The Mid-Island Music Archive Society invites music lovers to contribute to an online archive of local music lore! An in-person edit-a-thon is planned for March 23, 2023 from 6:30 to 8:30pm at Bowen Social Center (Room 1), with more events planned for the Fall. Bring your wifi-enabled laptop, tablet or other mobile device and join us for tea, cookies and fun working together to preserve Mid-Island music memories. There will be an opportunity to take out memberships at the event from 6:30-7pm, or join online ahead of time. Please RSVP to midislandmusicarchive@gmail.com.
The Society was created to document the rich music culture and history of our region. The archive is designed to help preserve collective memories of performances, organizations and venues that have had strong impacts on Mid-Island communities. Tell people Ray Charles played in Nanaimo and you get a surprised response. Let them know Stevie Ray Vaughan did too and you get a “Really?”. For newcomers to the region the archive will be an invaluable resource to welcome them into the Mid-Island music scene.
The foundation of the archive is an online tool called a wiki, where content is created collaboratively by community members with local knowledge of music-related people, places and events. It’s our own version of Wikipedia, dedicated to Mid-Island music history and culture! The Archive is a user-friendly portal that makes it easy for contributors to add their own original content, including text, photos and more.
Anyone interested in contributing to the Archive can become a Mid-Island Music Society member for $10 per year. Members get Archive editing privileges and the Society offers video tutorials on YouTube to assist new members with the editing process.
