Rise Up concert rocks the park

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“Basically I said it was my turn to stand up and be a man because we need more men to advocate for the cause of violence against women. So that’s the reason I got involved,” he said.

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According to Mirasty, it usually takes months and months ahead of time to plan an event such as this. Instead, he was able to put it together in just three short weeks thanks to everyone’s eagerness to be a part of the event.

“It was actually overwhelming,” said Mirasty. “I hate to say it but we actually had to say no to some groups.”

“Once they heard about this, everybody wanted to get involved.”

Mirasty said it wasn’t really a surprise to him.

“Everybody has personal issues and everybody has stories of triumph and tragedy dealing with violence against women,” he said. “I experienced some domestic violence in my life. Living on the reserve I’d see a lot of stuff that was happening with violence against women, and men.”

The concert included 35 bands who started playing at noon and went late into the night. There was definitely a variety including rock, blues, folk and traditional First Nations music.  

“You name it, we’re doing it all today,” said Mirasty. “Some of the acts are amazing. We have some of the aboriginal Canadian award winners that are on the list today and we have some Juno nominees.”

Denny Blackstar from the band Boss of Three performed in the early afternoon to a crowd of about 150 people.

“It was a really great experience. We’re not used to playing for such a big crowd because we’re just starting out, so it was really fun. We love it,” he said.

Blackstar said they were excited to stand up for the movement.  

“It was a chance to help support their cause and get to enjoy the experience,” he said.

Because of the success of the event, Mirasty said they plan to make it an annual thing. May is ‘mother month’ so they have decided to host the event on the last Saturday of the month.

“We’re going to do this every year so long as we’re around,” he said. “Hopefully this will keep on going 10, 20 years from now so that our kids will take it over.”

asoloducha@panow.com

On Twitter: @alex_soloducha