Photo provided by Dean Rainey
More than a decade after 35,000 music fans descended on Simcoe, a Norfolk County filmmaker is bringing the unforgettable weekend back to the screen.
Dean Rainey is completing We Came For A Party: Big Band Plays Small Town, a 75-minute documentary about the 2013 Mumford & Sons Gentlemen of the Road Stopover.
Simcoe, with a population of roughly 15,000 at the time, hosted the only Canadian stop on the international tour. The two-day festival transformed the community, with downtown closed and branded for the event and an estimated $10 million economic impact.
Rainey was the local videographer hired to capture the band’s location scout and much of the festival. That footage sat untouched for years before he realized it told a larger community story.
The documentary combines those archives with new interviews and explores Simcoe’s music history, including native Rick Danko of The Band.
Rainey is now raising $15,000 through Kickstarter to finish the film and is inviting anyone involved in the 2013 Stopover to share their photos and memories.
Written by Jeremy Hall
