Stage set for Shake the Lake music festival in Regina

Kim Mitchell is coming home — sort of — for the Shake the Lake music festival.

“My father was born and raised in Estevan, Saskatchewan, so I feel like I have a little bit of Saskatchewan blood in me,” the Canadian rocker told the Greg Morgan Morning Show.

Mitchell is the headliner Friday during Shake the Lake, which is held on the grounds of the Conexus Arts Centre.

“I’ve crossed Canada so many times over my 40-year career,” Mitchell said. “Some bands are like, ‘Oh, you get to the prairies and it’s like c’mon.’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? It’s so beautiful.’

“There’s just something Zen-ish about the whole thing, just travelling through there. We’ve pulled the bus over in northern Saskatchewan and just laid down on the road. You can lay there for 20 minutes — there’s not a car in the middle of the night — and watch the northern lights.”

The northern lights may not be on the schedule for Shake The Lake, but some of the brightest lights in Canadian music history are among the acts set to hit the stage.

The performances Friday include SAGA (5:45 p.m.), Harlequin (7:15 p.m.) and Mitchell (9 p.m.). The slate Saturday is to feature Lee Aaron (4:15 p.m.), Aldo Nova (5:45 p.m.), Chilliwack (7:15 p.m.) and Collective Soul (9 p.m.).

Neil Donnelly, the CEO of the Conexus Arts Centre, said tickets for the Friday shows are still available, but Saturday passes are sold out.

“If you want to go to Shake the Lake, it’s Friday only at this point,” Donnelly told Morgan.

Festival organizers are to break in the stage Thursday night with a performance by Johnny Reid.

“We thought, ‘The event is set up, we’re all ready to go with that big infrastructure that it takes, so why not try to put another show on?’ So we’ve got Johnny Reid coming (Thursday),” Donnelly said.

Like Mitchell, Chilliwack has performed in Regina before, including at previous Shake the Lake events.

Bill Henderson, the band’s frontman, said its visits to the Queen City have been memorable.

“There’s stories — and some of them I can’t even tell you,” Henderson told Morgan. “Regina has always been very warm and welcoming. I love doing outdoor shows there and I hope that everybody comes and just has a great time. That’s really all it’s about.”

Henderson was one of the founding members of Chilliwack when the band was formed in 1970. The 78-year-old says he does exercises to keep his voice in shape so that he can continue hitting the notes required for songs like “Fly At Night.”

He believes that tune in particular ties the band to its fans.

“It’s one of the songs that I wrote that is really about the audience and our relationship and presented in a live situation,” Henderson said. “The audience is the catalyst. That’s what makes it work and I always kind of knew that.”

Shake the Lake leads into a busy fall for the Conexus Arts Centre.

Donnelly said he’s eager to see a number of the shows that are booked, including Bonnie Raitt and Air Supply on back-to-back nights in September, comedian Nurse Blake in September, and the Jagged Little Pill Broadway musical in October

“I think that’s going to be fantastic because the Alanis Morrissette soundtrack is unbelievable in that,” Donnelly said. “We’ve just go so much coming up this fall. It’s looking really, really great.”