By Mike Hager, Vancouver Sun August 11, 2011

For those still smarting from a chilly July, the Desert Daze music festival in Spences Bridge offers a great way to sizzle in the sun while enjoying live music and scrumptious local produce in an awe-inspiring mountain setting.

Last year, temperatures hit almost 40C as crowds danced to folk-rock and ate moist melons before swarming to local watering holes, where they cooled down before doing it all over again.

As one might guess from its name, the festival takes place in a desert-like town — about 50 km northeast of Lytton, beside the Thompson River — which is surrounded by tumbleweed, sagebrush, rattlesnakes, ponderosa pines and big horned sheep.

“When the first nations had their drumming ceremony [at the start of last year’s festival] there were big horned sheep that came down the mountainside,” said festival organizer Maya Chang. “They crossed the Trans-Canada Highway and they basically watched as the audience watched as well.”

This year’s audience will be greeted by down-to-earth musicians like Juno nominee Romi Mayes and Jay Nowicki, as well as Sarah McLachlan’s longtime guitarist Sean Ashby, who is flying out from Toronto in part because he’s a fan of the area’s famous steelhead fishing, according to Chang.

Festival founder and local melon farmer Steve Rice said last year’s heat led festivalgoers to covet the shade of the site’s lone tree, but it didn’t stop them from enjoying the music and drinking in the scenery.

“It is one weekend later [this year] so it should be even hotter, but we also have way more tents and canopies than we did last year,” Rice said.

He also said the nearby swimming holes, which residents would be happy to show visitors, offer respite from the swelter.

“There’s a lot of neat things by the venue that people don’t even know about unless you’re a local,” Rice said. “Murray Creek Falls is only about a half-kilometre hike and you can stand under a waterfall and cool down.”

Others seeking relief from the heat can indulge in locally grown watermelons, honeydews, tomatoes, apples and other produce available on site. “When you grow the best melons and tomatoes in the world, you gotta show them off!” Rice boasted.

Rice plans to hold a watermelon seed spitting contest, where people can launch 10 seeds for a toonie. The proceeds will go into a 50/50 draw, with half the money going to a lucky winner and the rest helping to fund next year’s festival.

“It’s cool because … they taste a bit of this yellow watermelon and then they take out the 10 seeds they want,” Rice said. “If you get two out of the 10 [in the bucket], then you get two tickets to the 50/50 draw.”

Those without an effective spitting style can try their hand, or head, at bobbing for apples. For $2, contestants have 30 seconds to bob for as many apples as they drop into a bag, enjoying any they manage to grab.

Both contests will be “strategically located” next to the beer garden for maximum entertainment, Rice said.

Activities like these, and a planned pickle-making workshop led by Rice’s stepmother, aim to couple Spences Bridge’s main industry of agriculture with laid-back music and a friendly little town unknown to most British Columbians.

Chang said revellers can choose to RV or camp in a variety of spots within walking distance of the festival site or book accommodation within Spences Bridge itself.

The family-friendly festival runs Aug. 19-21. Day or weekend passes range from $15 to $60. See desertdaze.ca for details.

mhager@postmedia.com

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