What We Carry Forward

Luke does not remember his first time attending the TD Halifax Jazz Festival. He was two years old when his dad brought him. But once his memory began to form, the festival was already part of his life.

“Once I gained some vague form of consciousness, I remember warmly the activities they had available for children,” Luke recalls. “There was a mural in the kids corner which I would always look forward to. While dad still kept an eye, the festival allowed me to experience small spurts of autonomy.”

For Luke’s father, Trevor, attending the festival began years earlier. When he first moved to Halifax from Cape Breton, a friend encouraged him to check it out.

“I was hesitant because I thought jazz listeners were out of my league,” Trevor says. “He assured me that there would be all walks of life there.”

Trevor went to his first show in 2005. The following year, he brought Luke to the free daytime shows. The year after that, Luke gained a younger brother, and the tradition continued.

Luke and his brother at the TD Halifax Jazz Fest.

“We have been every year since,” Trevor says.

For Luke, it never felt like a question to attend the festival.

“My entire childhood, I knew that that week in July, I was going to the Jazz Festival in the same way I knew I would be seeing family for Christmas,” he says.

As the boys grew older, the way the family attended changed. What started with daytime shows expanded into evening performances and full days downtown.

“There was always lots for the kids to do and great music to hear,” Trevor says. “We would do a downtown activity like the museums and then take as many bands in as possible each day.”

Luke remembers the variety as part of what kept him coming back.

“The large variety of genres present always gave me something to fall in love with,” he says. “Rockabilly, rap, rock, and blues just to name a few.”

Trevor and his two sons aboard the ferry to the TD Halifax Jazz Fest in 2013.

When Luke began working at summer camps with the city, returning to the festival took on new meaning.

“My dad brought me as a kid, which was one of the sparks that ignited my passion for concert going and music,” Luke says. “So when I finally became the manager of my day camps, I decided to make sure I brought our group of kids to hopefully ignite the same passion in them.”

He remembers kids dancing, playing in the kids zone, and taking in live music together.

The two siblings enjoying daytime programming at the TD Main Stage.

“In both instances I felt happy beyond words that I could spread the same joy I felt and continue to feel onto others,” Luke says.

For Luke, returning now means more than attending. It means carrying something forward. A place he once arrived at holding his father’s hand is now a place he brings others to, creating space for new memories to take shape.

The family has now spent 20 years together attending the Jazz Fest.

Supporting the Halifax Jazz Festival helps keep this cycle alive. It helps ensure there is still a place where families return together, where young people discover music in shared spaces, and where the next generation is invited not just to attend, but to bring others with them.

Help keep the Halifax Jazz Festival a place people return to, and a place the next generation can carry forward.