Clubbin’ for Christmas
Festivals are big business in Canada. Typically, they tend to be concentrated around the warmer months on the calendar. But this is a northern nation where music should be featured as regularly as it is in the winter in places as disparate as Iceland and Norway, which boast massive sub-zero seasonal parties.
Who says you can’t get your EDM dance on in December?
The thinking around the first all-ages Contact Winter Music Festival was something along those lines as Blueprint founder Alvaro Prol describes it. Established in 1997, Blueprint is a full-service entertainment firm. A major western Canadian presenter, it also operates bars, restaurants and beverage stores. Blueprint and Live Nation Canada present the summer FVDED in the Park festival at Holland Park, Surrey, on the July long weekend and there is also the Seasons Electronic Music Festival held in March. Contact seemed obvious to add to the roster.
“It’s very hard booking an EDM event at this time of year because we live in a global world and what is popular here is popular there, too,” said Prol. “The idea is to give value to the artists that come so that they want to play and to build Contact as marquee event for big names to appear at. For five years now we have celebrated dance music in a fantastic venue and ever more intricate production.”
Over two days, from afternoon until midnight, B.C. Place will become the biggest nightclub in Canada as such headliners as Flume and Disclosure DJ, chart-climbing Zed’s Dead and local stars such as Grandtheft get busy on the beat tech. The lineup might not be household names for the whole family, but the 20 acts announced over the two days will generate big excitement with a new design team.
“This year, we changed it up a little with some more contemporary artists who have had great success, such as Disclosure with their success with Sam Smith, which really brought house music to the mainstream a few years ago,” he said. “They brought the indies and the house-heads all back into dance music in their own way and we have never done a big show with them here in B.C. The DJ set is a huge production like their live band set and Flume is a monster right now, absolutely crushing with Top 10 track on radio and his own sound.”
Operating key local nightspots such as Celebrities and Venue, Blueprint honed its expertise on the rising stars of dance music and has expanded into more traditional band concerts. Working in conjunction with stadium-savvy Live Nation Canada turned Contact into a mega sound and light experience. But fans who have discussed previous years often mention the extra customer service perks. These come courtesy of running clubs and Prol is pleased about that.
“You know the first year, we said we would make sure that we took care of the coat check in order to be very aware of all the logistical issues of moving people in and out of the building,” he said. “Now, we have customer service opportunities such as payment-plan options for buying tickets to be more inclusive and lockers with cellphone chargers which provide something like a convenient home base for people over a long event. Experience helps along every step of the way.”
Next year is the 20th anniversary for Blueprint. The firm is giving a lot of thought to what it can do to celebrate it by bringing their customers something extra special. Keep tabs on the company’s announcements at its website. Watch an interview with Alvaro Pro at theprovince.com.