Spend the month of March looking through a fishbowl

Music lovers know vinyl LPs are enjoying a revival, but now, so are cassette tapes.

Yes, really, for those of us who didn’t know.

Though cassette tapes could warp in a car stereo if outside temperatures were too hot or cold (or unravel), “tape is really making a comeback,” said Pete Moran, Fishbowl Festival supporter.

Moran spoke to SooToday Sunday as the local arts festival kicked off for the fourth consecutive year with a Secondhand and Vintage Market event at Outspoken Brewing, with several vintage merchandise vendors on hand, shoppers buying vintage treasures while enjoying a glass of beer or two.

The Fishbowl Festival was launched by Nicole Dyble and partner Al Bjornaa.

“Al used to have his own tape label, and at one stage he was selling more tapes than Sony,” Moran said, with artists, especially ‘small town’ singers/songwriters/bands releasing new product using the old technology, pointing out several samples on sale Sunday at Bjoorna’s Oosik Records vending booth at Outspoken Brewing.

“We remember cassettes as kids, they could fit in your pocket, and everybody wants a bright yellow Walkman again,” Moran chuckled.

“Cassettes are so much easier to produce for a new artist...pretty much anybody can put a few tapes out. It makes it easier to get a physical copy of your music out.”

While neither Dyble or Bjornaa were able to attend Sunday’s event, Moran said “it started off as a little thing with Nicole and her friends, a lot of them having birthdays around this time, which makes them Pisces (the astrological sign of a fish for people born between February 19 and March 20, hence the term ‘fishbowl’ for the festival).”

“She does it pretty much herself, with help from friends and venues...there’s an art exhibit soon, there are lots and lots of events,” Moran said.

The festival was headquartered from Dyble’s Gore Street Cafe, which closed its doors in June 2018.

“She moved on from there and she’s still looking for another premises to start up a cafe, but it’s hard in the Sault looking for the right place...but this venue (Outspoken Brewing) has worked out, it’s helped out quite a lot, along with Shabby Motley and other venues,” Moran said.

The closure of the Gore Street Cafe doesn’t seem to have  harmed the Fishbowl Festival, Moran said.

“Personally, I think it’s expanded. Nicole’s been able to reach out to people, and they’ve reached out to her. There are new venues, new places and new people coming in. We had 60 people come in the first hour today. It’s busy."

A calendar of Fishbowl Festival events, continuing to March 16, can be seen on the Fishbowl Festival Facebook page.