Port Alberni and Vancouver Island musicians will again have the opportunity to show off their skills at the Port Alberni Youth Battle of the Bands on Saturday, May 27 at the Rainbow Room.
Presented by the Zattzoo Project, the Port Alberni Youth Battle of the Bands is a contest that brings together all genres of bands and solo musicians from around the Island, under the age of 25, to showcase their talents in front of three judges.
Top prize for first place is $1,000 and a chance to perform at a Five Acre Productions event this summer. Second prize is $500, fan favourite prize is also $500 and there are five separate prizes of $100 each for best guitar, best bass, best drummer, best singer and an other category.
The event was established, by Kim Blake and her son Dallas Ward of the Zattzoo Project, to provide local musicians a place to play in or near their hometown for their families and friends.
Blake said her music-driven son Zakk Coss, who was in a fatal car accident in 2014 at the age of 22, would say how there aren’t many places in Port Alberni for young musicians to play.
“All these kids have this talent but they can’t play here,” Blake said. “They have to leave, so if we can have something here that feeds them, then they’ll stay home and they’ll play.”
Blake said it has been the success of previous years’ winners that kept her and Ward going with the contest.
“We thought this year of maybe letting it go, Dallas and I really did a lot of thinking. And then we walked into Char’s Landing two months ago to witness Non Stop Talk, they won our battle last year,” Blake said. “One of the mothers came up to me and said ‘are you the mom of Battle of the Bands?’ She told me what a great thing we were doing and how well Non Stop Talk has been doing since they placed in Battle.”
Since their win last year, Blake said the blues/rock trio have went on to score several bookings, won another battle of the bands and have moved to Victoria to follow their musical careers.
“They also played at last year’s Fall Fair and are coming back this summer for the [Five Acre Shaker],” Blake said.
Blake said after the first Five Acre Shaker, money raised from the memorial festival for Coss went into the following year’s Battle of the Bands.
“That’s what we do now; hold events to keep Battle going. Every year first, second and fan favourite winners get to play out at Shaker,” she said.
The Battle’s first-year winners were Victoria-based band Malahat, who Blake said have also went on to success post-win.
“They’ve got recording contracts, they’re doing quite well,” she said.
Blake hopes to get bands and solo acts signed up as soon as possible to determine what time the event will start.
“The time we’re considering starting right now is 5 p.m. but it depends of course on entries. It might be an earlier time, it might be a later time,” she said.
Prerequisites for contestants are being able to play a 10 to 12 minute set, or two to three songs. The winning band will also be able to play a whole set at the end of the evening.
So far, Blake said eight acts have singed up. She said if anyone has played in the Port Alberni Youth Battle of the Bands before, but not placed, they are welcome to return.
“If someone has won we don’t expect them to compete again,“ she said.
To sign up, bands can head to www.facebook.com/portalberniyouthbattleofthebands/ and send a direct message.
“It should be a night of really new entertainment,” Blake said. “We’d like to have a buzzing excitement that night where the kids are being booked and winning things.”
Any local promoters are invited to attend the event for free in hopes they will see talent that they will want to book at their venues in the future.