Hesitance anticipation characterize Calgary’s inaugural Virgin Festival
Sometime this week hundreds of music fans will converge on Fort Calgary to transform the site into a venue worthy of a true Canadian rock experience. At least that’s what we’re being told. It’s been a little confusing keeping up with the media coverage of the Virgin Festival which has wavered between dizzying excitement upon the initial announcement and slight condescension after the unveiling of the lineup. One thing is certain — it will be interesting to see if a site like Fort Calgary is a viable option for festivals. What with Prince’s Island Park no longer able to accommodate additional festivals the question isn’t necessarily whether Calgary audiences can support the city’s growing number of festivals. Rather it’s whether there’s enough space to house thousands of screaming stomping music fans. Fort Calgary may have its own set of issues but if everything goes smoothly Virgin Festival will be a welcome addition to an area of the city that could use some attention.
“I think the challenges are that of any festival” says Chris Baines a spokesman for Virgin Mobile Canada. “It’s a site that hasn’t housed anything like this before and we’re conscious of the fact that we need to be aware of the condition we leave the site in once the festival is done. Even better we can leave it in better condition than when we arrived.”
It seems organizers are putting extra effort into the Calgary edition of the festival. Back in March Virgin cancelled its festival dates in Vancouver. Happily the Calgary festival has nothing to worry about — at least in terms of ticket sales. Baines states that roughly 30000 tickets have been sold meaning a respectable crowd will be out this weekend.
Still not everyone is equally excited about the lineup. Certainly the media has drawn attention to the fact that the majority of the festival acts are bands that have come through Calgary in the last 12 months. Baines waves off any criticism by repeating the much-quoted statement that “Calgary gets what Calgary asked for” — that the lineup was determined through input over the Virgin Festival website through e-mails and through Facebook.
“ We’re really excited with the lineup” says Baines. “I mean the headliners are award winning — Stone Temple Pilots The Flaming Lips. We determined our lineup by asking Calgarians what they wanted to see and we’re proud of what we’ve come up with."
There’s certainly a strong Canadian indie-rock and indie-pop contingent; The New Pornographers Hey Ocean Ladyhawk and The Whitsundays. And though the Constantines were here last June for Sled Island and Said the Whale were just here in February it doesn’t take away from the fact that they’re great bands.
Constantines guitarist and sometimes vocalist Steve Lambke and Said the Whale’s Ben Worcester have different reactions when asked about which acts they’re excited to see at the festival. Worcester wears his love of Canadiana on his sleeve whereas Lambke is a little more aloof.
“Hell yeah we’re excited about seeing a lot of bands” Worcester says. “Personally I’m excited to see the Hip again. Matthew Good too. I haven’t seen him with a band for a long time.”
“I haven’t seen the lineup to tell you the truth” Lambke admits. When informed that The Flaming Lips will be headlining the festival Lambke perks up acknowledging that they’ll most certainly be awesome. “How about I say I’m excited to see the lineup?”
His apathy has less to do with Lambke being underwhelmed and more to do with the fact that he’s been focusing on the release of a new album Kensington Heights . That and the fact that he’s grown out of going to mega-rock festivals.
“As a youth I went to the Lollapalooza festival” recalls Lambke. “I think I went three years in a row and it was really cool and really fun but now as a 30-year-old adult I would never ever go to that kind of thing. I think other people should go of course. I certainly don’t want to give the wrong impression. I think everyone should come to the Virgin Festival to see The Constantines.”
That’s certainly the case for local producer and guitarist Arran Fisher whose band The Summerlad kick things off on the Sunday. Along with the other winners of X92.9’s Xposure contest (Kilbourne The Fast Romantics The Secret Broadcast and Michael Bernard Fitzgerald) Fisher embraces the opportunity that playing this kind of festival offers to local bands.
“We’re just really happy to be sharing the stage with the Constantines” says Fisher. “This will open up a whole new audience for us in Calgary that might not have seen or heard of us before.”
