One of the visitor experiences in the town of Woody Point is hearing music pour out of the Heritage Theatre on summer nights. You can hear it all the way from “downtown”, and it changes the atmosphere of an already charming setting to something enchanting.

Native Newfoundland band Hey Rosetta! understand the Heritage Theatre magic, and are perhaps responsible for a portion of it. The band has been playing in Woody Point since 2008, when they were a new band with only one album to their name (their first Woody Point concert was on a boat). They’ve since released two more, Into Your Lungs and Seeds—both nominated for the prestigious Polaris music prize—and have a fourth coming out this Fall.

I spoke with Tim Baker, singer, songwriter, and frontman of the band about Second Sight, the new album, after his recent show at the Woody Point Heritage Theatre. “One of the first songs is about going out and having fun with your friends, and drinking, and then that moment where the sun comes up and you suddenly have this idea of responsibility, and it’s incredibly sobering. It’s about pushing back against and rebelling against that feeling of second sight.”

The feeling of responsibility is one Hey Rosetta! must understand well. Second Sight went through many renovations and cuts, involving the record going back to the drawing board for a major overhaul. Baker says that the album’s name became prophetic, as the band was forced to see the album again in a literal ‘second sight’.

The band played twice in the Heritage Theatre on their most recent visit, changing their performance drastically with the energy of the audience. Fans on the second night got an added bonus during the encore. The band left the stage and snuck out the side door, with only the instruments they could carry. Then they quietly reappeared in the middle of the audience for an unplugged experience that the fans couldn’t stop talking about.

This is the sort of thing that happens at the Woody Point Heritage Theatre.

The Heritage Theatre was originally built as a Royal Orange Lodge more than a hundred years ago.  It was a community gathering place, used for dances, movie nights, and anything else the people of the town needed to get themselves through long and lonely winters. Charlie Payne, accordion player and resident of nearby Winter House Brook, purchased the theatre in 1997, starting programming in the summer of 2000. Payne said, “I started playing in bands in the building when I was thirteen or fourteen years old. So the building had a lot of sentimental value to me.” Payne restored the building with his own hands, and soon after the Writers at Woody Point Festival began, bringing a new life to the theatre. The festival invites authors and musicians from across Canada (with a focus on Newfoundland artists) to read and play together, and build a sense of community within the week they are in Gros Morne National Park.

Since the beginning, Writers at Woody Point has been blending music and storytelling, becoming more experimental over time to appeal to a broader audience. Hey Rosetta! was one of the bands responsible for this change and diversity, says Stephen Brunt, Founding Artistic Director of the festival. Brunt said, “We’ve had jazz, we’ve had rock, we’ve had cabaret. We’ve had Christine Fellows and Sherry Boyle doing visual art and music. The great thing about the festival is that you can put anything in front of people and they’ll enjoy it. People here are quite open.”

Brunt is a well known sports journalist and author, but I know him better as my neighbour (both in Hamilton, Ontario and in Gros Morne) and the brilliant host of many Sunday dinners. He said that Hey Rosetta! fits perfectly into the atmosphere of the town. “They hang around the Legion and play darts. They eat chicken burgers at the Merchant Warehouse. They play music until dawn with Sherman Downey. People know them here, and like them, and they’re part of the community. That’s the Woody Point thing. There’s some magic here. People have bought houses, people have started relationships. This place evokes strong feelings, which is a great thing.”

Writers at Woody Point runs from August 12th to 17th. The Woody Point Heritage Theatre is the festival’s primary venue, but events will also take place at Saint Pat’s Cathedral and in other locations around the park.

Hey Rosetta!’s tour schedule next takes them to Montreal summer music festival Osheaga on August 3rd. Second Sight releases in Fall 2014.

Photographs courtesy of Tom Cochrane Photography. The Cornerbrook artist is often to be found in the park, helping to illuminate the magic of the theatre and other places.