…apparently, the 2025 9th Edition of the ‘Festival Country-Blues de Hawkesbury’ could have been the end for this Festival. In an emotional speech to the gathered crowd, the founder and main organizer, told the large crowd that the past few years had been difficult for him to organize the Event. He said the end could have been near for the Festival. But, he continued, thanks to the weather cooperating, new and continuing support from members of the City Council, and the large and passionate crowd who showed up to be entertained by local and regional performers, had given him hope that he could continue to organize country-blues events into the future.

Honestly, I had never heard of Hawkesbury’s ‘Country-Blues Festival’ before this year, which is weird because I’m a huge fan of both genres. One of my favourite playlists on my home PC contains Muddy Waters, Albert King, Bessie Smith, Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Willie McTell (no relation), Canned Heat, Eric Clapton, Etta James, and Howlin’ Wolf, plus another 20.5-hours of even more Blues. As for ‘Country’, I have another playlist that’s 18-hours long, including Alison Krauss & Union Station, Waylon Jennings, Blue Rodeo, k.d. lang, Johnny Cash (of course), Dwight Yoakum, Hank Williams, Ian Tyson, Kris Kristofferson, Steve Earl, and Ray Wylie Hubbard — for what it’s worth, my longest playlist on my PC would be ‘Rock’, with 202-hours of tunage.

All of that to say, I’m really happy to have finally found this Event, it was a pretty cool July day, and that it’s going to continue.

In a news report published after the Event, Yves Paquette, the co-founder, Festival organizer, and former Hawkesbury councillor, said “I think it was a big success” [read the story]. During the 2025 edition, the two day Event featured artist such as Norm Campeau & Side Tracks [Sidetracks FB Page], the Dark Horse Band [their FB Page], Francine Hamel & Side Tracks, On the Road Again, as well as Yvan Petit & Side Tracks [Yvon’s homepage]. It also featured a whole lot of the crowd dancing, and having a great time on the sidelines.

So… go ahead and click on the first photo to get the carousel going. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them… it’s good to be productive again.