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HAY RIVER - The South Slave Friendship Festival - an annual Fort Smith celebration of music and community harmony - was marred this year by an act of violence hundreds of kilometers away.

An Edmonton man was assaulted and suffered serious facial injuries on a bus heading to the festival on Aug. 14.

The member of the Edmonton band The Ghetto Blasters was on The Festival Express, a bus chartered by the event's organizing committee to bring musicians north from Edmonton.

The assault occurred at about 4:30 a.m. near Peace River, Alta.

Frank Skinner, a Toronto-based bassist with the group The Johnnys, was on the bus.

Skinner said a passenger on the bus punched the victim in the face three or four times. "All I could see was blood everywhere," he said, adding the assault left one of the victim's eyes swollen and his nose crooked.

According to a news release from the Peace River RCMP, the victim was walking towards the washroom when he was "suddenly and viciously" attacked.

Skinner said he doesn't really know what prompted the attack.

However, he said it may have had something to do with an incident a few hours earlier.

He explained the passenger was in the washroom at the back of the bus when a member of The Ghetto Blasters - not the man who was attacked - started knocking on the door and screaming.

Skinner said the passenger came out of the washroom and started "getting lippy," and everyone argued on and off for two or three hours.

Eventually, he said things calmed down and he thought the argument was over.

The RCMP is investigating whether the assault was precipitated by a prior conflict between the two men.

After the attack, the victim was taken to hospital in Peace River and later to Edmonton, while the alleged attacker was arrested.

Lyle Frank Emile, 25, of Fort Smith has been charged with aggravated assault and is scheduled to appear in Provincial Court in Peace River on Aug. 18.

Many people at the festival were upset by the attack.

"We're disappointed and embarrassed for our community," said musician Gord Seymour. "That's not what the Friendship Festival is about," he added.

Seymour hopes The Ghetto Blasters will come to the festival next year.

Sandra Robichaud, a co-ordinator for the event, said the incident brought everyone at the festival closer together.

She explained The Festival Express involves two buses - one from Edmonton and another from Yellowknife - carrying musicians and their equipment to Fort Smith.

If there is extra room on the buses, tickets are sold to anyone who wants to attend the festival, she explained, adding that was the case for the alleged attacker, who is not a performer.

Robichaud said she was shocked when she first heard about the incident. "That's the last thing you want to happen when you're putting together a joyous event."

The Ghetto Blasters stayed in Peace River while the other bands on the bus continued on to Fort Smith.