Kingfest Music Festival lineup confirmed

Kingfest is poised to establish itself as one of Ontario's major three-day outdoor music festivals.

This June 22 to 24 a stellar lineup of national and local performers will fill the beautiful grounds of King's Seneca College campus with music.

The Friday night lineup is now confirmed, adding stellar youth attractions to the already announced weekend lineup lead by Juno Award winners Bruce Cockburn (Canadian Music Hall of Fame), Sarah Harmer, Prairie Oyster, and Jim Cuddy.

Friday night will rock with Halifax's ever popular Sloan, The Trews and Joel Plaskett Emergency, threetime winner at this year's East Coast Music Awards.

The lineup of artists also includes Oh Susanna, Lynn Miles, Justin Rutledge, Katherine Wheatley, Wendell Ferguson, Mike Stevens and Raymond McLain, Susan Werner, Dala, Kieran Kane and The Salads.

Strong links to the local community are enhanced by the festival's board of directors, which includes a number of prominent and experienced area people. Chair Patrick Gossage is a highly respected public relations practitioner; executive director Nancy Bodi created the Women of Originality Awards and won this year's King Township Citizen of the Year Award; Leah Springfield (president), Susan Willmot and Steve Pichosky (vice-presidents) all have business and event management and community experience, as does treasurer Joan Francis, best-known as founder of Young People's Theatre. A strong group of members-atlarge has a variety of strong links with communities in York Region.

York Region Media Group is the title sponsor and Laceby Real Estate of King City the Gold sponsor. Kingfest has received funding from Ontario Tourism, King Township, The Ontario Arts Council, The Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund and the Trillium Foundation. Seneca College, King Campus is an active partner from the beginning providing important donations in-kind. Kingfest branding, advertising creative and Web site was designed by Larter Advertising of Aurora.

The Festival will also feature popular artists who have made their mark in York, such as Lou Moore and friends, The Salads, Turn off the Stars, Jon Brooks, Grainne Ryan, Dani Strong and many more. York's best will perform on the Habitat Stage throughout the weekend. Top artists will also be showcased in workshops, where they will jam together to create a distinctive festival sound. Performers from Seneca @York's world class Independent Music Program, Artslink York Region Arts Council's Music Alive and from York Region's signature Celebration of the Arts event will also be featured.

Randi Fratkin is Kingfest's artistic director, moving on from five years in that role with the Mariposa Folk Festival. She is a member of the board of the North American Folk Alliance. Richard Flohil, another Mariposa veteran who was involved with the event in the '60s and was artistic director from 1988 to 1992, will assist with publicity.

Kingfest 2007 tickets can be purchased at all Ticketmaster locations, the TD Bank in King City, McAlpine Ford on Yonge Street, Aurora and The Arts Music Store on Eagle Street in Newmarket. Tickets are also on sale on the web at www.ticketmaster.com, with prices ranging from single day tickets at $37.50 (Friday evening) to all-day passes for Saturday and Sunday at $32. A bargain-priced threeday pass is set at $79.50. Weekend passes go up in price after June 18 and all tickets can be purchased at the gate.

Gates will open at 6 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Two dollars of every ticket sold is being donated to Habitat for Humanity, York Region.

The festival will feature workshops, a full artisans' village, a beer tent and food concessions and a supervised enclosed children's area.

Renowned children's performers Al Simmons (of Sesame Street) and Sho Mo & The Monkey Bunch will entertain children and families in their own supervised area. More action will take place in the beer tent stage.

Kingfest will celebrate the best in rock, roots, blues, country and pop, and is the first music festival of its kind in York Region. Nonstop musical entertainment (from open to close) and the multi-faceted, multi-stage festival format will deliver an unparalleled musical experience for music lovers of all ages. Kingfest is expected to draw 8,000 attendees from all over the GTA, and grow to 25,000 over the next five years.

The 700 acres of lakes, rolling countryside and woods at Seneca provides a unique setting for Kingfest. The land was originally bought by Sir John and Lady Eaton as a country retreat. In 1938 Eaton Hall, designed like a French chateau, was completed using the brownish-grey stones from the nearby Humber River. Lady Eaton died in July 1970, aged 91. Her death signalled the close of an era of "gracious living" as the world moved on to other things.

A year later North York based Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology, purchased the Eaton Hall Estate for a new King campus. The Estate became the Colleg''s King Campus and Eaton Hall itself a conference centre.