Meet Peachfest's opener

If you were a teenager in the 90s, you are going to love who is headlining this year’s Peach Festival.

Canadian music icons the Crash Test Dummies open the 2019 Penticton Peach Festival on Wednesday, Aug. 7.

This is the first time the Crash Test Dummies have played Peach Fest and the first time they have been to Penticton.

“I hear it is a beautiful place in the world and if it involves eating peaches over a sink, I’m in,” said band member Ellen Reid who is lead vocalist on their smash hit The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead. That song was featured in the movie Dumb and Dumber.

Reid loves peaches a lot – but not bananas, she said in a hilarious YouTube video she made about coming to Peach Fest. 

In it, she throws a banana away and then holds up a peach. She says she fully endorses peaches, especially B.C. peaches and can’t wait to eat some when she gets here.

The Penticton Peach Festival started in 1947 to celebrate the peach harvest in the Okanagan.

Now in its 72nd year, the festival features five days of free, family fun running from Aug. 7 to 11. Opening day will have the popular Peach Bin Races down Main Street, the Skyhawks parachute show, the Snowbirds and to cap the day off, the Crash Test Dummies play the Peter Bros. stage at Okanagan Lake Park.

For a full lineup of entertainment, go to https://peachfest.com/.

The whole band is excited about playing Peach Fest and touring again after a long hiatus, said Reid. 

“We will be playing all the old favourites,” said Reid. “We love it when the audience sings along.”

Other Peach Fest musical headliners include Barney Bentall and the Legendary Hearts and Emerson Drive.

In September, Crash Test Dummies announced that they would be reuniting to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their album God Shuffled His Feet, which sold more than 5.5 million copies worldwide. 

This was the second album released by the Crash Test Dummies and features their most popular single Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm.

Crash Test Dummies, who hail from Winnipeg, are most identifiable through Brad Roberts and his distinctive bass-baritone voice. 

The band first burst onto the music scene with the hit Superman’s Song in 1991. That was the first song Brad wrote, said Reid. 

Back then, the band was touring 10 weeks straight, playing to huge audiences all over North America.

Now back together again, they are touring across Canada and the US, but the schedule isn’t as gruelling as it was back then, said Reid.

“We are in a van now, not a tour bus, bumping our own equipment around. It’s more work but it’s a more controlled pace and we are having a lot of fun touring together,” said Reid. “As long as the audiences are enjoying our music and we are having fun, we will keep doing it.”