A three-day music festival in downtown Nanaimo will showcase local talent on the upcoming May long weekend.
Backyard Fest/Sunk City festival will be hosted at seven venues in Nanaimo from May 16-18 and will feature more than 40 bands and DJs.
“Our main aim is to keep art interesting, to celebrate and utilize our remaining shared gathering spaces and to bring underground music to the forefront. This festival is a showcase of the immense local talent this community has to offer,” the organizer’s website says.
All venues are on and around Victoria Crescent and most shows will be available to all-ages audiences. Wristbands will be required for a couple of the late-night shows for people 19 and older.
In addition to music, the festival will also include drag performances, dance classes, workshops and an artisan market.
There will be an opening ceremony at the Vault Café on Friday, May 16, at 6 p.m. and performances will start at 7 p.m, with Mood:Lite at Coaltown 1866 Vintage Clothing and Ida Maidstone at the Vault Café. There will be performances at Coaltown, the Vault and the Terminal Bar until after midnight on Friday.
Performances will start at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, and the artisan market will open at noon on Victoria Crescent. The last performance of the day will start at 1 a.m. at the Queen's Hotel. Performances will continue on Sunday from 1 p.m. until 9 p.m.
General admission tickets are $97 for the weekend. Single-day tickets are $33 for Friday, $65 for Saturday and $54 for Sunday. Kids under 12 will be admitted to shows free. The full lineup, schedule and tickets can be found at http://backyardfest.ca.
Another component of the Backyard Fest/Sunk City festival will be a large-scale outdoor projection called Rebo(u)nd, created by Montreal Danse and presented by Crimson Coast Dance. The loop of filmed dance work is meant to bring dance out of theatres and studios, noted a press release.
"It is a choreography based on the concept of suspension, revealing and magnifying bodies on the verge of escaping gravity … the body seems to defy space and time."
The projection will be visible from the Terminal Bar on Friday, May 16, from 9 p.m.-midnight, and will be shown high up on the Courtyard by Marriott hotel on Saturday, May 17, from 9 p.m.-midnight.
