticketed shows to catch in the Tannery!

Ultimate Passes purchased for 2020 can be redeemed this year. Alternatively, they can be rolled over to be used in 2022 or returned for a full refund. 

We’re looking forward to seeing you at Harvest, this September 14th-19th!

The Harvest Music Festival

Harvest is built on 30 years of community, a shared passion for music, and the hard work and dedication of thousands of volunteers. As our board begins to ponder the next 30 years, we have decided it is time to officially evolve our name to better reflect who we have actually become – a much broader festival but still grounded in blues, roots, rock, Americana and so much more.

We are excited to announce that our festival will now be known as the Harvest Music Festival.

We want to assure our patrons that the Harvest experience will remain the same. Thank you all for your support and an amazing 30 years.

Save the Date!

After much anticipation, we are finally able to announce that Harvest is being held this fall between September 14th-19th, 2021 in downtown Fredericton! We have all felt the gap that the absence of live music has left in our community and around the world. We’re filled with joy as we watch New Brunswick hit its vaccination targets, and we are so pleased to invite everyone to Harvest 2021.

According to Harvest’s General Manager, Jeff Richardson, “The ‘Path to Green’ is the path to Harvest.” Jeff explains in a short video that we are excited to be getting everyone back together and that people can expect all the details in a special launch announcement coming June 30th. “We’re looking forward to getting back to normal and welcoming you downtown for some great live music and lots of good community,” says Jeff.

This year will also mark Harvest’s 30th anniversary, a very exciting milestone for the festival. We are thrilled to celebrate in true Harvest fashion through the experience of live music. So mark your calendars for September 14th-19th! We are working hard to plan a safe festival for everyone. In the meantime, stay tuned for June 30th when we release the full details!

Harvest Helps: You can’t keep a good volunteer down!

As you know, Harvest had to make some major adjustments to our annual music festival in 2020. Like many of our North American peers, we pivoted to a mostly virtual event, appropriately named Harvest 29.5. With the festival going digital, there was little to no chance to volunteer for the folks who work so hard every year, out of the kindness of their hearts, to make Harvest happen. For thirty years Harvest has prided itself on being a volunteer-run festival; without our amazing volunteers, there would be no festival!

In the absence of the festival, we encouraged our beloved volunteers to ‘pass on’ their volunteer hours to another organization, business or neighbour. The initiative was called Harvest Helps, and over 30 of Harvest’s finest volunteers participated. Each volunteer completed a minimum of 20 hours with some volunteers putting in over 100 hours of volunteer work. Volunteer work included everything from first aid to pitching in to help charitable organizations. However, all the volunteers share something in common: they wanted to improve their community, even during difficult times.

We sat down with Victoria Clarke, a seasoned volunteer, to chat with her about her experience. Victoria participated in Harvest Helps during the COVID-19 pandemic, conducting over 100 hours of volunteer work. Victoria was involved in raising money for the Ronald McDonald House Atlantic. During the pandemic, it is easy to feel secluded and isolated, removed from the rest of the community. Victoria notes how this was of concern for her and her team. Ultimately, they were able to connect and empathize, while still staying safe. She said they met the challenge and were motivated to do so because illness does not stop with the pandemic. This is a true testament to the fact that Victoria, as well as all the Harvest volunteers, are committed no matter the circumstances.

Victoria, amongst other volunteers, had high praise for Harvest 29.5 and the Harvest Helps initiative. They were happy that something positive could still come out of such an unprecedented year. With Harvest 2021 right around the corner, we’re looking forward to seeing some familiar volunteer faces, rolling up their sleeves to put on another great festival!

Harvest Judges FHS Music Project

Fredericton High School’s Music 112 Guitar class wrote a series of articles on local music and invited Harvest to provide feedback and pick our favourite. The students impressed our panel of judges with the quality and originality of the written articles; we especially appreciated their focus and on local musicians. After a painstaking review process, and with the permission of the writer, we are proud to present Colin Matthews’ article on one of the original Sufferin’ Bastards, Karl Gans.

Harvest thanks the students for giving us the opportunity to see what a talented group of students our City has! Keep up the good work!

Click the link below to read Colin’s fantastic article on one of our city’s finest drummers.

Karl Gans by Colin Matthews

Harvest 2021 Update

We hope 2021 is off to a happy and healthy start for you and that this update finds you managing the ups and downs of pandemic life in the best way possible. Last year was an exceedingly challenging year for our organization but even more so for our larger family of musicians, crew members, and downtown business owners and their staff whose lives continue to be turned upside down by the pandemic.  We know there is much progress to be made yet but we’re looking forward to the return to some kind of normal and that’s the point of today’s communication.

Like you, we miss live music and are anxious for the day when it will be safe to gather with friends – old and new – for a big live event. We miss our beautiful early-autumn nights downtown on the streets of this incredible city, the serenity of the mighty Wolastoq river flowing past, and even more so the smiles, hugs and good times that are the true legacy of Harvest time in Fredericton.

So, we wanted to take this opportunity to provide you with some news – we intend to host some version of a traditional Live Harvest this year on the weekend of September 16-19, 2021 along with some new virtual/online components as well. Our planning has begun, and we have already booked some headliners that we’re excited to share with you in weeks ahead.

But we also want to be very clear here on one thing – rest assured, your safety is our highest priority and we will only move forward in presenting an event if it is safe to do so.

We’ll be working closely with public health and public safety officials, and our partners in City Hall to put an appropriate model in place with the focus on your safety and the best concert experience we can provide.  When we have a clearer picture of what our event will look like and get the “green light” from officials, we will provide additional updates. For now, we want you to know we’re doing everything we can to be there for you in September!

Right now, we expect that tickets for the 2021 Harvest 30th Anniversary Music will go on sale in the Spring. For those who have rolled over your 2020 Ultimate passes, we are sincerely grateful for your faith in our festival. No action is needed at this time – detailed information will follow as we look to finalize our plans for a safe delivery of our event.

Thank you again to everyone for your overwhelming support in the past year. We missed seeing you in person in September but hope that you enjoyed our 29½ Online Special. If you haven’t already watched the special, the stream is still available here.

Mostly, we just wanted you to know that we’re now deep into planning a safe Harvest 2021 and believe our community and our festival will emerge from this pandemic as strong and united as ever.

Stay healthy, stay safe, and stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.

The Harvest Team