By Will McGuirk
If I was moving from my pleasant corner of the planet, I think I’d move to Hillside, if that was a thing. It's the kind of place one could live year round. And it's not because it's a hideaway, some sequestered commune, or some bunkered utopia of privilege. Quite the opposite Hillside is well aware of the outside world, in fact, the outside world is welcomed in, in all its multitude-ness. All are welcome, all are welcome to express, all are equal - Hillside is where one can truly be one and at the same time be part of many. Hillside doesn’t shy away from the problems and issues in the world at large, the controversies and wars and displacements of whole peoples instead it offers solutions to the problems, it offers a template, it offers a place.
This year 2024 in particular this template for how the world could be was on display in the most uplifting, charming, disarming, inclusive manner - and at all levels, in vendors, in food, in activities, in music, in staging, and going this year, with not any particular act on the bucket list, but open to to the whims and whatevers of the weekend I had what was I think the best Hillside experience in the two decades I have been fortunate to attend.
Medicine Singers with Yonatan Gat and Lee Ranaldo
Once settled in on the Saturday we took a wander around stumbling on to the Main Stage area where Medicine Singers with Yonatan Gat and Lee Ranaldo were engaged in ferocious expression of joy; Medicine Singers seated around a circular drum, singing in Eastern Algonquin, while Israeli guitarist Gat sang out soaring riff after rif on his instrument, into an ascendency and Ranaldo of Sonic Youth played with his guitar like a kitten with a toy. He thumped it, slapped it, dragged it along the ground, twirled it upwards and generally did everything but strum it. Absolute chaotic scenes, but with a drummer and bass player keeping things tight the maelstrom stayed contained. Canadian guitar legend Colin Linden joined them at one point, sliding into his own channel with thoughtful ease - just a spectacular display of musical mastery and collaboration - a true sense of community being created before our ears. So good in fact that although we had just arrived we agreed we could just leave there and then, and Hillside would have been considered its usual successful self.
Of course we didn’t but as the heat was also spectacular we did find ourselves drifting into the lake and shade as much as possible and emerging for Chris Brown & Kate Fenner with Tony Scherr, Aysanabee, and Land of Talk.
A friendly suggestion led us to The Messthetics with James Brandon Lewis and we shall be forever grateful. The Messthetics are two members of Fugazi, bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty, with guitarist Anthony Pirog. James Brandon Lewis plays saxophone. Yah closed out Saturday night with Punked up jazz!! Canty’s whalloping incessant beat and Lewis gentle but insistent playing - such again a singular joyful expression of musical collaboration, leaving such a buzz, such a thrill, such a high we stayed up until 4:30 am under a clear sky and full moon.
Sunday we gave respect to the sun and kept to the shade meandering through the channels between tents and trees, stopping to see a full house for Ashley MacIssac’s Sunday morning sermon, and the wonderful sight of children dancing a jig to the reels, in that immediate connection music has with the young.
The international flavour of traditional music continued with Benin International Musical on the Main Stage, a giddy set, the audience skipping up clouds of dust.
Followed by a visit with Tragedy Ann’s set, listening to Bombino from beach by the lake, and then to the anglo-folk icon that is Richard Thompson, full-voiced, in the fullness of the evening sun.
An emotional extensive weekend, exhausting in the heat but invigorating, once again the annual reset of the mind, body and soul, ready to reenter the world and take up the challenge of parsing the lessons of Hillside into daily life, daily actions, the willingness to listen, to learn, to share, to understand, to inquire, to collaborate, and in the moment make something remarkable.