A whole weekend of entertainment awaits at Kingfest
Don't forget workshop stage

The harmonica playing skills of Mike Stevens and Raymond McLain's talent with the fiddle and banjo will be among the attractions on the workshop stage.

Kingfest Music Festival is going to be a lot more than great entertainment from renowned performers.

It promises to be a happening, taking place on the beautiful King campus of Seneca College, with lots of fun and entertainment, and all for a good cause. The plan is that $2 from every ticket sold will be donated to Habitat for Humanity, York Region.

As well, there will be other attractions, such as a full artisan village, with more than 30 juried vendors, including makers of jewelry, fine art, musical instruments, iron art and much more; a free supervised children's activity area, manned by Seneca Day Camp staff to create plenty of fun for kids; kite making activities and children performer celebrities, including Al Simmons of Sesame Street and Sho Mo & The Monkey Bunch; a beer tent, complete with a stage where there will be entertainment all day Saturday and Sunday; and great food, of which there will be plenty on-site, from Indian to organic to great Canadian fare!

The weekend will also offer opportunities for to watch performers jam together with like-minded artists on the workshop stage.

The first session Saturday will be focused on 'Generation Y,' and will feature DALA, Ariana Gillis and Pat Robitaille.

DALA was formed by Sheila Carabine and Amanda Walther during the summer of 2002, making use of their talents on guitar and piano. Gillis, 16, began studying piano and singing at the age of six, acquiring high honour certificates from The Royal Ontario Conservatory of Music. She began searching for music with deeper personal meaning, and to express herself she took up guitar and song writing, pursuing music with great personal intensity. Robitaille, 21, was raised on the musical energy in Windsor that still thrives in bordering Motown Detroit music scene. At 15, he was recording songs on a digital eight track machine in his bedroom. These records made their way out of his home and into the hands of music industry professionals around North America, and eventually into the hands of a critically acclaimed music producer in Los Angeles.

The next session is slated to start at noon Saturday, and it will deal with The Edge of Country, and will feature Wendell Ferguson and Katherine Wheatley, Justin Rutledge and Nancy Dutra. Ferguson has been named the Canadian Country Music Association's "Guitar Player of the Year" six times. Along with three more wins for "Back-up Band of the Year," plus a Ontario Country Performer and Fan Association award for "Career Musician." Wheatley has been described as "blessedly, refreshingly . . . a truly Canadian original," credited for her offhand wit, vibrant lyrics and an infectious passion for performing. Rutledge's debut album, No Never Alone, is a collection of vignettes, beautifully rendered traditional songs and sensitive, impacting ballads, which seem to have come from a dozen unsent love letters. With his soft, sometimes quivering voice, Rutledge delivers all the promises of a seasoned performer. Dutra's performance includes clear and smoky vocals and songs that have a freshness and intimate originality that put Dutra's own unique stamp on a timeless form.

At 1 p.m. there will be a children's concert with Al Simmons. He is a Canadian performer who has made guest appearances on Fred Penner's television show as well as Sesame Street. He tours regularly across Canada and the United States and has recorded numerous albums for children and won a Juno Award in 1996.

Gillis will be putting on a concert at the Workshop stage at 2 p.m., followed by DALA at 2:45.

A Sense of Place will be the theme of the session due to start at 3:30 p.m., featuring Russell deCarle of Prairie Oyster, Susan Werner and Kieran and Lucas Kane. Werner is an American singer-songwriter. She has toured with Richard Thomson, Keb Mo and Joan Armatrading. Her latest release The Gospel Truth rides off her success of I Can't Be New, her critically acclaimed 2004 collection of all-original compositions.

Sunday will see Dutra putting on a concert at 11:30 a.m., followed by another session, entitled Between the Lines, at 12:15 p.m., featuring Ferguson, Gillis and the Kanes.

There will be a children's concert at 1:15 p.m. featuring

Sho, Mo and the Monkey Bunch, and that will be followed at 2:15 by a Head and Heart workshop, with Rutledge, Dala and the Supers.

Robitaille will be performing at the workshop stage at 3:15 p.m., followed by a session entitled Border to the Blues. This will feature Joan Besen, Gillis and Ndidi Onokwulu with Madagascar Slim. Onokwulu is thought to have one of those voices one can't forget, whether it's downlow with a melancholy moan, or going with a strident tone. Onokwulu's fulltime guitarist and sometime co-writer is Madagascar Slim, a three-time Juno Award winner in his own right, who has said her voice is outstanding. "I really got excited the first time I heard it," he said. "She really does have something special."

The final one will be at 5 p.m., and will look into Far- Reaching Roots, and the performers will be Wheatley, Dutra and Mike Stevens and Ray McLain. Stevens and McLain are no strangers to Kingfest. Stevens, a regular on the Grand Ole Opry, is a phenomenal harmonica player who has backed everyone in the bluegrass world from Bill Munroe to Jim and Jesse to McLain. McLain's more than 40 years of entertaining have taken him to performances in all 50 states and 62 countries.