Lauren Baron
BRANT NEWS

This Saturday, the Brantford Station Gallery will hit on all your senses.

Under the train station’s breezeway, with the smell of fresh coffee in the air, the third annual Roots N Rails festival will feature nine musical performances, visual artists, vendors selling their wares and food grilling on the barbecue all day long.

“It’s a one-day celebration of our ongoing Sunday Roots Revival series that we do every week and have been doing every Sunday for the past three and a half years,” said Mike Tutt, owner of the Brantford Station Gallery. “A lot of these performers have played on the Sunday Roots stage and it’s a way of bringing them all together in one day to have a free festival for the community.”

The weekly Sunday Roots Revival features a different folk and roots musician playing original music each week at the Station.

Taking the stage during this weekend’s festival will be John and Sheila Ludgate, followed by performances by Guy Westbrook, Massey Harris featuring Scott B., The Curious, Dave Jensen and Friends featuring Fiddler Cyn, Rae Billing Band, Joe Hall, The Acoustics and Rufus Crabhawk.

“Since opening the Station I discovered that there are literally hundreds of roots-folk oriented performers all over Canada and the world that are putting out their own independent CDs,” Tutt said. “Because of our reputation of booking this type of music we are constantly being contacted by travelling musicians from as far away as Australia.”

Saturday’s performers hail from Burlington, Toronto, Hamilton, Peterborough, Oakville and Brantford.

Inside the gallery from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m., Toronto artist Charles Pachter will host the opening celebration of his latest exhibit, on throughout the month of September at the Station.

The exhibit features a sampling of Pachter’s 40 years of work as a contemporary pop artist.

Pachter’s historic images of Toronto streetcars, his solitary moose series, which features the iconic Canadian animal set in various landscapes, as well as his recent image, Highnesses-in-Training meet Monarch of the North featuring the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, line the exhibit’s walls.

“(Roots N Rails) is going to be great music, we are going to have a barbecue going all day long, the patio will be open for people to sit under the breezeway and there will be several artisans with their art on display around the building and the Charlie Pachter art opening,” Tutt said. “People should come out for the atmosphere of not only the historical train station, but also for the easy-listening style of music.”

Roots N Rails runs from noon until 9 p.m. at the Brantford Station Gallery. Entrance and parking are free. Visit www.brantfordstationgallery.ca for more information.