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Your 2010 Guide to Summer Music Festivals – The Festival Edition!

About this time last year, I wrote a blog entry titled, “Your Guide To Summer Music Festivals,” which outlined some basic survival tips for those crazy outdoor festivals I know you are all planning on hitting up this summer. So this year, I figured I would outline one or two or...well, seven of some of the sickest festivals around Canada and the US that you could hit up.

So, for your perusing pleasure, here is this year’s “Guide to Summer Music Festivals - The Festival Edition!”

I’ve got just about all your weekends covered from May 29th to the beginning of August. That way, you’ll have time to get some serious hours in at the grocery store from Monday to Thursday to afford the total ticket prices of about...$1,200.

SASQUATCH
MAY 29TH-31ST
@ THE GORGE, WASHINGTON
Ticket Price: $70 a day, but only if you get them before May 23rd – then the price goes up!

First up is a trip down to the state of Washington for the Sasquatch! Music Festival on May 29-31. I’m supposed to walk the stage to graduate on May 31st, but personally, I’d rather be spending my weekend with MGMT, Tegan and Sarah, and Vampire Weekend as opposed to sitting in a gymnasium in an oversized, bright red gown. This festival packs tons of artists into “The Gorge,” just outside of Seattle, including a bunch of Canadians like Broken Social Scene, Deadmau5 and City and Colour.

BONNAROO
JUNE 10TH-13TH
MANCHESTER, TENNESSEE
Ticket Price: $249.50 for the whole fest (but don’t worry, these guys even have a ticket payment plan!)

Hop in your VW vans after Sasquatch and head cross-country to Manchester, Tennessee, for the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival on June 10-13. I’ve got the lineup for this fest plastered on my wall in the hopes that there’s an inkling of a chance I can miss my last week of high school to go chill with Kings of Leon, Phoenix and The Gaslight Anthem! Or Regina Spektor, Dave Matthews Band and Dropkick Murphys. I’m getting a ringing in my ears just thinking about it!!

SLED ISLAND MUSIC FEST
JUNE 30TH-JULY 3RD
CALGARY, AB
Ticket Price: $170 for all four days.

Next up are a few festivals within the realm of possible attendance for us Alberta and BC music junkies. Calgary hosts a couple bar-fuls of indie rockers from June 30th to July 3rd for the Sled Island Music Festival. If some of you lucky, lucky readers are of legal age by the end of June, you’ll get to check out Girl Talk and F*cked Up and You Say Party! We Say Die! The festival does have a few all-ages venues for those younger listeners, such as myself, which ensures that us indie music loving youth aren’t left out of the fun (As a side note, here’s to remembering YSPWSD’s drummer Devon Clifford, who died suddenly onstage in April due to a massive brain hemorrhage).

BLUESFEST
JULY 6TH-JULY 18TH
OTTAWA, ONTARIO
Ticket Price: $250 for the entire festival (no payment plan here, but this one’s worth the money).

I’m headed to the journalism program at Carleton University next fall, but I really wish I was headed there on July 6th to take part in Ottawa's Bluesfest. In my opinion, this is the most epic Canadian festival going on this year: The Arcade Fire, Dream Theater, Great Lake Swimmers, Iron Maiden, Keith Urban, Metric.... There are so many bands here that the festival is 13 days long.

VANCOUVER FOLK FEST
JULY 16TH-18TH
@ JERICHO BEACH PARK, VANCOUVER
Ticket Prices:
Vancouver – $55 for a Youth Pass
Calgary – $85 for a Youth Pass
Edmonton – $70 for a Youth Pass

Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton all have their Folk Festivals relatively close in date to one another. If you’ve found a way to time-travel, you’ll be able to see all of Bluesfest and jet out to the West Coast for July 16th, the first day of Vancouver’s three-day folk fest. I’ve only heard of a handful of artists on the bill for this fest, like The Avett Brothers and Sarah Harmer, but I’ve found that the beauty of a festival is that you’re guaranteed to discover new, amazing artists. Calgary has its turn the following weekend. From July 22-25, Prince’s Island Park becomes a musical oasis in downtown, featuring The Cat Empire, Ohbijou and Timber Timbre, among others. Last but not least is Edmonton’s version of the Folk Fest from August 5-8. Ian Tyson performs, as does...whoa. Ben Harper is playing the Folk Fest Wednesday Night Fundraiser on August 4th. It’s worth the drive up from Calgary just to see him!!

Even if you can take in only one outdoor music festival this year, do everything in your power to attend it. My love of music skyrocketed after standing for hours at Fort Calgary covered in sweat, mud, bruises, and other people’s bodily fluids, watching Stone Temple Pilots, The Flaming Lips, Matthew Good and The Tragically Hip rock Virgin Fest 2008. It’s unbelievable the effect that live music can have on your mood and your outlook on life.

Rumour even has it that an egg can get cooked if it’s set on stage at a rock show.