Under the Spire Music Festival celebrates the holidays with Songs of the Season!

For the first time in years, the award-winning Festival is presenting a holiday concert featuring Island legend Tim Chaisson!

Under the Spire Music Festival (USMF) celebrated its 27th season this year with full audiences, great music, and more community connections than ever before. When it came time to close in September, it somehow didn’t feel right to pack up the piano for the long winter ahead. Before USMF could start to prepare its 120-year-old venue for winter, Hurricane Fiona swept through PEI. Every Islander was impacted by this storm, and although Historic St. Mary’s emerged with minimal damage in comparison with many other buildings, the Festival’s mandate to maintain and restore the heritage building has never seen such urgency and importance. After seeing this adversity and the strength of Islanders rebuilding after the storm, USMF felt called to offer one more great concert before closing entirely for the winter. After all no matter the season, beautiful music will always be welcome at Historic St. Mary’s.

A featured event of Good Tidings on the North Shore with Central Coastal Tourism, Songs of the Season will feature Island performer Tim Chaisson as host, storyteller, and musician as he shares some of his own songs and some holiday favourites. Tim Chaisson is a JUNO, multiple East Coast Music and Music PEI award winning musician from Bear River, Prince Edward Island. Along with having three successful solo albums, he sings lead vocals and plays fiddle, guitar and percussion in the internationally acclaimed group, The East Pointers. Chaisson and The East Pointers have toured heavily, selling out venues across Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and the United States. Tim is no stranger to the St. Mary’s stage, having played it several times solo and with The East Pointers. He will be inviting special guests, friends, and artists from across PEI to join him on stage and help build some anticipation for the upcoming winter season. 

With the recent installation of the geothermal cooling and heating system, Under the Spire Music Festival is looking forward to expanding its activities past the annual summer concert season. Songs of the Season will be the first chance to test the heating system, however the 120-year old venue faced some damage from Fiona that could impact how well the building retains heat. Audience members are encouraged to bundle up and visit the Pavilion pre-concert and during intermission where USMF volunteers will be selling hot chocolate and other concessions guaranteed to warm the hearts and hands of the entire audience. All proceeds from concessions will go directly to restoring and repairing Historic St. Mary’s. 

This holiday season, step inside the music with Under the Spire Music Festival’s Songs of the Season featuring Tim Chaisson and friends. The concert will be Friday November 25th at 7:30pm. Tickets are $42 and can be found at this link, or by phoning the Kensington office- 902-836-4933.

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Individuals and companies interested in partnerships are encouraged to contact Under the Spire Music Festival at music@underthespire.ca.

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About Under the Spire Music Festival: 

Presented by the Confederation Bridge, Under the Spire Music Festival (USMF) offers a summer long series of concerts in a magnificent heritage church located in idyllic rural Prince Edward Island. The internationally recognized Festival has been twice named by the Globe and Mail as one of the best summer music festivals in Canada and presents outstanding performances from a dynamic mix of some of the biggest names in Canadian music and exciting emerging talents. Now entering its 27th season in 2022, this summer-long festival attracts thousands of music lovers annually to the acoustically perfect Historic St. Mary’s, idyllically set overlooking beautiful Malpeque Bay, to experience the very best in folk, blues, jazz, classical, traditional, contemporary, and world music. Under the Spire Music Festival would be but a dream without the support from our incredible sponsors and funders. Thank you to the Government of Canada, the Cultural Development Division of Innovation PEI, SOCAN Foundation, Malpeque Bay Credit Union, Quality Inn & Suites: Garden of the Gulf, and to our presenting sponsor the Confederation Bridge.