Headline Jesse Roper provided a fitting end to the first All Ways Home music festival at LangfordB次元官网网址檚 Starlight Stadium on Sunday.

The Metchosin resident and sizzling blues guitarist with a powerful voice to match couldnB次元官网网址檛 get the smile off his face as he started his roughly 70-minute set.

B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檝e missed you guys so much,B次元官网网址� he shouted, extending his hands wide to add, IB次元官网网址檝e missed you this much.B次元官网网址�

With festivals and large-scale concerts largely absent over the past 18 months or so, Roper sounded ecstatic to be out playing a large venue again.

The crowd responded in kind as he rolled through his eclectic original material, from blues to country rock to an A-E-I-O-U didgeridoo-style chant that he prefaced with, B次元官网网址淣ow weB次元官网网址檙e gonna get weird!B次元官网网址�

Roper, who has gained solid local radio play over the years with such blues favourites as The HurricaneB次元官网网址檚 Eye, Shiny Round Nickel and Right Now, was the consummate showman, playing to the crowd and having fun on stage.

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He followed up an inspired, if rather hastily put-together set from Galiano Island electronic duo Funk Hunters, who filled in at the 11th hour for Juno Award winners Snotty Nose Rez Kids.

Sampling from a variety of pop hits and other well-known songs, Nick Middleton and Duncan Smith churned out infectious, danceable beats and rhythms that had the crowd movinB次元官网网址� and groovinB次元官网网址� virtually the whole time.Victoria folk rockers Jon and Roy put together a toe-tapping set of their own ahead of Funk Hunters, drawing on the acoustic-electric original material that has made them huge local favourites.

Unlike the first day of the festival Saturday, SundayB次元官网网址檚 schedule wasnB次元官网网址檛 interrupted by rain, which helped keep more of the crowd around.

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