Bluewater Borderfest founder Mark Perrin.. (Photo by Colin Gowdy, BlackburnNews)Bluewater Borderfest founder Mark Perrin.. (Photo by Colin Gowdy, BlackburnNews)
Sarnia

Arkells Among BorderFest Headliners

Bluewater BorderFest has announced its lineup for the upcoming music festival and a popular Canadian rock band will headline one of the three nights.

Arkells will perform at Sarnia's Centennial Park during the final night of the event that goes from July 26 to July 28.

Festival founder Mark Perrin says landing the rock band from Hamilton will help grow the event in its second year.

"We had them kind of pegged as how to make this happen," says Perrin. "They were one of the first ones we really built our Saturday around."

The festival begins with country headliner Drake White on the Thursday night, while day two features Honeymoon Suite and The Guess Who.

BorderFest received a boost this year with funding of up to $53,000 from the province's Celebrate Ontario fund.

Perrin says they've reduced ticket prices in hopes of attracting more people to the 2018 festival.

"It works out basically to a $40 ticket for Thursday and Friday night and Saturday night will be a $60 ticket," he says. "It's one of the cheaper tickets for seeing these bands across southwestern Ontario and I think that will be a competitive focus on how we attract more people here and fit as many people in the park as we can."

Bluewater Borderfest founder Mark Perrin stands behind posters of the musical acts performing at the second annual event. May 10, 2018. (Photo by Colin Gowdy, BlackburnNews) Founder Mark Perrin. (Photo by Colin Gowdy, BlackburnNews)

Nearly 5,000 people attended Borderfest in 2017 and Perrin says they're looking to increase those numbers this time around.

A free daytime component on the Saturday has been added that will feature performances from four local musical acts.

Perrin says tickets will likely be available to the local community May 18 and to the general public May 19.

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