Esquimalt
Ribfest

Anyone that has been involved in outdoor sports in Esquimalt over the years knows that wet fields lead to cancellations from November to March and these shut-downs can take a full third out of soccer, football, rugby, field lacrosse, or field hockey season or schedule. At Ribfest, our dream has been to build a facility that will allow our kids and neighbouring kids, to play in Esquimalt over the winter months for outdoor sporting games and practices.

The three-phase project encompasses:

1. a synthetic, all-weather turf field suitable for outdoor team sports with state-of-the-art directional LED lighting that does not bleed out into the neighbouring residential areas
2. a community-based, multi-purpose field house with a workout area, change rooms and an area for spectators and viewing seats
3. a neighbourhood track/chip trail surface for walking/jogging

For 12 years now, Esquimalt Ribfest has been socking away money in trust with School District #61 harboring this dream and we are a driving force behind this Community Field Collaboration. Esquimalt is the ‘Place of Shoaling Waters’ and the EHS field is built over a stream (now underground) that goes from Vic West all the way into the Gorge. This collaboration includes the Songhees Nation, Gorge Soccer, the James Bay Athletic Association, many other local sporting organizations, the Township of Esquimalt, School District #61, the Esquimalt High School Alumni Association, and the Vancouver Island Aboriginal Thunder Rugby Club.

Esquimalt is the only core Municipality where there is no wet weather outdoor field space so we are due and our kids deserve it!

Jason Buie Music Achievement Award is a cheque for $1,000 from the Esquimalt Fire Fighters’ Foundation. This is awarded annually to a graduating student from Esquimalt High School. This award is presented each year at Ribfest, which is held the second weekend of September.

Biography of Jason Buie

Jason was born and raised in Victoria and has deep roots in Esquimalt. His Mom and Dad, Gayle and Bob, grew up in Esquimalt and graduated from Esquimalt High. As boys, Jason and his brother, Chris, spent much of their time with their grandparents at Saxe Point Park and Kinver Beach. He was raising his twins, Jackson and Etta, in his beloved Esquimalt.

Jason was an award-winning musician. In 2018, Jason won the Maple Blues Award for Best New Blues Artist in Canada. He released 4 independent CDs over his 25-plus years as a professional musician. His last album, Driftin Heart, was an award-winning CD.

Jason was a co-founder of the White Rock Blues Society and a member of the Victoria Blues Society.  In 2012, he was approached to come on board for Esquimalt RibFest as the musician co-ordinator. He did and loved being part of RibFest.

Jason was a big believer in giving back to his community. Every year both in Victoria and White Rock, he organized annual Christmas gigs and arranged for other musicians to give their time for the Christmas Toy Jam and the Yuletide Blues events for the Mustard Seed Food Bank. He would give up-and-coming musicians breaks and have them play at various gigs he did. He was very generous with his time to help fellow musicians. He was a big man with a giving heart.

2024 Jason Buie Music Achievement Award Recipient, Atticus Dachsel Kerr

To whoever it may concern,

I am a student at Esquimalt High School, and have lived in Victoria for the past 12 years. Music has been a creative outlet for me for most of my life. Over the years I’ve played piano, viola, clarinet, and saxophone, but I was in middle school when I was introduced to composition as a serious pursuit.

I had already been creating music on my keyboard at home for fun, but never thought much of it aside from the occasional praise from a family member. As soon as I was introduced to the tools of manuscript paper and notation software, I was hooked. When I was in grade eight, I wrote a piece for my school’s concert band titled March of the Spartans. Middle school band was extremely important to me and I wanted us to play something that I had created, a way to give back everything middle school music had given me.

Composition allows me to interpret the world through sound. My motivation for writing music is to connect the things that are the most important to me, to sound. Many of these things are physical, like birds or buildings or buses, and some of these things are experiences, like the hollowness of a mall right before it closes. Having these pieces performed is arguably one of the most important things to me, as I can share my common day-to-day experiences into something more elevated.

By the time I was in grade nine, I already had two of my compositions performed live. I have been so fortunate to have had access to some of the programs available to young composers in Victoria. Through the Victoria Conservatory of Music, I was a member of the Composition Club for four years under the mentorship of Christine Donkin, which was dedicated to having young composers collaborate together on a variety of composition commissions from all over Canada, and to later hear them performed. For four years, I participated in Victoria Symphony New Exploration Workshop (VSNEW), a program for emerging composers to write new works for small ensembles of symphony musicians and composer-in-residence Rodney Sharman, the pieces received public performances.

I have been accepted into the UVic School of Music where I will do a Bachelors in Music in Composition. This degree program spans four years and covers a variety of compositional skills, advance music theory, and analysis that covers a multitude of time periods and styles. Studying composition at a post-secondary institution will allow me to develop new techniques, while also expanding the ones I already possess. The School of Music ensures that composition students will have their music performed by fellow students as well as guest artists and ensembles who will workshop with composers. The combination of theoretical and practical skills from this program will make a well-rounded composer.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Atticus Dachsel Kerr