The final push is on to see who will take the prized for Searchlight, Canada's Best Music Festival. To give you a sense of our ten finalist, we sent out questionaires to the remaining festivals. We'll post them as we receive them, so please check them out, and don't forget to VOTE!

How long has Hillside been in operation?
The Hillside Festival is going into it's 27th year this July.

What is the mission statement of your festival?
To create and present music-focused events and projects within a non-commercial, environmentally responsible framework while engaging a diverse, multi-generational community and volunteer base.

What makes your festival site special?
Our festival site is special because we are self-sufficient out on an island! The Hillside Festival happens on Guelph Lake Island in conjunction with the Grand River Conservation Authority so the lake makes for some spectacular scenery, a beautiful backdrop for 5 stages of music and performance and, a refreshing place to cool off on a hot Saturday in July.

What is your favourite festival moment of the past?
For Hillside's 25th Anniversary, we received a grant for a special project from 'Celebrate Ontario'. With that, we were able to bring in Tibetan Monks from the Sed Gyued Monastery from Salugara, India. As a 'rain or shine' festival, we have to function in any kind of weather but obviously, would prefer if the sun were shining. We were hit with rain that weekend (you may have seen video of Owen Pallett's performance) and so our Aboriginal Community Members teamed up with the Tibetan Monks in a mass meditation to try and break the showers. It was an amazing thing to witness such a large amount of people meditating - and no word of a lie, it worked! The skies started to clear and over the island shone 2 rainbows. It was spectacular.

Name one artist that is playing this year?
Stars

Why should we vote for your festival?
You should vote for Hillside as the best festival in Canada because we are unique and have stayed true to ourselves from the beginning. We are not-for proft, non-corporate, environmentally conscious (we wash and re-circulate our own dishes and mugs), non-hierarchical (performers eat in the same areas as volunteers and staff), grassroots organization who just love good music and helping to build a strong community. Hillside is much more then a music festival - it is a way of life. We have over 1500 year round volunteers who help make us who we are. Hillside is everyone who has every performed, been a patron, volunteered or contributed a service. Thank you for bringing us this far in the CBC Radio 3 Searchlight contest!

posted by John Paolozzi on Mar 08, 2010