By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

The 12th edition of the Ile-Perrot VIP Blues weekend, that took place last Friday and Saturday evenings in nearly-perfect weather conditions at Parc des Générations, was the best one yet with dozens of local restaurants serving up Creole, Greek, Asian and Canadian dishes along the walkway on Perrot Boulevard leading up to the stage.

Seb and Jess kicked off the evening with dynamic showmanship gathering a crowd of a few hundred attendees.

The Cite-des-Jeunes High School “Combo Jazz” group wowed the Friday evening attendees who could barely believe that the stellar performance taking place was primarily made up of young high school students.

The entertainment portion of the evening was topped off with a surprise performance by the People’s Gospel Choir, led by Kimble Sherwood who is famous for his composition of a song that was performed at an event held for Nelson Mandela upon his visit to Montreal in 1990. That very song came back to life in the heart of Ile-Perrot last Friday evening, a small town of 12,000 residents.

DJ breaks in between performances allowed attendees that showed up at various times to grab a snack.

Blockades on both ends of the street were set up by the City of Ile Perrot staff members who remained on site to direct traffic throughout the evening and patrol the walkway. Inside the event, pedestrians roamed freely from booth to booth, tasting a variety of culinary delights while being entertained by a juggler on stilts.

A VIP section near the center-right of the stage was set up next to booths serving signature micro brasserie style beers brewed locally. Surrounding the VIP section were crowds of cheering spectators, dancing, clapping and singing along to their favourite tunes.

The live music could be heard several blocks away from the event, serving to gather curious residents towards the park. n