Brian Wilson headlining Rock the Lake festival
Headliners for this year’s Rock the Lake concert in Kelowna include the genius behind “Pet Sounds,” along with A Flock of Seagulls, The Tea Party and hometown rockers Grapes of Wrath.
It’s the first time the popular outdoor classic rock concert has been held since 2019, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are overjoyed to be able to bring back the beloved and highly anticipated Rock the Lake music festival this summer,” GSL Group president and chief executive officer Graham Lee said in a Monday release.
“Each edition of the festival has been special and memorable. We look forward to delivering the same quality of show this upcoming season to a region that has been craving this type of event for months,” Lee said.
Tickets for the three-day concert, to be held Aug. 5-7 in the Prospera Place parking lot, will go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. through Select Your Tickets.
All previously purchased passes for the Rock the Lake concerts that were cancelled will be honoured and automatically transferred to the 2022 festival.
This year’s concert line-up includes more international acts.
“We’ve had some non-Canadian performers before, but not as many as this year. Our focus was to really make this line-up the best ever after having to postpone the show in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic,” George Fadel, senior director of marketing for GSL Group, said in an email.
“Ticket capacity is still in the works, but we expect a bigger attendance than in past years due to the higher profile acts we’ve booked,” Fadel said. “We really went above and beyond to make sure we provided a variety of classic rock that would appeal to everyone.”
Last December, festival organizers received a provincial grant of $145,000. It was the largest grant among $1 million in funding provided to dozens of Kelowna-area arts, cultural, and sports events as part of the government’s pandemic recovery plan.
Provincewide, $30 million was given to the organizers of 680 events planned for 2022. Grants could equal no more than 20% of an event’s budget and the maximum available for any single event was $250,000.
In the past, Rock the Lake concerts featured acts such as Loverboy, Harlequin, Streetheart, Honeymoon Suite, Trooper and 54-40.
Brian Wilson will be performing with Al Jardine, another original member of the Beach Boys. Wilson is considered the genius behind the band’s music, in particular the groundbreaking album “Pet Sounds” and its long-delayed follow-up “Smile.” Wilson’s most beloved compositions include “God Only Knows” and “Good Vibrations.”
Other performers at this year's concert include Bif Naked, Moist, Carole Pope and Rough Trade, the Spoons, Eve 6, and Chilliwack.