After two years of silence, the Vancouver International Guitar Festival will be back strumming along this year.
The fourth edition will take place more than three years after the pandemic nixed two festivals. The two-day festival of all things six-string (and other numbers of strings) will include exhibitions, master classes and workshops for people who want to make their own.
"We’ve seen an incredible surge in sales over the last two years here and around the world, with guitar manufacturers and luthiers chalking up record sales to players at all levels, all price points," says organizer Shaw Saltzberg. "Just like Rolling Stone asked, 'did everyone buy a guitar in quarantine or what?'”
Luthiers, for the record, are people who make guitars and other stringed instruments. Vancouver has several professional shops; the festival will bring more than 60 in on their exhibition floor to show off their hand-crafted work. Along with the guitars (both electric and acoustic), there will be almost anything you can strum, from ukuleles to big bass guitars.
Along with the art and craft of creating a guitar, there will also be concerts and guitar playing classes; the schedule is still being determined.
The festival is scheduled for Sept. 24 and 25, 2022 at the Creekside Community Centre; tickets will be available online.
