My favourite Canadian music festival has a big announcement to make. After months of searching, the "tiny, perfect festival" of the far north has disclosed that it has hired a brand new festival producer just in time for the event's 30th anniversary in July 2008.

On Monday, the Dawson City Music Festival board of directors announced that their new festival producer is Tim Jones. Originally from Toronto, Tim has spent the last several years producing many musical events in the university town of Sackville, New Brunswick, most recently last weekend's Stereophonic Festival.

The fresh-faced Jones will now be responsible for booking the acts at the DCMF, which in years past has prided itself on its artistic integrity, attracting bands like the Weakerthans, Final Fantasy, and Amy Millan.

I caught up with Tim to ask him a couple of questions on his new gig...

GL: What attracted you to the DCMF?

TJ: The Dawson City Music Festival has managed to bring the vast majority of my favourite active Canadian bands to the Yukon over the years. Having run a small, community-minded festival in the past, I know that is an incredible feat. Its programming has been consistently fantastic, risky, and unorthodox while remaining true to its folky traditions. The Festival is older than I am. Alumni like Carolyn Mark, Shotgun & Jaybird and the Constantines have told me it's their favourite festival to play at; how could I not be attracted?

GL: Have you ever been to Dawson City?

TJ: I've never been to Dawson, but many friends of mine have spent time there - Kim Barlow and Shotgun & Jaybird have depicted its psychology on two of my favourite records - and, of course, CBCR3 has described its magic in detail. Dawson's landscape, camaraderie, and sense of living history is hugely appealing to me.

GL: What do you envision for the festival's 30th anniversary?

TJ: The 30th anniversary of the Festival should be just like the festivals of the past several years - an insanely fun weekend full of eclectic, amazing music. We have some special surprises lined up that could only happen under the midnight sun - but you'll have to make the trek way up north to discover what they might be.

Tim is already very busy booking acts for this year's festival, July 18-20 2008, and we'll announce some of those acts on this blog soon.

Also, steer an ear to this week's CBC Radio 3 Podcast when we'll announce a very special contest to design a brand new logo for the Dawson City Music Festival!

Photo by Claire Kelly.

posted by Grant Lawrence on Jan 22, 2008