So as promised I check out the Beaches Jazz Festival on Friday evening with Evan, Velina and Galin. As in the past years, we were amazed to see how far the festival stretched on Queen Street East. Every time you thought you were coming to the end of the festival it continued to extend to the next block.

We were mildly disappointed that we missed the salsa bands. We were able to hear two or three different flamenco bands and one even mixed salsa with flamenco for an interesting sound. However, with the craziness and mass audience, we were not inspired to dance.

As in the last two festivals we visited this summer, the highlight was a very interesting band with a lead musician who played an electric violin. They were amazing as usual and built the biggest audience of the evening. They played right at the opening of the festival and 2 hours later as we returned from finishing the walk they were still playing strong. The lead exerts so much energy jumping and playing frantically, it is so fun to watch.

I would love to hear if anyone got to see Son Ache or Cache playing during the weekend. Hopefully there are still a few more opportunities to this summer to catch the bands playing. Looking forward to the Latin festival at Mel Lastman Square in September!