25th annual Penticton Hot Jazz and Music Festival this weekend

Summer may be almost over, but this weekend is one of the hottest on the annual Penticton event calendar.

Down at Skaha Lake Park, 2,000 aquatic types from all across the province get together for the lakeside party that is the Penticton Dragon Boat Festival.

Meanwhile on the other side of town, the Penticton Hot Jazz and Music Festival rocks four different venues ("Bourbon Street" and the "French Quarter" at the Convention Centre, the "Cotton Club" upstairs at the Elks Club and "Beale Street" at Orchard House) all weekend long.

And as much as Jazz Fest co-founder and organizer Michael Campbell appreciates hardcore paddling, he's all about the event he co-founded more than two decades ago and still organizes today.

No wonder. For a $150 All Events Pass, ticket-buyers can experience nine bands over three days on four unique stages. It's a heck of a deal.

If three days are a bit much, single-day tickets are $80 for Friday Sept 8, $95 for Saturday September 9 and $75 for Sunday Sept 10. Youths 18 and under can get in any day for a mere ten bucks.

"We have several really special sets this weekend," said Campbell. "We have a new band, Carolyn Martin's Swing Band, from Colorado. She'll do a Patsy Cline tribute over the weekend (8:30 pm at the French Quarter). This is her first year with us, but she comes very highly recommended.

"Another special we have is a Bobby Darin set by a band called Professor Cunningham & His Old School. The first time they were here was last year. They're very, very good."

But Campbell wasn't done. He also pointed to a Montreal-based group called Le Dixieband, which returns to the festival after a 15-year absence. They play traditional New Orleans jazz and dress not unlike 30s-era mobsters.

And he couldn’t ignore a guy who may well be one of the biggest draws of the festival -- Dave Bennett.

Bennett is stupendous. The guy plays about a half-dozen instruments -- piano, clarinet, drums, violin and more -- and plays them very well. He's a killer singer too, and he commands the stage like Jerry Lee Lewis in his heyday.

And that's good because Bennett's band, Dave Bennett and the Memphis Speed Kings, covers a Lewis tune or two as they blast through thoroughly competent renditions of rockabilly and early rock and roll faves.

But Bennett, as he's done before in his jaunts through Penticton, will once again bring two bands with him. Aside from the Speed Kings, he's also the leader of the Dave Bennett Quartet, a sophisticated and genre-mastering group of musicians who play Benny Goodman as authoritatively as they play modern tunes.

Bennett will also lead the event's gospel show, Sunday morning at 9 at the French Quarter.

There are, of course, far more bands and musicians at the 2023 Penticton Hot Jazz and Music Festival than we've described here. And that's half the fun -- discovering all the musicians who've come to the Okanagan for the three day music-thon.

For more info on the event, go here.