Michael Biggar - Featured in the Telegraph Journal Today! Saint John metal band Code of Silence will take the stage with other local acts at Music For A Cure on Aug. 31. Photo: Kayla Abrams MUSICIANS PLAYING FOR A CURE CHERISE LETSON TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL 07 AUG 2013 09:13AM SAINT JOHN – Local musicians will be rocking out for a cure this month. Music For a Cure is a full-day benefit show featuring local artists to raise money for cancer research and patients. The music starts Aug. 31 on the Market Square boardwalk. Organizer Scott Mitchell said the idea originally came from a show in Moncton by the same name. Its founder wanted to spread the concept to other cities. “(They) reached out to other cities to see if anybody would jump on board with the idea and try to get it to go a little bit bigger,” Mitchell said. “I lost my mother-in-law to cancer three years ago and my father-in-law this past year to cancer and friends and family over the years, (so) I jumped on it right away.” Admission to the show is free, but there will be donation tables on both side of the stage. Fifty per cent of the money will go toward the Canadian Cancer Society for research and the other half will go to Victoria’s Quilts, a non-profit organization that makes quilts for terminally ill cancer patients to comfort them during their final days. Mitchell said he decided to do this because he wanted to help those who currently have the disease. “There are people dying of this disease right now who can’t really do anything about it.” Mitchell said. “We can help all the research along the way, but really in the long run, what about the people who are experiencing it?” The show lineup has everything from country to indie rock, featuring local artists Jinx The Cat, Mike Biggar, December Fall Out, the Accidental Legends, Hand Drawn and Johnny Moondog. There will also be out-of-town acts Forward Unto Dawn and headliners Corduroy Road and Julian Austin. Mitchell’s metal band, Code of Silence, will also be playing. He said metal music will be something new for the boardwalk. “I wanted to touch on as many tastes as possible, and I find that metal is overlooked a lot,” he says. “If you pretty much talk to any metalhead about a fundraiser for something like this, they’re the first ones to do it.” While there are big national fundraising campaigns like Run For The Cure, Mitchell said smaller local events are also important, because the organizers often have a strong connection with the cause. “You know these are coming from people that have experienced this stuff, they witnessed a lot of things involved with it and they’re really trying to dig down and help these people out, because they know what it’s like,” Mitchell said. “I literally watched my mother-in-law die, and basically why I wanted to do something like this is because I never want to see anyone’s family go through that because it was terrible to watch.” Music For The Cure takes place Aug. 31 from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. at the Market Square boardwalk.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 18:35:34 +0000