Happy 10th anniversary, Supercrawl
The extended four-day event may be the biggest party to have ever hit the downtown core
Supercrawl’s 10th anniversary delivered what may have been the biggest party that has ever hit downtown Hamilton.
Now organizers of the James Street North arts and music festival must face the challenge of making next year’s even bigger and better.
To celebrate Supercrawl’s 10th anniversary, organizers stretched the festival to four days, adding a highpowered musical lineup Thursday that included a rare free performance by indie rock juggernaut Broken Social Scene.
“It was a one-time deal for the 10th anniversary,” Supercrawl director Tim Potocic told The Spectator. “It’s taken a lot of work and a lot of extra expense, but I’m glad we did it.”
Potocic said there was “a 50-50 possibility” of the festival retaining the four-day format, but “we’re also looking at other options for expansion.”
James Street North was packed all four days of the festival, as Super-crawlers moved between the three musical stages, manoeuvring around art installations, food truck lineups, buskers and craft vendors. The fashion stage was so popular that it was difficult to get within a few metres of the seating area.
When asked about the size of the crowd that turned out for Lights, the Saturday night headlining act, Potocic replied with one word — “massive.”
Other standout performances included Friday’s headlining set by Halifax band Wintersleep and a Thursday night set by Hamilton roots
rocker Terra Lightfoot that included a surprise cover of Black Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf.”
Veteran Buffalo rocker Willie Nile also served up one of the best sets of the weekend, as did Hamilton hip hop collective Canadian Winter.
Circus Orange troupe put on an hour-long show Saturday night choreographed specially for Supercrawl’s 10th anniversary, pouring an aerial acrobat out of a giant martini glass suspended 15 metres above Wilson Street, while fireworks sprayed across the sky and Frank Sinatra’s “Summer Wind” played in the background.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary, organizers called back many of the top musical acts from previous years, including Broken Social Scene and The Dirty Nil, which headlined the Telus/Exclaim stage Saturday night with a incendiary set that included several songs from the Hamilton band’s new album “Master Volume.”
Some of the musicians had performed at the first Supercrawl in 2009. Back then the festival was a much more modest affair, just one day, one stage and a total crowd of maybe 3,000.
Organizers estimate the festival now draws more than 220,000 people to the city’s core. In 2009, Supercrawl had a budget of $30,000 and 20 volunteers. This year’s budget was $1.2 million, with 150 volunteers.
“The first Supercrawl, from my view as I played the tiny tented stage at James and Cannon in the rain, was about 150 folks,” recalled Hamilton singer-songwriter Terra Lightfoot, after performing in front of several thousand people Thursday night.
“It has become a 200,000-strong rainbow explosion of good will and artistic love in our community.”
Jeremy Fisher, a Hamilton-born singer-songwriter now living in Ottawa, considers Supercrawl a uniquely Hamilton event, one that has become of the top festivals in the country.
Like Lightfoot, Fisher performed at the first festival in 2009, and returned for this weekend’s anniversary.
“I remember thinking this is a great little festival, like the one in Westdale, except for downtown,” Fisher said Saturday after performing a children’s show at Supercrawl’s Wilson Street stage.
“I never imagined in my wildest dreams it would become like this. It felt like a great neighbourhood party. It still does.
“I love the fact that the festival interacts with the city. It could only happen here.”
Potocic and the Supercrawl team, meanwhile, are already in the planning stage for next year’s festival. When asked if he thinks he’ll be working at Supercrawl for another 10 years, Potocic replied “Oh yeah, I’m good.”