Chris Morris: What people can expect is a lot of music and a lot of happy people celebrating the Kingston music scene. It really feels like a celebratory day. The atmosphere that we're going for is just everyone out having fun, watching some live music, and hopefully discovering some new music that they haven't heard of before.

For tips, I always say try to get there an hour before, if there is an act you really, really want to see. Get there early because there are times when we're at capacity, especially in the middle of the day; that's when it really gets busy.

CM: It came to be out of a need to raise some money for Joe's M.I.L.L. So that was the first idea, let's raise money for Joe's M.I.L.L. Okay, how do we do it? Let's try a music festival.

Tom Stewart, the original Festival Coordinator, founder and chair of our board, and Roger Eccleston, who was the librarian at Joe's M.I.L.L at the time, went busking for a couple of hours in front of The Toucan. They raised some money to buy a website domain and had a little bit of money in the pot to put the thing on.

So how's it changed? Not too much, the model is almost identical, and it's been 10 bucks to get in basically the entire 18 years. Now, we have become a formal nonprofit, and we've expanded the festival to be bigger than it was in the first couple of years. We just try to cram as much music as we can in as many places as possible.

CM: It's important because the Kingston music scene is amazing, but like anything, it needs nurturing. We take on a big part of that role to give people another opportunity to play. When we're talking about the local music scene, there's so much that has come from here, and that can still come from here, but without places to play and without people to play for, it's not much good, right?

Musicians get asked all the time to play for charity, and it's one thing to play for a cause, but if you're a musician raising money for better access to music, I don't think there's any musician who doesn't really appreciate that.

We have 142 acts, and they're all local, and I can name off another 30 or 40 acts that aren't playing this year. So when you think about that, there are 200 acts in Kingston at any given time that could play music live. That's a lot for a city of 130,000, right?

Some years we talk about, should we do an out-of-town headliner, or should we have some big spotlight show, and it always goes back to 'No', we've got more than enough right here.

CM: We have really amazing volunteers who look after each venue, and they're responsible for selecting the performers and putting on that show, so we rely on them heavily to bring their passion to what we do. And I think having such a diverse festival musically is the best kind of showcase.

Kingston's kind of known for its rock bands, but we've got great jazz, classical, hip-hop and punk and all these things that Kingston isn't really known for, right? But we've got a lot of diverse talent.

The jazz venue is our busiest venue, almost every year, so it seems to me that we need more jazz in this city. So someone else may see that and open a jazz bar or start a jazz night. To add those types of things into the mix is really important, and also just makes it more fun, so that anybody can come out. There's really something for everybody.

CM: Joe's Music Mill is a musical instrument library, and as far as I know, it's the biggest one anywhere, and maybe one of the first in the world. Some people borrow instruments from Joe's M.I.L.L. just to play HomeGrown.

There was a band, years ago, that was all punk music, but they had grown up on country. So they went into Joe's M.I.L.L one day, and borrowed folk instruments, banjos, mandolins, that kind of stuff, and became a country band with a bit of a punk edge to it, which they played at HomeGrown. That's still one of my favourite stories. That guy is still a banjo player, and Joe's M.I.L.L. helped him with that.

What we're trying to do is promote the accessibility of music. Joe's M.I.L.L lets you borrow instruments year-round, borrow clarinets and didgeridoos, congas, and whatever you want. ‘I don't have $1,000 right now to drop on a guitar that I might not even like, so let me go try it first.’

I think we've raised at least $140,000 over 18 years. I think we're their biggest source because they don't have any government funding or anything; it's all fundraising. It's an honour to do it for them.

Most of us on the HomeGrown board knew Joe Chithalen, who the library is named after, so we're kind of doing it for him a little bit as well. It's just such a great resource and a testament to how good the music scene is.

CM: Some people call it Christmas for musicians. And I love that spirit. Not only do fans look forward to it, but the musicians do too. There are people that I only see once a year, and they show me their map of where they're going that day. They've got eight hours planned.

I hope we don't change the format. I hope we don't change the spirit, and I hope musicians are still as enthusiastic about it in five, ten years as they are now. It's 14 hours long this year. That's 10 acts every hour when you average it out. You'll see people rolling their amps across the RCHA Club to The Toucan, and you can just sort of tell who the musicians are.

I can just imagine somebody coming into town not knowing what's going on, thinking musicians are everywhere. Well, pay 10 bucks, and you can go see 10 shows today.

CM: It's the people. People are incredibly supportive and collaborative. It's not unusual to be at a show and see mostly musicians in the audience. There are plenty of people who play in five or six bands, and we've also got really good venues to support it, and we've got people who like going to see music and are happy to be champions of the local music scene.

And then there’s Joe's M.I.L.L. We've sustained this music-based charity for 25 years now. And HomeGrown itself is growing every year. We don't spend a whole pile of money on marketing or big sponsors. It really is a homegrown festival. 142 acts, 375 individual players, who are happy to come out every year and support this cause. I think they do it for Joe's M.I.L.L., they do it for themselves, but I think people do it for the whole music scene, too.

‘What a great day, because 20 of my friends are playing the same day.’ That's what makes the scene great.

CM: We have really great sponsors and partners. All of our partners are local. We've got great support from the BIA. Obviously, you guys have been with us since the very beginning.

Kingston Sound Works, you know, they supply the sound for a lot of the venues, the people and the gear. So they're a really big part of it, too.

There are the door volunteers, there are 22 other key volunteers that put it all together, there's the HomeGrown board, and then there are all the venue coordinators. So it's a lot of people who are really happy to get behind it and make HomeGrown happen every year.