Nadine Davenport is a councillor, business woman, and artist in the Ashcroft area. Nadine had spent the last month is Squamish after closing down her store in Ashcroft due to COVID-19.

Nadine’s business is a tea shop that hosts live concerts that she has had to cancel until further notice, that being said one of the fun things have come out of COVID19 has been all of the musicians that have gone online and given free concerts, or put out songs from their living rooms. At this time because group gatherings can only be 50 people or less, Nadine feels that she would not be able to have hosted concerts in the upcoming future based off of current restrictions. However, Nadine is hopeful, when she compares her store to Kamloops, they are opening up the tracks and things of that nature so she is hoping that she get back to it sooner than later.

A local festival called Desert Daze has been cancelled. Nadine gives her thoughts about how that can go on moving forward. Nadine is an artist that performs there every year. “But we will come back with festivals.” says Nadine. “COVID is giving us all time to self-reflect and write new music.” When asked if she would participate in a virtual festival, she was all for it and looks forward to all of the good things that have been happening.

The conversation moved onto the federal CERB program and because Nadine is a council member and receives a stipend, she wasn’t eligible for the CERB. Having faith in the government Nadine waited and a new subsidy helped Nadine be able to move forward financially.

Nadine praised BC Hydro, ICBC and others for being able to defer or in some cases completely not have to worry about payments.

Nadine also plays an original song of hers called “Big Wet Moon.” This song was written in Vancouver while Nadine was living in New Westminster. After playing a set she was driving home. On her way she looked up and saw a big moon.

We then moved onto Nadine’s instruments which includes several guitars, a trumpet, a banjo, a djembe, a piano, an accordion and a mandolin. Quite the collection!

This is where we brought the interview to a close. We look forward to speaking with Nadine again in the future.