Mavens Music launches CreekSong

CreekSong joins Canadian folk festival landscape in Vienna, Ontario 

September 1, 2021 – The inaugural edition of the new CreekSong Festival will take place on Saturday, September 18, 2021 in Vienna, Ontario, on the banks of the Big Otter Creek. Founded by longtime music entrepreneur and artist manager, Tamara Kater, the daytime event will feature music performances, craft artisans, children’s activities, local food vendors, wellness practitioners and craft beer from the Railway City Brewing Company (St Thomas, ON). 

The festival will take place in Vienna Memorial Park, which is on the unceded territory and ancestral land of the Mississauga, Attiwonderon, Anishinabewaki and Haudenosaunee people. CreekSong is in conversation with members of the Six Nations of the Grand River in an effort to gain a deeper understanding of the Indigenous history of the area and work towards a meaningful relationship with regional Indigenous communities. 

In launching the event, CreekSong founder Tamara Kater (Mavens Music) took inspiration from many historical, cultural and musical connections in the area. In the 1800s, the Big Otter Creek was a Canadian landing for many African-Americans escaping enslavement through the Underground Railroad by crossing Lake Erie from Ashtabula, Ohio. As well, the town of Vienna was the home of Thomas Edison’s grandparents, where he spent boyhood summers before inventing the phonograph, forever transforming the world with recorded music. And in the 1970s, the erstwhile Springfield Sound Studio nearby was the location for many Stan Rogers recordings, including Turnaround, Northwest Passage and Forgarty’s Cove. Ron Hynes’ Wonderful Grand Band also recorded there. Kater is working to reflect the diverse history of the area, while striving for festival values that are inclusive, progressive and environmentally sustainable.