Some Surrey-based musicians are among the hundreds who will perform at this month’s Hell or High Water benefit concert, produced with the help of a studio in rural Port Kells.
Scheduled for Sunday, March 13, the music telethon will raise funds for those living in the fire and flood-ravaged communities of Merritt, Lytton, Princeton and Abbotsford, and surrounding First Nations communities.
A live evening concert at Mission’s Clarke Theater will be broadcast live by Hubcast Studios in Surrey, amplifying a day with over 100 musical performances, messages, vignettes and videos, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tickets for the concert are $42 via ticketweb.ca, and more information is posted at hellorhighwater.ca.
The country concert lineup will feature Tom Jackson, George Canyon, Lisa Brokop, Aaron Pritchett, Kenny Hess, Karen Lee Batten, Jackson Hollow, Bruce Coughlan and more, while the day-long telethon will feature performances from Loverboy, Chilliwack, Patricia Conroy, Crystal Shawanda, Luisa Marshall (as Tina Turner), Russell deCarle, Topaz, Big & Rich, Trigger Mafia, Todd Richard, David Gogo, Appaloosa and more.
“Lisa Brokop is flying in for this concert (from Nashville),” noted Delanne Reid Young, who handles marketing and production for the Hubcast studio. “Jackson Hollow is also originally from Surrey. One of the main organizers, Greg Girard, will also be doing live cuts during this time from Hubcast’s studio, with fundraising updates.
Musicians, celebrities, dignitaries, media, corporations, businesses are all coming together in a collaborative effort to support the communities involved.
“Never in history have communities in British Columbia been so devastated by fires and floods as in recent years,” reads a post on the event’s website. “There were 1,600 fires in British Columbia in 2021. Then came widespread flooding in 2021 that turned roads and highways into swamps. The flood is estimated to have cost $450 million in insured damage, making it the costliest weather event in the province’s history.
Donations are accepted prior to fundraising at hellorhighwater.ca/donate. Prizes can be won including tickets to Canucks and Flames hockey games and the Rockin River Music Festival, golf at Sagebrush, a NEO 24 mountain bike, a two-night stay at a Glimpse Lake cabin, and more. The winners will be announced during the telethon, from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.
“Profits raised, including those made online and through the telethon portion of the event, will go directly to Rotary Merritt and partner nonprofits to distribute funds to those affected by natural disasters,” the site says. Event website.
For three days in February, the Hubcast studio in Surrey was used to film segments of the Variety Show of Hearts telethon, including a performance by blues rocker Colin James and an appearance by ‘Star Wars’ characters with the 501st Legion Outer Rim Garrison, members whose “express our fandom through the use of costumes for charity” – just a few “bad guys doing good”, as noted on the outerrimgarrison.com website.
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