Categories : Featured Review, Festival Review, Site News, Special Features.
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Event: Virgin Festival – Calgary |
“Can you imagine a world without rock and roll?†asks lead singer Dan Vacon of local Calgary band The Dudes. Well, if the unanimous boo’s of the modest crowd stationed in front of the TD Music Stage can be taken as an accurate sample size for the estimated 30,000 people in attendance at Calgary’s first Virgin Festival, no one wants anything to do with the idea. And this is exactly the mindset the event needed in order to count itself among previous festival successes in Toronto, Vancouver, and around the world.
Bringing together a multitude of artists, ranging everywhere from the winners of radio station X92.9’s exposure contest all the way to international stars, the likes of headliners Stone Temple Pilots and The Tragically Hip, the festival is more than just a marketing gimmick, but something close to billionaire mogul Richard Branson’s heart. Having started off in the music business, Branson stated eight months ago after riding up to Fort Calgary in western apparel and a chuck wagon, “I started out in pop music, but now music is struggling…but what’s really coming alive is live music.â€
The big news for Saturday’s festivities was, of course, the performance by the recently reunited Stone Temple Pilots who took to the stage almost on time and wowed the crowd for the better part of two hours. Highlighting the time leading up to the STP performance on the Virgin Mobile Main Stage were the likes of Alberta’s own Corb Lund who seemed more than happy to be the festivals only country performer of the weekend, and The Flaming Lips who’s elaborate and eccentric stage show saw dancing teletubbies, confetti sprayers, impromptu naked dancers in the crowd and lead singer Wayne Coyne crowd-surfing in his oversized hamster ball.
Taking the trek from the main stage down to the TD Music Stage on the opposite corner of the festival grounds found smaller crowds, lesser known names, but by no means a lesser caliber of music. The aforementioned The Dudes put on an excellent show that kept a small crowd enthralled despite The Flaming Lips playing across the way for the second half of their performance, while the two biggest surprises of the weekend came from Vancouver based Hey Ocean! and Edmonton’s the Whitsundays. Among the highlights of their sets was an unscripted moment during Hey Ocean!’s performance, when vocalist Ashleigh Ball admitted “This is the biggest show we’ve ever done. Last night we did a house party in Regina, this is fucking awesome!†Headlining the second stage lineup were indie rockers The New Pornographers who, despite the absence of a few key band members, managed to not so surprisingly put on what was arguably the best performance of the weekend, concluding their show with a rocking cover of ELO’s ‘Don’t Bring Me Down.’
Leading up to Sunday’s headlining performance were the likes of the Constantines and City & Colour, both of which featured a teaser appearance by Tragically Hip front man Gordon Downie. And while City & Colour was expectedly one of the weekends more subdued performances, it was no less captivating that any of the days others and more than made up for in energy levels by Matthew Good who performed with a full band and successfully got the crowd pumped up for the weekends final performance. Putting a final exclamation mark on the success of the weekend’s festivities, long time Canadian music icons The Tragically Hip came and went to the sound of thunderous applause.
When looked at in hind sight, the 2008 Calgary Virgin Festival would see a multitude of music fans of all ages who, despite Saturdays sweltering heat and insanely long beer garden line ups, and a comparatively cooler Sunday night, were presented with an incredibly well planned and well executed event. In fact, the only thing that can really be brought into question for the whole weekend was having half an hour of overlap between Matthew Good and The New Pornographers as they performed on separate stages. And if that is the festivals biggest problem to overcome, they shouldn’t have any issue matching or bettering this outstanding result in the future.
