by Ryan Hahn
Photo credit: Ryan Hahn
Derek Giberson is a city councillor in Oshawa, Ont., but in his spare time, he plays the keyboard with his band, the Professors of Funk.
Music is something he has always enjoyed, and he wants to bring more of it to the Oshawa area.
Three years ago, he founded the Crossing Point Music Festival, an event where local artists can play music during the summer in downtown Oshawa. But this year’s third annual show could be in jeopardy.
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What is the current update on Crossing Point Festival?
Crossing Point Festival, so that usually runs the last weekend of July and as it stands right now, our plan is not to do the festival. Certainly not in its full production version. We will take a look around as the weeks and months go on and see what sort of restrictions are still in place and which ones have been relaxed and what the conditions are and we may do some pop-up shows and other smaller performances as a way of just reminding people that we are still here.
What challenges affect the planning of the festival right now?
When you don't know what you're going to be allowed to do by that time. As well all of the planning that has to go in beforehand – the acts being booked, the sponsorships being lined up, the logistics, and production organized and booked. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to do a lot of those things if you don't know whether you're even going to be able to do all of it and from what we have heard, and what I've heard from other events, and including ones that are festivals and music festivals, I know ones that have cancelled as far out as August.
If you can’t do the festival in its full format, what is your plan with the smaller shows?
We may just look at doing some pop-up events, not just necessarily around the time when the festival will usually be, but later in the year. Just as a way of staying on people's radar and keeping it in people's minds, and just be looking towards 2021.
How does not having the festival impact the artists who usually play at the event?
I think it's the same impact as artists anywhere. They have fewer performance opportunities, and it delays their opportunity to engage both with the existing audiences they have as well as engage potential new audiences and you know, I think the impact is similar to just about anyone out there who's trying to connect and build their base, whether it's arts or otherwise. I think that the bigger difference is that, for those who are things like small businesses, of course, they're at the risk of losing their enterprise all together with local artists.
What is the future of the Crossing Point Festival if it doesn’t take place this year?
If it doesn't happen this year, which is sort of the expectation right now, I think that the future is to pick up where we left off. We were engaging with new partners, and those conversations were ongoing and with a look at 2020. So now I think it just means that, once everybody gets back to some sort of business, as usual, we pick those conversations back up and see if they'll be interested in continuing to be partners in presenting it and supporting it and go from there.
How often do you still get to play the keyboard now since the start of the pandemic?
Not a whole lot. Once in a while, I'll sit down with a keyboard in the living room at home but that's for an audience of one. That's just me and probably just doing it after a long day to blow some steam off.
When was the last time you performed with your band, the Professors of Funk?
My last performance was at The Music Hall (in Oshawa) with the Professors of Funk. It was our monthly show that we do there at the beginning of March.
Have you been able to record any music during this time?
The only thing I've done since the lockdown, I made a song with some of the players I work within Toronto, a band called Horshack. We've been playing the drum room for nine-plus years and using a fairly simple app where each individual records their audio and video part and then sends it on to the next one and then they add their part and then on until everybody's parts are all layered together and then the last person mixes and posts it. So, we did a rendition of Jackson Brown’s “Running on Empty.”
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