About the Festival

Picture it: It’s 3:00am. Beaming fiddlers are tearing up Carter MacKenzie’s Reel and dancers are pounding out their steps as the whole glowing roomful is clapping along, fired-up. Everyone is right there, with it. So much warmth, so much joy in the air you can almost taste it, and even if your home is on the other side of the world, it’s a feeling of home you’ve never felt before.

Nothing gets more Prince Edward Island than this, and nowhere can you experience this taste of PEI spirit better than the annual Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.

For sure, there is a reason why the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival is one of the longest running festivals of its kind in Atlantic Canada, and if you’re one of the lucky ones who have walked down that grassy hill to follow the sunny fiddle tune being played on the ocean breeze, you know exactly what this reason is: heart.

The dream of the Festival began back in the mid-70s with conversations among local fiddlers in eastern PEI as one of those “wouldn’t it be great if” musings, but the vision became a reality in the summer of 1976 when founders Bishop Faber MacDonald and Joe Pete Chaisson created an event to celebrate the unique culture the Island. An outdoor fiddle festival was born in the newly purchased 60 acre Rollo Bay grounds with key help from other music enthusiasts in the area. Part of the community was made up of dozens of Chaisson family members who joined in to keep their family musical traditions alive – even going so far as to use wood that was supposed to be for Kenny Chaisson’s garage to build the outdoor stage.

The first one-day Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival was a huge success.
“Our grandfather’s whole vision was to promote fiddle music,” says Tim Chaisson, grandson of Joe Pete, seventh generation fiddle player, and current board member of the not-for-profit organizing body, Big Field Traditions.
“He had so much patience and passion about it.”
Originally, proceeds from the festival were set aside to sponsor free music lessons for the community in order to keep the tradition alive. From the get go, the third generation that Tim is a part of wanted to build on this, prioritizing income for a local camp for traditional music – and making sure their decision-making always revolves around Rollo Bay’s simple and effective mandate: Preserve the traditional fiddle music of PEI and have a lot of fun while doing it.
“We couldn’t wait for those first Fiddle Festivals to begin, because it was such a great time,” recalls Kevin Chaisson about those early years – acknowledging that it’s still the same feeling today when the excitement brews leading up to the festival at the beginning of each summer.
Through the years, the original vision for the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival was strongly maintained, as the festival grew through the 70s, 80s and 90s to bring in more off-Island fiddling talent from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and the United States. The Tuning Room, near the festival stage, was built in the early 80s and this brought a whole new element into the picture: The late night music.

“The party really happens in the Tuning Room,” is the truism that every late night Rollo Bay attendee comes to know – and being the last to leave the Tuning Room in the early hours of the morning is now an honour that bears great prestige.

Fiddler Peter Chaisson passed away on the Rollo Bay grounds during the 39th Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival in 2015. When this great loss occurred in the family, the future of the festival was then called into question. But, picking up the torch with barely a missed step, the next generation of Chaissons and their friends formed Big Field Traditions, purchased the Rollo Bay grounds from the original family, and took hold of the annual production of the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.

The third generation to take up this torch since the festival began, this growing group of dedicated family volunteers is mindful of the original mandate of Rollo Bay. They know how important their work is, and they work hard to make this festival even better than it’s ever been – but it’s also clear to everyone how much fun they’re having while doing it.

As well as the continuation of the free community fiddle lessons through Fall and Winter, the Rollo Bay Music Camp now runs the three days in the lead in to the festival, attracting a large number of off-island students each year. With a new programming focus in sourcing artists from around the globe – from places as far as New Zealand and Australia – and in shaping the festival into being as all-welcoming and as family- friendly as possible, Big Field Traditions has made the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival into a community-focused event that is also a highly sought-out destination for fiddle fans from all over the world.

Whether you’re a local or a visitor, when you find yourself whisked into a Rollo Bay square dance with eastern PEI folks who know the steps like the back of their hands, and you dance the steps as if you’ve known them your whole life, you’ll feel it, and you’ll know it, right there: The heart of the Island. You’re home.

By: Todd MacLean


Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival