The best moments from the 2019 CBC Music Festival

It was an unpredictable CBC Music Festival this year at Toronto's Echo Beach, interrupted by heavy rain and a temporary evacuation, but the show went on and many great bands still got to perform. 

But let's focus on the bright side of the day, and look at all the amazing moments that went down. Here are the most memorable moments of Saturday's CBC Music Festival.

Montreal artist Charlotte Cardin's main stage set started off on a rainy note, but a few songs in, the weather lightened up. Fans cheered for Cardin, but also for the sudden burst of sunshine. Cardin's set was filled with hits from her previous Main Girl and Big Boy EPs, but she also teased new music with a brand new song from her upcoming album. Before she took the stage, she told CBC Music that she's been "working nonstop for six months" on her album. While she's not entirely done recording just yet, she promises the release will come "real soon."

On the q stage, Montreal rapper Narcy gave an inspiring performance that included some funny but poignant banter. "Make some noise for all the babies in the world right now. Babies learning to live," Narcy said, during his closing number. "Today is today; tomorrow is tomorrow. So live in the moment."

South Sudanese-Canadian activist and artist Emmanuel Jal brought some big news to his festival set: "One thing I want to tell you: I became a Canadian this month. I got my passport! I'm one of you guys now; I'm trying to get used to not being a refugee anymore. I'm experiencing a different level of freedom." It was clearly a special and emotional moment for the performer who thanked Canadians for welcoming him. After that, he went into a call-and-response spoken-word piece titled "Forced to Sin."

Over at the kids' zone, Stars kicked off the day with a toddler-friendly performance of children's classics. "See how easy it is to become a musician?" singer Amy Millan asked the crowd as she performed "ABC," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Baa Baa Black Sheep," one after the other, to illustrate their identical melodies. Millan, who performed with partner and band mate Evan Cranley, were joined by their two children onstage, and their short but endearing set ended with a solo performance by their eldest, Delphine.

"Who's responsible for war?" asked Buffy Sainte-Marie while introducing "Universal Soldier." She listed many possibilities: men, politicians, generals. "But in my view, it all comes down to you and me, who allow it," she said. "We've got to try harder."

Buffy's performance of "Up Where We Belong" was a highlight. She introduced it by remarking that sometimes as a songwriter you get lucky: she won an Oscar for that song without even having to sing it. She thanked Jennifer Warnes and Joe Cocker for doing the honours.

And then the storm made its way to Echo Beach.

With the festival goers evacuated to the nearby Budweiser Stage, host Tom Power passed the time by using his T-shirt cannon to give fans some free prizes. At one point, Stars frontman Torquil Campbell got to try out the cannon and as he walked offstage, he told someone, "Is there a Walmart nearby? I need to buy a T-shirt cannon now." Later on, Coeur de pirate performed a stripped-down mini set for the sheltered crowd and comedian Ivan Decker lightened the mood with some jokes.

Shortly after 6:30 p.m., the festival resumed with a performance by Peach Pit and Elisapie.

Between songs, Peach Pit's Neil Smith, whose father had evidently been watching the live stream, looked at his phone and said, "My dad just texted me to say, 'You can do some banter about the rain, coming from Vancouver!'" Those were perhaps not the words that the soggy audience members wanted to hear, so he changed course, saying, "I love the CBC! I'm a longtime listener. I used to deliver Amazon packages and would listen to Tom Power in the car. I got to meet him today, so I'm really stoked," which got a good reaction from the crowd. Then, delighted by the return of sunshine, Smith jumped into the audience and crowd-surfed.  

The evening took a turn for the nostalgic when Stars finally hit the main stage to perform their acclaimed 2004 album, Set Yourself on Fire, in its entirety to celebrate its 15th anniversary. Starting with one of the best break-up songs ever, "Your Ex-Lover is Dead," the Montreal band performed all 13 tracks from the album in chronological order with highlights "Ageless Beauty" and a beautiful sing-along moment during "Calendar Girl." Singer Torquil Campbell ended the set by reminding the crowd, "We're Stars, and we're not going anywhere." 

To cap off the evening, Toronto's very own Alvvays performed their first hometown headlining show since their five-night residency at the Danforth Music Hall last December. The band performed songs from their 2014 self-titled album as well as their 2017 follow-up, Antisocialites, including "Plimsoll Punks," "Adult Diversion" and "Archie, Marry Me." The band dedicated "Atop a Cake" to Toronto radio host Dave "Bookie" Bookman who died earlier this week. "Bookie, we love you. You're in our hearts," lead singer Molly Rankin said before kicking into the track. 

At one point, Rankin addressed her parents who were maybe tuning into the festival's live stream or perhaps "maybe they're watching the Raptors; I want to be watching the Raptors," referring to the nail-biting game six of the NBA eastern conference final between Toronto and Milwaukee. Well, no matter which event the Rankins watched, they were guaranteed to feel proud on this joyous evening.