The 2025 Barnside Harvest Festival filled Ladner's Paterson Park with three days of live music and other attractions last weekend (Sept. 12-14).
Close to 25,500 people bought tickets for the Delta-based brewery's third annual festival, which featured nightly headlining bands Walk off the Earth (Friday), Arkells (Saturday) and The Dead South (Sunday).
During Arkells' 90-minute set, after high-energy singer Max Kerman asked if anyone in the crowd knew the guitar chords D, G and E minor for their song "Private School," Surrey teen Jackson Newson, 19, was picked to get on stage with the band.
"That was probably the best moment of my life," he said Monday (Sept. 15).
"That's the sixth time I've seen them and obviously the best show yet."
Newson was standing near the front of the stage with his parents.
"When Max asked who played guitar, I put up my hand and so did my dad, because I learned from him," Jackson noted. "Then he pointed at me and so did all these other people. Max was like, 'OK, the guy in the white hat, come up.' I kind of a forgot everything after that. It was so fun."
Later, some concert-goers asked Jackson if he was a "plant" for a staged moment.
"I was like, 'Are you kidding me? Absolutely not!' A lot of my friends listen to them (Arkells), too, so it's cool. There were a couple of people I knew in the crowd and they couldn't believe that I got up there and played with them."
Video shows Jackson gleefully playing guitar with a favourite band, rock hit-makers from Hamilton.
Jackson has been playing guitar for about a year, and also plays drums and piano.
"Playing in a band has always been my dream.… I felt like I belonged up there," he said. "My dad and I had a little band called The Poor Neighbours, just me and him. I got a drum kit (and) we sent a picture of us to my grandma and she's like, 'Oh my God, your poor neighbours,' and we thought it was a great name for a band. We have a Youtube channel."
Jackson's mom, Diana Leith, said Saturday's concert was special for the family, who live in Surrey near the Langley border (not Langley, as Jackson said on stage).
"I kind of blacked out when he got up on stage, and I think Jackson kinda blacked out as well," Leith said. "We're still in shock. I've watched that video probably hundreds of times. He was in his element. Now he has to find himself a band. This is his calling, he needs to do it."
Other bands at the family-friendly Barnside festival included Ruby Waters, Bedouin Soundclash, Shakey Graves, Said the Whale, Streetheart, Jesse Roper, The Boom Booms, Northern Pikes, Tony Stevens and more.
