Click here to view main stage schedule
Click here to view showcase stage schedule
Click here to view workshop stage schedule


Vince Neil, lead singer for the notorious metal band Motley Crue, has been booked as the headline act for this year's Westjet Festival of Friends in Hamilton's venerable Gage Park.

Neil will perform Motley Crue hits such as Girls, Girls, Girls and Dr. Feelgood with his solo group in the Gage Park bandshell on Saturday, Aug. 12.

This year's free festival, which runs Aug. 11 to 13, features three distinctively different nights of entertainment.

The Friday main stage will feature a more traditional form of festival lineup, with headliner Ron Sexsmith, a native of St. Catharines, whose songwriting has been praised by international superstars Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello and Coldplay's Chris Martin.

Hamilton's Tomi Swick is on the stage Friday night. The up-and- coming singer-songwriter will be using the festival to debut his highly anticipated album, Stalled Out In The Doorway, which will be released four days later.

His record label, Warner Canada, has been grooming him for the past eight months for the album release.

Earlier this year, the record label featured three of Swick's songs on a high profile Valentine's Day compilation with major stars such as Daniel Powter, James Blunt and Rob Thomas.

"That show is going to be a big deal for Tomi," festival program director Loren Lieberman said yesterday.

On Sunday night, the oldies take over with feature performances by Joey Molland of England's Badfinger -- one of the first bands signed by The Beatles' Apple label -- and Terry Sylvester, the Liverpool singer who took over for Graham Nash in the Hollies and scored hits with Long Cool Woman, The Air That I Breathe and He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother.

The inclusion of Neil on the lineup marks a sharp departure for the city's largest annual musical bash, which started out 31 years ago as a laid-back folk festival. Although mega-amp rock bands aren't new to Gage Park, the presence of non-Canadian artists is to the Festival of Friends.

Until this year, Creative Arts Inc., the nonprofit group responsible for the festival, has booked only acts with Canadian content. Lieberman, festival program director, said he received special permission from the Creative Arts board to book Neil and Molland. (Sylvester is now a resident of Port Credit.)

Lieberman said local artists who are on the bill with Neil, such as Hamilton blues guitarist Steve Strongman, will benefit from the thousands of people drawn to the park by the U.S. metal star's high profile. "The mandate has always been to promote Canadian talent," Lieberman said yesterday. "And that's exactly what we're doing. To the people who want to see Neil and Sexsmith, I say 'Make sure you come early. You may not know the other acts who open for them, but they may be the ones you remember later.'"

The members of Motley Crue -- Neil, Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars -- earned themselves a wild reputation in the '80s and '90s for their outlandish lifestyles based on booze, drugs and groupies. During their heyday in the '80s, Neil has had several bouts of rehab and scrapes with the law. In 1984, he served a 30-day jail sentence for vehicular manslaughter.

Motley Crue performed in front of 7,000 people in March at Copps Coliseum in a show that featured midgets on leashes, seminaked women with whips, soft porn on the video screens and simulated sex on the stage.

At one point in the show (during the Crue anthem, Dr. Feelgood), Neil was swarmed by three models dressed in flimsy nursing outfits.

Lieberman gave assurances that Neil's performance at Gage Park will be much tamer.

"It's not going to be the show that we saw at Copps," he said, "but Vince will be doing Motley Crue songs."

The three-day festival features more than 50 performers on four stages, as well as a beer garden, food court, midway, and children's entertainment area. The workshop stage will run each day with familiar names such as Paul Langille, Bob Burchill and Ray Materick. Other lesser known acts to watch for are Madrigaia, a seven-member female vocal ensemble from Manitoba; Canadian country rockers Doc Watson; Hamilton pop rockers The Nines; alt-country songstress Oh Susanna and Toronto singing duet Dala.