Rock the Block's Halloween strum-along comes to New West Oct. 30

The night before Halloween, the Grand Commons of New Westminster Secondary School will fill with musicians of every age and skill level for one giant sing-along. The first annual Epic Halloween Sip 'N Strum, set for Friday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m., is a fundraiser for the Rock the Block Society, and organizers say it is only the beginning.

A strum-along for everyone

The concept is simple: bring an instrument, borrow one from Mechanics of Music, or just sing and dance along as the room works through about 20 Halloween-friendly tunes, with Monster Mash and Bad Moon Rising on the set list. Costumes are encouraged, and a cash bar and dance floor will be open.

Kaitlin Deavy, owner and teacher at Mechanics of Music, the New Westminster music school behind the event, will lead the night with her Cat Murphy band and fellow Mechanics teachers. The Rock the Block Society, a non-profit the school started less than a year ago, exists to make music accessible, and Deavy says the party is built for absolute beginners.

"It's a good way to meet people and have fun," she told Freshet News. "Everybody is welcome, even if they think they're tone deaf."

Tickets and extras

Tickets are $20, with no charge for kids 12 and under accompanied by a responsible adult, available through rocktheblocksociety.ca. A digital songbook goes out to registrants by email, so newcomers can practise the set in advance.

The night doubles as a fundraiser proper: a 50/50 draw, photo opportunities, and a silent auction whose prizes include tickets to a BC Lions game, swag from Tourism New West and Safeway, and a gift basket from the Mechanics' Senior Swifties class.

From studio nights to the big room

Sip 'N Strums are a regular feature for Mechanics students, held twice a month for about 20 people in the studio, with themed nights like a Tom Petty tribute on Oct. 16 and a Queen homage on Nov. 13. The Halloween special scales that intimate format up to the school commons for the first time.

If it takes off, Deavy plans to make seasonal fundraisers a habit, with a holiday gathering already planned for December. The Oct. 30 party, she says, is the first of many exciting things to come for Rock the Block.

Why it matters

New Westminster has a deep community music culture, and the Rock the Block Society's pitch, that making music together should be open to anyone, not just the trained, has struck a chord since the group formed. A low-pressure, all-ages night where the room itself is the band is exactly the kind of event the society was created to produce, and a strong excuse for Tri-Cities music lovers to cross the river.

The mechanics behind the night

Mechanics of Music, the school Deavy runs in New Westminster, built its following on exactly this kind of low-pressure music making. Its twice-monthly studio Sip 'N Strums cap out around 20 people, and themed nights have ranged across the songbook, from the Tom Petty tribute on Oct. 16 to a Queen homage set for Nov. 13. Moving the format into the New Westminster Secondary Grand Commons is the society's biggest test yet of its core belief: that a room full of untrained voices is a feature, not a bug.

The Grand Commons venue gives the night room to grow into an annual fixture, and the December holiday gathering already on the calendar suggests the society is thinking in seasons. For families, the early 7 p.m. start and free admission for kids 12 and under make it a realistic school-night outing the evening before Halloween itself.

Getting there

New Westminster Secondary School sits at 820 Sixth Street, up the hill from downtown, with transit connections from the New Westminster and 22nd Street SkyTrain stations and parking on site. From the Tri-Cities, allow about 25 minutes by car or 40 minutes by SkyTrain and bus. Costumes are encouraged for all ages, and the set list leans familiar: the point is that everyone in the room already knows the words.

A community that shows up

Events like the Sip 'N Strum land because New Westminster reliably turns out for its own. The same crowds that fill summer concerts at Westminster Pier Park and holiday markets on the quay now have a Halloween-week tradition in the making, one where the audience is also the entertainment. For the Rock the Block Society, a full room on Oct. 30 would fund the next year of accessible music programming and prove the model for the seasonal series Deavy envisions.

Tickets are on sale now, and Deavy suggests registering ahead so the digital songbook arrives in time to practise. Doors open at the school ahead of the 7 p.m. start.

* Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0