Screw Pemberton, Spend Your Time on Sled Island

Posted by Jon
Filed in Music
June 2, 2008

As the 'indie' press has been reporting, 2008 is the summer of North American music festivals. With a band's income becoming increasingly reliant on live performance, a seemingly never-ending stream of hyped young talent finding release each week, and corporations everywhere still curious as to how much they can get away with charging for a bottle of water... if you like music, it's likely you'll be attending at least one festival this year. With New Music West behind us (not to mention Sasquatch), Waste just around the corner, and the Vancouver Jazz Fest on the horizon -- there's a lot to choose from in the Vancity area... and you're gonna' have to save some of that money for the water.

I'm failing to mention that big, bad, brand new corporate contender for your carbon tax cheque: Pemberton. While people are justly excited about such a major festival debuting in BC, a lot of us aren't sold on a lacking lineup, costly tickets, or stringent policies. It's a lot of money and energy to devote for a few glimpses at compelling music between the inebriated throngs. I've already decided that my money would be better spent elsewhere, and I've already secured my tickets to Calgary's second annual Sled Island festival, running from June 24-28.

What the hell is Sled Island, you ask? Well, the four day festival has Broken Social Scene, Wire, Mogwai, Yo La Tengo, Of Montreal, Tegan and Sara and the RZA headlining, not to mention a host of other bands playing at venues around the city (including Bison, Deerhunter, and Grizzly Bear, if animal acts are your thing). There's quite a few Vancouver musicians making the trek to Cowtown come the end of June, and perhaps you aughta' consider an Albertan roadtrip as well. It really is an appealing alternative (or addition?) to Pemberton, and who knows when we'll see this much pure talent in Western Canada again. More after the jump...

Ok, so lets get the Pemberton hate out of the way first. You don't need me to tell you it's going to be expensive as sin (pass + camping + parking + food + water + booze). But do the top-tier acts warrant the price? The short answer: no. I mean, the names are big, but Tom Petty is more of a novelty act than anything these days, the Flaming Lips live "experience" has turned into some kind of cash-machine circus of self-love (the tunes now an afterthought), NIN is pretty niche, and Coldplay are just plain awful. I do enjoy the Tragically Hip, but offering them as a headliner at a Canadian festival is the musical equivalent of a free-pizza-lunch at work: obviously appealing, but nothing to get too worked up about. Oh... Jay-Z? I don't listen to much hip hop. If you do, think about Rock the Bells in September. Black Mountain and My Morning Jacket are the only bands that really excite me, but most of us already caught McBean & co. this summer, while the new MMJ album is kinda... meh.

The brainchild of Calgary's Zak Pashack, owner of Broken City, Sled Island's debut last year featured the likes of Cat Power, Destroyer, Spoon, and the Walkmen... huge bands for a stereotypically music-starved city. This year he's enlisted the talent of ex-Pavement guitarist Scott Kannberg to curate the show, and the outcome is awesomely eclectic. From classic English post-punk band Wire to American lo-fi hype machines No Age to the swooning, BR-adored Jose Gonzalez... theres over 100 bands playing. And of course there's the RZA as Bobby Digital, if you find the time. Here's the schedule in full.

In addition the bigwigs like Of Montreal, Broken Social Scene, and Chad VanGaalen (who'll be playing at the Calgary Science Center!) mixed amongst a range of smaller Canadian acts, Sled Island will feature the talent of bunch of bands from right here in Vancouver. Young and Sexy will be opening that VanGaalen show, while Mother Mother lead Okkervil River and The Clips, Bison, Hawaiian Bibles, Japandroids, and Mohawk Lodge are all scheduled to perform. I'm definitely missing a few; so while it may be farther away, the festival easily outdoes Pemberton in terms of local support.

It's set up kind of like New Music West, with bands playing simultaneously at multiple venues city-wide, in addition to main stage feature performances at Mewata Field on Friday and Saturday. You currently have the option of either buying Mewata passes, event-wide wristbands, or individual concert tickets -- all that info is available at their website. A main stage pass is $125 before fees, with a full festival wristband costing $190: either option cheaper than Pemberton's $260, pre-camping. And we all know someone who's couch we could crash on in Calgary for the weekend...

Oh, and I leave you with this, lifted from their info page:

And now for our thoughts on water....

Here at Sled Island we are not big fans of bottled water. We think its a scam. The health requirements on bottled water are less stringent than the requirements on tap water. Bottled water often is simply tap water from locations with lower quality tap water than Calgary. The shipping involved is wasteful and the bottles themselves are not only potentially toxic, but also create a lot of waste. Not only that- but you have to pay for it, where tap water is free. So we are forgoing any possible revenue we would have made selling bottles of water on our main site and will make sure that there is free water for everyone. Please bring an empty refillable cup or bottle with you when you come to the main site...

Now thats just awesome. Those of you who are still goin' to Pemberton: stay safe, skip DJ Shadow, and at least someone try and hit that Coldplay guy in the head with a plastic bottle...

The 2008 Sled Island Festival takes place at venues all over Calgary from June 24-28. For full ticket details and all the up-to-date information, check out their website.

photo of Chad VanGaalen at last year's Sled Island courtesy of david miller

Reader Reviews and Comments

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Wow, that lineup is WAY better than Pemberton. Now Calgary is cooler than us?

Posted by: Chris at June 2, 2008 4:25 PM | Quote Comment

What a heavy title to make such a weak argument about Pemberton Fest. All festivals are pricey in total. This one has pretty stringent rules agreed. Buy your booze there at "pubs", buy your food at food kiosks and in-house farmers markets, uuse shuttle buses, car-pool with 3 or 4 people get free VIP parking. Hey your carbon footprint is going to be much larger driving your Pinto over the Rockies to Calgary's Sled Island. Not saying we shouldn't go there too but not going to Pemberton when it is only 2 hours away. We're going 4 sure 4 a good time.

Posted by: Rastas at June 2, 2008 4:31 PM | Quote Comment

While I am hopeful about Pemberton, the thing that makes me uneasy is the lack of options. Festival-goers are forced to buy 3-day festival passes as opposed to a single day ticket.

If I were heading over to Cow-town between those dates, Sled Island would be a great plan. They seem to be on the opposite end of the spectrum from Pemberton: where 3-day tickets make patrons feel like their dollars have been squeezed out of them, a simple thing like free water makes for a more pleasent festival experience even before opening day.

Posted by: Ami at June 2, 2008 5:33 PM | Quote Comment

I don't understand why Vancouverites are hating so badly on this festival. Finally some people actually take action and try to put on a credible festival of international calibre but all I can read are negative, unsupportive opinions. If this festival is a success, it could help shed some much needed light on the rich local music scene. I concede that our local favorites are not representing strongly this year but the stage could really be set for us in future years. The line up is not terrible. Do we really want these internationally renowned artists to leave thinking that we can't have a party as good as anyone else in this country or even on this continent? Go spend your money in Calgary and party with Calgarians. Or perhaps you could save your money and try to organize and promote a festival of this magnitude in your own town. Then you might actually be doing something to help rather than hinder our scene.

Posted by: SpyGirl at June 2, 2008 5:48 PM | Quote Comment

Pemberton's lineup is hardly "lacking", wouldnt most people that read this thing be going for everybody but the headliners anyhow? And thats a pretty deep list. I think its the fact that you can only buy a ticket for the whole thing that sucks and is keeping many hestitant about it. The price isnt that out of line with similarly lined up and lengthy fests. Im not sure why they chose Pemberton as a site though.

The whole thing is just too big a commitment for most folks that arent young and ready to party on the drop of a dime i think. If single day tickets were available i would go for a day easy.

Sasquatch is also quite a commitment though too, aint it? Guess its still more low key so...

I think its ironic that Vancouver is so in need of a good music (thats one of the few areas Seattle/WA beats us in) and now that we have one, we're still bitchin about it. At least its something to have something like this, no?

Posted by: boon at June 2, 2008 6:15 PM | Quote Comment

calgary is definitely not 'happening' but this is quite exciting for all of us that dread living there. I like this article because it's exactly how i feel, and i am happy the broken city guys actually care about making this festival happen. Calgary really NEEDS it. I die in calgary with the lack of quality music.

Posted by: v at June 2, 2008 8:37 PM | Quote Comment

What about the fact that all the cool VANCOUVER bands are playing in Sled Island. While going to sled island may be doing more to support Calgary businesses than Vancouver businesses, its also doing more to support Vancouver ARTISTS. Shouldn't the music come first?

Posted by: chan at June 3, 2008 12:57 PM | Quote Comment

It's true, the thing that sucks about Pemberton is the 3 day pass thing. If you could get single day passes that would be rad. I really like the way Bumbershoot is doing it, where you can buy for each day and it's only $35 a day, with just as many bands as Pemberton. That's a really reasonable price for a festival. Pemberton obviously has to pay their enormous acts, but it would be nice to be able to get an affordable single day ticket for the people who don't have at least $500 to spend on a weekend. Also, Jon great article, but I have to disagree with you on the Lips. They're not cash grabbing. They put on a fantastic show. It may be over the top, and overshadow the music a little bit, but it was one of the greatest "experiences" of my life.

Posted by: Donna at June 4, 2008 10:39 PM | Quote Comment

Single day tickets are actually on sale now for the Pemberton Festival. Still a tad pricey but you can pick your day based on which bands you care to see.

Posted by: Rastas at June 17, 2008 12:11 PM | Quote Comment