Few places on the North Coast have as many stories to tell as the North Pacific Cannery. Weathered but tough, the site immediately strikes you: it sits astride the land and the sea and is still part of both worlds. A great, gangly complex of buildings and crazy apparatus all specialized for the purpose of making livelihoods from putting fish into cans. But it’s not just the physical structure: the place is built on hard labour and it shows in every square inch. And you don’t have to live on the North Coast long before meeting someone who is part of this place, for whom this place is part of them. Friendships forged, hardships overcame.

It would be easy at this point to consign the place to romanticized history and talk of it only in the past tense. But something much, much better is going on at the NPC. The Intertidal Music Festival is adding another layer to the story of the site, bringing new life, and honouring the site in the best way possible: by connecting people to place with music and dance.

It was a great pleasure to take photos for the event again this year. Thanks to the organizers, the volunteers and the musicians who made it happen. I’m looking forward to next year already.

If you have an event or site you want to have documented with photos, get in touch. I love this stuff.