WE WANT YOU TO LEARN AND HAVE FUN AT DEEP ROOTS!
Join these interactive workshops at Deep Roots Music Festival 2026. Call our office: 902-542-7668 (ROOT) for more information.
- No need to register in advance for Artists@Acadia on Thursday or for the Saturday Morning workshops; they are free for everyone! And everyone is welcome to the Sacred Smudge Ceremony at Waterfront Park on Friday afternoon.
- Preregistration is required for
- Growing Roots: Community Empathy Experience with Selah Rose,
- The Stories Behind the Songs workshops with Rob Lutes,
- the Youth Singing mentorship with Daniel James McFadyen, and
- the Acadian Musical Spoons workshop with The Vaudevillian.
- See the red Register buttons below each workshop listing on this page.
Thursday Afternoon
Artists @ Acadia
This year’s artist is Nani Vazana. Artists@Acadia is presented as part of the Acadia School of Music’s Concert& Lecture Series. Thursday, September 25 at 1:00pm in the FESTIVAL THEATRE.
Concert & Lecture Series events are free and all are welcome to attend – please join us!
What does it mean to create within a living tradition – to honour the past without being imprisoned by it? In this lecture-performance, Nani Vazana traces her creative process as one of the world’s few artists composing original music in Ladino, the endangered Judeo-Spanish language carried across centuries and continents by the Sephardic diaspora.
She’ll explore how she brings that ancient tradition into dialogue with contemporary jazz, flamenco, and North African rhythms – and where she draws the line between innovation and preservation. Featuring live performance on piano and trombone, the presentation will also offer a first look at material she will further develop during her Deep Roots Artist in Residence week at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts, following the Festival.
Growing Roots:
A Community Empathy Experience
We are pleased to welcome back Selah Rose of Empathy Village Mediation, for an Empathy workshop at the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens.
This participatory workshop is a gentle prelude to the Deep Roots Music Festival. Together we’ll practice listening and connection in community, supported by fresh air, birdsong, and trees.
Please bring a folding chair and anything you need to be comfortable outdoors.
Pre-register at the link below:
Friday Afternoon
Sacred Smudge Ceremony
On Friday at 12:45 at Waterfront Park, Sandy-Lynn Fisher returns for the ceremonial opening of Deep Roots with a Sacred Smudge Ceremony – using the four sacred medicines: sweetgrass, sage, tobacco, and cedar – to offer prayer and cleanse the space. Everyone is welcome. Wela’liek.
Rob Lutes: The Stories Behind the Songs
What ragtime composer had America’s first million-selling song? Who wrote the best-selling song of all time? Who was America’s first professional songwriter – and why are his most famous songs controversial today?
Over two sessions, award-winning singer-songwriter Rob Lutes leads a curated, chronological tour through the major movements in Western popular music – from its earliest American iterations in the 18th and 19th centuries, through the arrival of ragtime and blues, the flowering of Tin Pan Alley, and the birth of rock and roll – recounting some fascinating stories behind the songs along the way, complete with live performances. The session is conversational and engaging, with Rob welcoming memories, singalongs, and questions from the room.
Rob Lutes is a multiple Maple Blues Award and Canadian Folk Music Award nominee, and winner of the 2018 and 2022 Canadian Folk Music Award for Contemporary Singer of the Year. He has led workshops for schools and audiences across Canada, and has taught in France’s Festival Blues-sur-Seine education program and the Ottawa Bluesfest Blues in Schools program, the Halburton Folk Camp, and Hornby Island Blues Week.
Pay in advance and register using the button below, or take your chance at the door. $15 per workshop or $25 for both Friday and Saturday (includes taxes and fees). If you have a full Festival Pass or a Day Pass for the day of the workshop, the workshop is included at no extra cost, but you must register to ensure a place!
Saturday Morning
Harmony Singing
Express your musical side – sing at the harmony workshop on Saturday morning with music therapists Sarah McInnis and Rebecca Fairless, at the Wolfville Legion.
You will be guided through a series of exercises and songs that will have you singing in harmony in no time.
No experience necessary.
Drumming
Djugdjug Ensemble will provide drums and training so you can participate in the drum circle at Clock Park.
Kids PLAY Music
Children under 7 and their adults can join Marilyn Manzer & Shannon Lynch at the Baptist Church vestry for an hour of playing, singing, clapping and dancing.
Parade Prep – Crafts
Explore your creative side – prepare for the parade by either making crafts or putting on costumes and playing with giant puppets.
At the Clock Park, artists from Ross Creek Centre for the Arts will have a tent with exciting craft supplies – so you can make things like hats, masks and musical instruments that you can use in the parade.
Parade Prep – Puppets
Over in the Festival Theatre lobby, starting at 10 am, Wee Giant Theatre has magical costume pieces to share and will help you explore and express the character you develop.
For maximum enjoyment, please give your children the time they need to truly play and explore these pieces, to choose what really speaks to them, and to develop their character and movements, before the group leaves the building at 11:30 to go to Clock Park and joins in the parade.
Saturday afternoon
Rob Lutes: The Stories Behind the Songs
What ragtime composer had America’s first million-selling song? Who wrote the best-selling song of all time? Who was America’s first professional songwriter – and why are his most famous songs controversial today?
Over two sessions, award-winning singer-songwriter Rob Lutes leads a curated, chronological tour through the major movements in Western popular music – from its earliest American iterations in the 18th and 19th centuries, through the arrival of ragtime and blues, the flowering of Tin Pan Alley, and the birth of rock and roll – recounting some fascinating stories behind the songs along the way, complete with live performances. The session is conversational and engaging, with Rob welcoming memories, singalongs, and questions from the room.
Rob Lutes is a multiple Maple Blues Award and Canadian Folk Music Award nominee, and winner of the 2018 and 2022 Canadian Folk Music Award for Contemporary Singer of the Year. He has led workshops for schools and audiences across Canada, and has taught in France’s Festival Blues-sur-Seine education program and the Ottawa Bluesfest Blues in Schools program, the Halburton Folk Camp, and Hornby Island Blues Week.
Pay in advance and register using the button below, or take your chance at the door. $15 per workshop or $25 for both Friday and Saturday (includes taxes and fees). If you have a full Festival Pass or a Day Pass for the day of the workshop, the workshop is included at no extra cost, but you must register to ensure a place!
Youth Singing – with Mentor Daniel James McFadyen
Closed rehearsal session *registration required* – 2026
Young singers, join Daniel James McFadyen in learning a song and be his backup singers at Deep Roots Music Festival!
Daniel will work with the participants at Devour! Studios on Saturday, September 26. This is a singing workshop only, no instruments needed. Any youth ages 12 – 18 are invited to register for this free session, maximum 20 participants, first come first served. We will confirm once we receive your information.
Note: This workshop is right before the Youth Open Mic with Deer Jenny headlining. Let Daniel know in the form if you would like to continue and perform in the Youth Open Mic after the workshop.
Youth Open Mic – 2026
Right after the Youth Singing Workshop, the spotlight shifts to the Youth Stage – an open showcase where young performers bring their talent to the mic. Headlining the event are Deer Jenny, winners of this year’s Apple Blossom Festival Battle of the Bands. Presented with Music in Communities and inspired by their youth open mic series, this vibrant program celebrates the creative energy of our region’s next generation.
Sign up will be on-site at the beginning of the open mic.
Acadian Musical Spoon Workshop with The Vaudevillian
Join The Vaudevillian at their Acadian Musical Spoons Workshop for their hands-on class in learning how to become a musical spoon player! Get ready to laugh as you click clack and learn various patterns and techniques.
All ages, all abilities, seeing-impaired friendly. 40 sets of Acadian musical spoons provided. No musical experience necessary.
In addition to performing at Festivals, Theatres & Auditoriums all over Canada, the USA, Europe and the UK, The Vaudevillian host unique audience-interactive Washboard Workshops and interactive Musical Spoon Workshops at Festivals and to date have taught over 6000+ participants! Pay in advance and register, or take your chance at the door. $15 (includes taxes). If you have a full Festival Pass or a Saturday Pass, the workshop is included at no extra cost, but you must register to ensure a place!
