Cloverdale Station will be alive with the sound of music this summer.
The Cloverdale Station Summer Music Festival is set to hit the platform at the Heritage Rail train station from the end of June to the beginning of September.
“We are very excited to be able to include this for our visitors as an additional heritage experience at the Cloverdale railway,” said Allen Aubert, Fraser Valley Heritage Railway Society (FVHRS) secretary.
Twenty performances will be spread out over 10 weeks. Each band/artist will play two sets, one at 11 a.m. and one at 1 p.m., on each Saturday and Sunday.
Last year, FVHRS brought in a few musicians to play on the rail platform at various dates over the summer. It was a major hit with visitors, so Aubert said they decided to do something special this year.
“We realized that people, while they were waiting for the Adventure to start, were hanging around the platform,” he explained. “So we had the bright idea that if we could have some musical entertainment, this could be a real bonus for our guests.”
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So they tried it out on a few occasions in 2023 and it was well-received.
Aubert said Stephen Plant, the director of guest experience at FVHRS, booked all the acts for the music fest. He added the music series was made possible, in part, through a City of Surrey cultural grant.
“That helped to cover a big portion of the cost.”
Aubert noted there is no cost for people to come down and take in the music.
“You don’t have to go on the train, or do the Adventure, if you don’t want to,” he said. “You can just come down and listen to the music and soak in the atmosphere.”
The music series kicks off June 29 and runs through to Sept. 1 (closing day).
“We’ve got enough to have a very good season,” Aubert said. “We’re pretty, sort of, pumped up about it because it does appear to be something that is going to draw a lot of interest.”
Aubert noted Heritage Rail’s #1231 car has been restored and is finally ready to hit the rails.
“That’s something we’ve been working on for five years.”
The #1231 car is the sister car to the #1225 car, which Heritage Rail has been running for 10 years.
Each of the cars take about 5 years to restore and costs about $1.5 million.
Aubert also said they are about a month away from finding out about reinstating the “Sullivan Excursion.”
That’s the rail journey that runs from Cloverdale Stain up to Sullivan Station. The Heritage Rail Adventure is the only excursion available right now.
“We hope to have some news by the end of June,” he said. “There’s a possibility that we might be able to start in August. And then the plan is to do the Adventure on the Saturday and Sullivan on the Sunday.”
Currently, the Heritage Railway Adventure experience is available seven times per weekend, four times on Saturday and three times on Sunday.
The Fraser Valley Heritage Railway Society operates out of Cloverdale Station and the restoration Car Barn at Hwy 10 and 176A Street, in Surrey—which they now call the Cloverdale Heritage Railway Campus.
For more information on the Heritage Railway Adventure, or the summer concert series, or to buy tickets, visit fvhrs.org.
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Lineup for the Cloverdale Station Summer Music Festival:
June 29: Halifax Wharf Rats Trio
June 30: Lee and Rankin
July 6: Linda Szentes and Jazz Links
July 7: The Soundscape Chorus Choir
July 13: The Dimes
July 14: Sugar and Sage
July 20: Peace Arch Chorus
July 21: The Beauty Shop Dolls
July 27: Denis and Joni
July 28: The Dimes
Aug. 3: Linda Szentes and Jazz Links
Aug. 4: The Rag Time Ramblers Dixieland Band
Aug. 10: Garth Johannesson
Aug. 11: The Beauty Shop Dolls
Aug. 17: The Soundscape Chorus Choir
Aug. 18: Halifax Wharf Rats Trio
Aug. 24: The Shannon Lee Quartet
Aug. 25: Peace Arch Chorus
Aug. 31: Mark Hildebrand
Sept. 1: Kat Moon Band
