Playing his part: N.S. musician Ben Caplan in Turkiye helping with earthquake recovery efforts after show cancelled

Keeping Up: Ben Caplan After Ben Caplan’s show in Turkiye was cancelled last week he decided to go anyway to help raise awareness and funds for earthquake victims.

Nova Scotia musician Ben Caplan is currently in Turkiye helping those affected by the deadly Feb. 6 earthquake.

Even though Caplan’s Feb. 18 show in Istanbul was cancelled last week, he decided to go anyway and is now raising awareness and funds for victims.

The Halifax folk musician has a large fan base in the county – it’s his No. 1 country for online streaming.

“I had two concerts booked previous to this one and both of them were cancelled because of the pandemic, so this was my third try and then an earthquake hit,” Caplan told CTV Atlantic’s Katie Kelly in an interview.

Sadly, the third time was not a charm.

“Because of the period of national mourning, all of those kinds of events were cancelled,” he said.

Caplan took to social media last week to say he made a donation of $500 to support aid and relief efforts and encouraged others to do the same.

He even offered a free concert ticket to one of his upcoming shows to anyone who gave over $100.

“I found a local organization that’s right here on the ground that’s giving all of the funds directly to the victims,” he said.

Even with the cancellation, Caplan decided to still make the trip with a new plan in mind.

“On Saturday, I’m going to be doing a sort of outdoor free sort of busking performance to raise a little bit of funds and to make a video to inform some people about what the current circumstances are,” he said.

“My goal of being here, besides trying to enjoy the beauty of the place, is to raise a little bit of attention for the long-term struggle and what’s gonna be required to help people rebuild their lives.”

Caplan says he has also met people who have travelled to Gaziantep, a major Turkish provincial capital of more than 2 million people near the centre of the quake.

“There’s a lot of young Turkish people who have gone to just go and lend some physical labour and to move rubble,” he said. “Hearing some of the stories of people finding living human beings under the rubble and pulling them out has been really moving and really powerful.”