Winn$tock fundraising concert returns to Winnipeg stage

They’re getting the battle of the bands back together.

After a seven-year hiatus, Winn$tock returns tonight at Cowboys in Winnipeg’s Windsor Park neighbourhood. The fundraising concert features musical talent from the city’s financial and legal services industries.

Six bands will take the stage. The money raised will go to KidThink Children’s Mental Health Centre, a Manitoba-based non-profit organization.

Winnipeg has many “closet musicians,” said Brian Taylor, who sits on the event’s 11-person organizing committee.

That includes senior members of the financial and legal communities who are eager to trade their suits and spreadsheets for guitars and drums — if only for one night.

“People come out and just give ‘er,” said Taylor, a retired wealth adviser and Beatles fanatic who plays guitar and bass. “It’s a real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation.”

Participating bands include the Redliners, Outperforming Assets, Corporate Distortion, Reckle$$ $aint$, Full Coverage and Arm Candy.

They’ll compete in front of three celebrity judges — traffic reporter Dev Oza, former Streetheart guitarist Jeff Neill and local singer Lisa Windsor — for the best band trophy.

They’ll also try to win the fan favourite award, as voted by audience members. No matter what happens on stage though, KidThink will emerge victorious.

“We were super excited to be chosen as the beneficiary for the Winn$tock battle of the bands,” said Lindsay Pateman, fund development manager at the charity.

“We’re excited for the event, not only to raise funds for our Funding Futures for Children and Caregivers program, which provides free and subsidized mental health care to families in Manitoba, but also to just raise more awareness about mental health and youth to such a large audience.”

Organizers are expecting a sold out crowd of around 800 people, said Al Jacks, who started Winn$tock after learning about a similar event in Toronto.

The first Winn$tock took place in 2005 and then ran annually through 2019, raising more than $1.2 million for various children’s charities.

Along the way, it inspired Techapalooza, an annual fundraising concert with musicians from Winnipeg’s information technology sector that has raised more than $1 million for the CancerCare Manitoba Foundation.

Winn$tock took a hiatus when the COVID-19 pandemic started. Organizers began plotting its return two years ago.

It’s a lot of work that includes 40 volunteers plus sponsors and auction prize donors, but it’s worth it, said Jacks, a retired wealth adviser who grew up playing the drums.

“It’s very gratifying,” he said. “We’re all going to sleep well (afterward).”

Visit winnstock.org for ticket details.

aaron.epp@winnipegfreepress.com