Lazo returns for 16th straight summer at London's Sunfest
By James Reaney

Sunfest 2011 can count on the usual blast of reggae heat from its most faithful friend and a new surge of electronica when it shines on Victoria Park next month.

Toronto’s reggae master Lazo will play his 16th Sunfest in a row at TD Sunfest ’11, where he will be a co-star with a new attraction, Suntronica ’11. More details about the 37 performers at the July 7-11 fest will be made official soon.

Lazo has been dubbed “the Jackie Washington of Sunfest” in tribute to the late Canadian folk and roots icon who played so many Home County Folk Festival. Along with him are such new-to-London acts as the nu-jazz Saskia Laroo Band, led by a trumpet player from the Netherlands, called “the Lady Miles (Davis) of Europe.”

Laroo’s band mixes jazz, hip-hop, electronica and more. It’s part of the Suntronica component along with such new names as Brooklyn-based Chicha Libre and the Afro-Colombian hip-hop Systema Solar. Among the returnees from other Sunfests are Vancouver’s Delhi 2 Dublin and Montreal’s Roberto Lopez Project.

Returning features include the WestJet Jazz Stage, Le village quebecois and the Galaxie Rising Stars program, which offers participating Canadian acts a prize. Last year’s winners, Five Alarm Funk, are back for the 2011 edition.

“Our patrons relish the tremendous element of surprise, of sharing new discoveries,” says TD Sunfest executive and artistic director Alfredo Caxaj in fest media material. “Every year we work hard to book both established and up-and-coming creative artists whom people haven‘t seen live before — international and Canadian groups coming to the area for the very first time.”

Among the international artists is Kenya’s Makadem, whose videoclip, Obama Be Thy Name, is a huge viral hit. Moari music queen Moana Maniapoto brings her band, The Tribe, from New Zealand. Niger-based Etran Finatawa’s guitars, rhythms and vocals bring the sounds of the Sahara to Sunfest with a lineup built on Wodaabe and Touareg nomads.

Canadian stars include jazz singers Laila Biali and Kellylee Evans, Quebec folk group De Temps Antan, banjo wizard Jayme Stone and Montreal-based, Haitian-born Wesli.

Other attractions include more than 275 food, craft, and visual art exhibitors. Sunfest has been voted one of the Top 100 North American Events for 2011 by the American Bus Association and a Top 100 Ontario fest by Festivals & Events Ontario.

Support for Sunfest comes from government, corporate, private and media sources.