Movies of War

1 of 2 2 of 2 Gabriel Dubreuil’s history with Festival du Bois is a long one, with his earliest memories not just about the music but instead the overall vibe. Raised in a proudly Francophone family on the West Coast, the Vancouver fiddle ace—who debuts as the festival’s new artistic director of programming this March—remembers attending the yearly weekend celebration as a kid. Sticking with him was the way Festival du Bois was a multifaceted celebration of history and community.“What always struck me is how proud I felt to be francophone when I came to the festival, and that’s really celebrated,” Dubreuil says in an interview with the Straight. “That’s through music, but also through food and language and all the cultural parts of the festival.”Festival du Bois gave Dubreuil an early taste of life on stage.“My first experience was with the North Shore Celtic Ensemble as a performer, playing on the Sunday morning, which at the time was the coolest thing ever,” he recalls. “You get a performer’s pass, you get to go backstage, and you get to see all the other artists. I remember seeing super cool music, and lots of fiddle players, and being able to hang out with them on site. That’s super, super inspiring when you’re a teenager in a setting where those musicians are your peers.”Today, Dubreuil is something of an artistic force in Vancouver. Educated at Boston’s acclaimed Berklee College of Music, his many hats include not just cultural programmer, but also performer, composer, recording artist, and instructor. Since returning to the West Coast from school in the U.S., Dubreuil has collaborated with members of Spirit of the West, released solo albums, and helped shape the violinists of tomorrow with his multiday Gibsons Fiddle Camp each summer.Not surprisingly then, Dubreuil’s goal with Festival du Bois this year was to spotlight the instrument he first became fascinated with as a small kid, eventually using it to explore the worlds of Celtic, classical, jazz, and folk.“My role with the festival is on the creative side—programming and figuring out what’s going to happen on the stage. And how we create an experience for the audience that reflects a creative vision. In this case this year it’s all about the fiddle, which comes back to my backstory. In some ways, this year’s Festival du Bois is my way of introducing myself to the community as programmer and bringing something that I’m very passionate about to the festival.”Festival du Bois had approached Dubreuil about coming on board in the past in a more expanded role, but he had too many projects on the go to fully commit.“Then I was asked, ‘What if you just did the programming—the artistic part and none of the logistics?’ ” he recalls. “I was like, ‘That sounds really cool—I would love to do that.’ ”And so, knowing what he wanted the musical focus to be, Dubreuil began working the contacts he’s made over the years, thinking about musicians who’ve moved him when he’s been in the audience, not just at home but around the country at festivals and folk clubs. That those acts cover different artistic ground is a point of pride. “In our lineup we’ve got Delhi 2 Dublin, which is more kind of electra bhangra fiddle music, and Bagatelle, which is a kind of Quebecois bluegrass-y band. Aleksi Campagne is someone I’m really excited to see—he uses the fiddle in a more kind of rhythmic way, following the fiddle-singing tradition. And Nicolas Pellerin et Les Grands Hurleurs are a fantastic folk powerhouse trio from Quebec,” Dubreuil enthuses. “What they all kind of have is a different approach to the instrument and the tradition of fiddle music.”Think of the lineup, which swings from local Latin folk alchemists Locarno to Celtic fusionists Jocelyn Pettit Band to Acadian singer-songwriter Jacques Surette, as a great mixtape that’s all about covering as much musical ground as possible.“We actually have a Spotify playlist with everyone from the festival,” he says. “The goal was to be able to switch things up, so when you’re listening throughout the day, it’s not stuck on fiddle tunes. We’re going from Quebecois music to Latin music to more singer-songwriter kind of stuff and then back to fiddle music. That was one of my goals for the weekend—to create a mixtape.”Also at top of mind was the importance of creating and nurturing a new sense of community. On that front, as excited as he is about the main stage performances, Dubreuil is equally thrilled to be taking a page from showcases like the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, where workshops, jam sessions, and small-tent collaborations between artists often lead to moments of creative magic.“I started thinking about artists that are going to enjoy meeting each other and being together backstage and in workshops with a good vibe,” he says. “And that are also going to complement each other in their playing without being all over the map. So this year, with the fiddle, it’s all about artists who incorporate fiddle into the band in different ways. It’s not all tunes for the whole weekend—it might also be singing and playing, or using the fiddle in a more rhythmic way. Or contra dance. So it became a really cool thought project. Like, ‘Who could we put together on a stage in a way that’s almost like curating a museum?’ ”And if a kid ends up inspired the way he once was at Festival du Bois, Dubreuil will have done his job. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, things come full circle in more ways than one.“I was one of those little kids who, at folk music festivals, would be at the front of the stage,” he says. “And I’d always be staring at the fiddle player. So I knew that something like this was what I always wanted to do.”Festival du Bois takes place at Mackin Park in Coquitlam from March 6-8. Join the discussion Facebook comments not loading? Please check your browser settings to ensure that it is not blocking Facebook from running on straight.com