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Blessed Coast Festival back with 31 musicians

Arts News: Whistler Indie Book Award deadline; indigenous rock art conference announced
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A SQUAMISH FESTIVAL Blessed Coast Festival returns for its second year with 31 musical acts, including Trevor Hall. Photo submitted

Musicians Trevor Hall, the Boom Booms, the Human Experience, Yaima and the Will Ross Band are among the 31 acts performing at the second annual Blessed Coast festival in Squamish.

Los Angeles-based Hall — whose eclectic range in music includes acoustic rock, reggae and Sanskrit chanting — has two albums released, including 2015's Kala. He has performed with The Wailers, Steel Pulse, Jimmy Cliff and Michael Franti.

Tickets are now on sale for the gathering, which takes place from July 22 to 24 at the Cheekye Ranch on Squamish Valley Road.

Along with three days of music, there will be workshops and yoga classes during the weekend.

The theme of this year's event is Love For the Earth — Sustainability and Stewardship.

The festival is largely powered by renewable energy and this will be a focus of the workshop programming.

Workshops and facilitators are not yet confirmed.

Tickets for the weekend range from $240 online to $300 at the gate. There are combination tickets with local organic meal plans available, plus vendors will be selling food onsite.

Day passes at $70 are available for Sunday, July 24, also at the gate. Children under 12 are free.

For tickets and more information, visit www.blessedcoast.ca.

June 3 deadline for Whistler Independent Book Award

The deadline is fast approaching for the Whistler Independent Book Awards on June 3.

Self-published fiction, non-fiction and poetry titles are eligible to participate in the inaugural competition. Winners in each category will be announced at the Whistler Writers Festival (WWF), which takes place from Oct. 13 to 16.

There will be a cash prize of $500 in each category, and winners will participate in a WWF event or reading and have their books sold at Whistler's Armchair Books for three months following the festival.

Organizers announced that they have already received entries from across Canada.

Every book deemed to meet a professional standard will be long-listed, and reviewed by a member of the Canadian Authors Association.

"These awards reflect our ongoing commitment to inclusiveness," said festival organizer Stella Harvey. "We are proud to welcome accomplished independent authors to the Festival and to celebrate their work."

The competition is open to Canadian authors or permanent residents who have independently published a book or books over the past five years.

Submissions can be made via www.tidewaterfestival.com.

Traditional indigenous rock art conference

Scholars from Spain, France and New Zealand will join the leading indigenous rock art scholars at the Nlaka'pamux Rock Art conference in Lytton on May 28.

Sixteen specialists on rock-art studies will discuss international and local research on pictographs (rock paintings) and petroglyphs (rock carvings).

This is the first-ever rock-art conference hosted by an indigenous community, located near the Stein Valley Nlaka'pamux Heritage Park rock art sites.

The keynote speech is by French rock-art specialist Professor Jean-Michel Geneste, who will talk about his rock-art research in B.C. and around the world.

For more information contact the Nlaka'pamux Tribal Council at nlakapamux@nntc.ca.