Music and turkey brighten October
Newest festival happens over Thanksgiving
Want some Canadian music to go with your turkey?
This Thanksgiving long weekend, music fans can work off the pumpkin pie by grooving to the sounds emanating from Edmonton’s newest festival, The Up + Downtown Music and Arts Festival.
The two-day event, which takes place Saturday, Oct. 12 and Sunday, Oct. 13, will host more than 50 performers in eight downtown indoor venues as a way to celebrate independent music and visual art.
October may sound like an odd time to hold a music festival, but executive director Jason Flammia said it made perfect sense.
“If you look at the event calender from May to mid-September, there’s always some sort of festival going on,” Flammia said. “But then it kind of drops off. We kind of identified a need.
“Also, if this is successful and we can expand to three days, then doing it on a long weekend would hopefully work out for patrons a little better.”
Headlining the party are Montreal indie rockers Plants & Animals and husband/ wife songbirds Whitehorse. Other acts include hip-hop DJ Skratch Bastid, electrofolk singer-songwriter Rae Spoon and psychedelic Saskatoon band Shooting Guns, with a healthy Edmonton contingent — including The Wet Secrets, Nik 7 and Jaycie Jayce, and Lad Mags — rounding out the lineup.
Over the summer months, Flammia plans to announce another 20 bands and DJs who will join the festivities, as well as a number of visual arts projects. Participating venues include Bohemia, Brixx Bar and Grill, The Common, Latitude 53 Gallery, McDougall United Church, Mercer Tavern, Stanley A. Milner Library Theatre and Yellowhead Brewery.
Flammia said he started the festival as a way to showcase the Edmonton — and Canadian — arts scene. He then approached festival producer Allan Harding, marketing director Nathan Zuk and consultant Brent Oliver to help out with the logistics.
“It’s our group’s belief that arts and culture can have the ability to not only make a community more enjoyable but also help restore a sense of civic pride. At the core, that’s what’s driving our group to do this festival.
“We’re not trying to create something completely new. We’re just spotlighting the growth and things that have been going on, particularly in the downtown core.
“It seems like no matter what progress has been made, there’s always some certain negative people who refuse to acknowledge the improvements that so many people have been making to our city. This is kind of a way for our group to say, ‘Wake up. Things are a lot better than you think.’ ”
Tickets go on sale this Saturday and are available for purchase through yeglive.ca. A limited number of early bird two-day, all-access passes will be available for $75. After that, weekend passes will be sold for $80.
For full lineup and venue information, visit the Up + Downtown Festival website at upndowntown.com.