The centre of the universe

The Mount Allison/Sackville community radio station (CHMA) hosted a music festival last week called Stereophonic. Throughout the ordeal, Sackville lived up to its reputation as the centre of the universe.

Being from Toronto, recognizing the supremacy of Sackville is hard step for me. But the number of national and international connections to this small town have always impressed me - it is bigger than its 2 stoplights and 5,000 inhabitants.

Since I have been here (2003) a series of celebrity speakers has tromped through town - big names for a small place. Adrienne Clarkson. Craig Kielburger. Steve Wozniak. Stuart McLean. Cindy Sheehan. George Elliott Clark. Gwynne Dyer. Tariq Ali. Peter Mansbridge. David Suzuki. Lawrence Krauss. John Manley spoke the year before I came. Next month, Richard Florida will be speaking here. According to an e-mail from the Mt. A president, he is "one of the most sought after speakers and consultants in North America."

George Staney, designer of our current Canadian flag, is from Sackville. A play was written about him and is periodically performed at historic sites in town.

Apparently, if Canada were to be attacked in a major war, Sackville would be a top target because of the location of 13 Radio Canada International towers on the edge of town. These towers are vital to national communication.

Back to Sackville's music scene - the whole inspiration for this post. Along with excellent speakers, Sackville has attracted the best of independent Canadian music over my 5 years. The Constantines. Joel Plaskett. Sloan. Corb Lund. Cuff the Duke. The Sadies. Final Fantasy. Two Hours' Traffic. Hayden. The Hidden Cameras. Jon Rae and the River. Julie Doiron lives in Sackville, and homegrown Shotgun and Jaybird (now defunct) and Shotgun Jimmie have climbed the national charts. We have a stellar blues society that brings in notable acts each month.

As the 5th annual CHMA Stereophonic festival approached this year, I started to hear a buzz on CBC Radio 3. I download their music podcasts and listen to their online radio, and heard Sackville mentioned 5 consecutive times on different CBC Radio 3 shows in the lead-up to the festival. One show even talked about the CHMA's summer baseball team. Granted, Radio 3 was sponsoring one of the Stereophonic stages, but the level of coverage for the festival was impressive. One show (the R3-30) decided to come up with a sound effect for Sackville because it was getting so much press.

At the end of the day, Sackville is no Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver. But for its size I have been continually impressed with its cultural vibrancy. To top it all off, Sackville was named one of the "cultural capitals of Canada" for 2008. This national award gifted the town with up to $500,000 to fund cultural events. Again, impressive.