Newfoundland: Trepassey

The mining community of Fort MacMurray, Alberta, is home to many workers from Newfoundland, many of whom were impacted by the enormous fire in spring 2016. The fishing community of Trepassey, on the southeast coast of the Avalon Peninsula, organized a benefit concert for the victims of the huge fire.

The people from this part of Newfoundland, called the Irish Loop, are mostly of Irish descent. Their speech has an Irish accent, and the music, which was surprisingly good for such a small community, clearly comes from their Irish heritage, featuring some jigs and many ballads, some specially written for this benefit concert. The ballads, as you might expect, tended to be about fishing, sealing, shipwrecks, icebergs, fog, and family. The town volunteer fire chief, who was on call the evening of this concert and so was partially wearing firefighting gear just in case, accompanied many of the other musicians as well as singing ballads himself (in a strong baritone voice). The gentleman in the striped sweater drawing the door prizes and raffle items in the last image is a local Trepassey man who had been working in Fort MacMurray and was evacuated back home to Newfoundland.

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Last modified 12 June 2016