Artefact music festival moving to Vaudreuil
Organizers of a popular outdoor summer music festival have announced the event will move from Salaberry-de-Valleyfield to Vaudreuil-Dorion this summer — a change that they say will help the event grow in both size and scope. For six years, the three-day Artefact Festival has shone a spotlight on emerging talent, drawing up to 5,000 people to Valleyfield to hear bands like Louis-Jean Cormier, Charlotte Cardin, Matt Holubowski, Les Soeurs Boulay, Half Moon Run and The Dead Obies. But artistic director Julien Ménard said organizers of the festival found themselves at a crossroads last year, as the growing festival struggled to cover its costs. Just as the organizers were discussing what to do, he said Vaudreuil-Dorion approached them to ask if they were interested to do a satellite Artefact event in the city — an idea that soon snowballed into a much bigger proposal. “We asked them if they were interested in moving the whole festival to Vaudreuil, and their jaws dropped. They said they would be thrilled to have us,” said Ménard. “This is the holy grail of a city partnership that we always dreamed of.” Ménard said Artefact’s organizers had often found it challenging in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield to secure firm commitments from the city and corporate sponsors to support the festival. In contrast, he said, Vaudreuil-Dorion approached them with enthusiasm and a willingness to help with logistics and promotion. Moving the seventh edition of the festival to Vaudreuil-Dorion has triggered a number of other changes, too, said Ménard. For the first time, the festival will be a free event, rather than ticketed. The scope of the festival will also expand to include a visual arts component as well as music. “It’s always been in our mission to not only put forward music and musicians but also other artists, the whole cultural gamut,” he said. Ménard said the change from a ticketed to a free event could as much as double the size of the crowd this year, drawing as many as 10,000 people. The lineup and venue for the July 26-28 event have not yet been announced, but Ménard said the festival is booking performers now and expects to announce more details in April. For more information on the Artefact Festival, visit festivalartefact.com.