Best Fest: Guide to Summer Festivals Toronto and Montreal

14 Jun 2010

Summer is here and that mean’s Festival Season has begun. We’ve broken down all the best ones into four categories: Hippy/Artist, Rock/Metal, Backstage Hipster and Rave. We’ve also put together this handy style shoot to better illustrate the best festivals for summer 2010 in Toronto and Montreal.

HIPPY/ARTIST

WAVELENGTH CONCERT SERIES – Toronto Various venues and dates Featuring Frog Eyes

A Toronto staple, Wavelength runs all through the summer at various locations around the city.

L’UMINATO – Toronto June 11-20 Various Venues Featuring Rufus Wainwright, John Malkovich

Toronto’s answer to bringing more “culture” to our city–chockfull of corporate partners, you can’t go wrong if you’re looking for big art installations by big artists. Consider checking out Rufus’ opera.

ISLAND FESTIVAL – Toronto Island , June 19, 2010 Featuring Broken Social Scene, Timber Timbre, Zeus and Pavement

Curated by the kids behind BSS, this festival gets bigger and better every year, featuring a reunion tour from PAVEMENT at this year’s festival.

Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene on Island Fest:

You know it’s summer when Broken Social Scene play their homecoming show. As curators of the highly Toronto-centric (though esteemed) Islandfest, the band boast about the impressive roster who’ve shared a stage with them over the years. From Modest Mouse to Dinosaur Jr., Islandfest has become a Toronto staple–this year, featuring the reunion tour for hipster-faves, Pavement.

It started in 2004 and has blossomed into what many Torontonians would consider the start of summer. This is a bare bones day, explained Brendan Canning: “The theme is always the same; try to make it an enjoyable day.” With a line-up that features Arts & Crafts label mates like Timber Timbre and Zeus–you know it’s going to be a good day.

With their new album, Forgiveness Rock Record out, the curators can expect a lot more festivals than usual on their summer roster. The new album features the 7-member core band that makes up BSS, with what Canning suggested would be a more “regular” band   who are featured on the record. Though, that will fly out the window for Islandfest as we can always expect a number of guest members at home shows.

Canning’s tip on how to survive a festival (as a musician or attendee)? “Pace yourself. That goes for everyone. Slow and steady doesn’t win the race. Just because you have a whole bag of psychedelic mushrooms doesn’t mean you have to eat them all in one go.”

IslandFest is taking place June 19th: Pavement vs. Iggy Pop @ NXNE–you decide.

ROCKER/METAL

NXNE – Toronto, June 14-20 400 Artists and 30 Bars across Toronto Featuring Iggy Po & The Stooges, De La Soul, HEALTH and many many more.

Toronto’s best run festival hits the ground running again this week with a series of free shows at Yonge & Dundas Square, as well as wristband prices that can’t be beat for the kind of bands you’re getting to see.

Tim Bruton of The D’Urbervilles & The Magic On Playing NXNE:

NXNE might not be the coolest festival around but its definitely the easiest commute.  Our first NXNE show was at the Silver Dollar 4 years ago.  Since then we’ve played some cool shows, including a CBC show at the Horseshoe that was the hottest night ever.  Its nice chance to go out and see all your friends play and maybe discover a band or two.

Tip for surviving NXNE: Lots of fluids and supportive shoes.

As for the new record, its more or less done and we hope to have it out in the next few months.  I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, although I really wouldn’t call it a D’Urbervilles record.

Warped Tour – Toronto July 9, 2010 Arrow Hall, Montreal – July 10, 2010 Parc Jean Drapeau Featuring Everytime I Die, Motion City Soundtrack, Reel Big Fish, etc.

Yes, Warped Tour is still a thing and it’s still the biggest touring festival heading across North America this summer. If you feel like reminiscing your teen years of listening to ETID & Reel Big Fish, hit this up when it comes to Missisauga’s Arrow Hall or for the outdoor authentic feel, you can catch it at Parc Jean Drapeau in la belle province.

Heavy MTL/Mayhem Fest -Montreal July 24/24, 2010 Parc Jean Drapeau  Featuring Megadeth, Slayer, Korn, Rob Zombie, etc.

This joint festival has an impressive roster of bad ass rockers who have been pumped up with Monster Energy Drinks–seriously, hold on to your ass in Montreal.

BACKSTAGE HIPSTER

TIME Festival – Toronto Sound Academy July 23, 2010 Featuring Diplo, Skream, Benga, Konrad Black, Kingdom, Milano etc.

The ultimate in hipster festivals. TIME is in it’s third year, but it’s been growing from first Salad Days then Rogers Fest for years. In fact, it’s so hipster that we couldn’t get any of the artists or the organizers on the phone for an interview. Too busy being cool somewhere.

Osheaga - Montreal Bell Centre July 31-August 1, 2010 Featuring Arcade Fire, Weezer, Pavement, Stars, Jimmy Cliff, Jamie Lidell, Beach House, The National, Robyn, Metric etc.

Osheaga is Canada’s answer to Coachella. It gets bigger and more vast and more diverse every year. Tickets are pretty much sold out already. Never been before? It’s like Coachella but with French in Canada’s Vegas as the last hooray of the summer. They also have shows in town leading up to the fest like Chromeo and YOAV. It’s a relay not a sprint, so take deep breaths before you jump in.

Hard Fest – Toronto August 14, 2010 Koolhaus, Montreal August 15, 2010 Metropolis Featuring Crystal Castles, Rusko, Sinden, Destructo

HardFest was a festival and now it’s a tour. Originally from LA, we’ve been kinda weary of it’s authenticity but after branching into NYC and now a whole buttload of other cities. This could very possibly be the ultimate hipster jam of the summer. Dust off your round shaped sunglasses, high waisted cut off jean shorts and practicing your smug apathetic stare now.

RAVER

BEATS BREAKS CULTURE – Toronto July 9-11, 2010 Harbourfront Centre

In it’s 7th Year, Beats Breaks, Culture is a leading electronic music festival in North America. There’s a brek dance competition, always rad film, great DJs and the whole thing is outside and free!

PIKNIC ELECTRONIK – Montreal Every Sunday from May 24 long weekend to Labor Day in Parc Jean Drapeau Featuring: Flosstradamus, Green Velvet, Major Lazer, Josh Wink, Hovatron, Krafty Kuts and many many more.

Piknic is basically the only surviving good rave in Canada. Okay okay, there’s Shambhala and Sound Wave out west and there’s Promise in Toronto every Sunday, but Piknic is like legit and it has a waterfall and it’s in Montreal, so right there you know it’s basically devoid if inhibitions and the girls are way cuter. They also have a grotto like waterfall and this year they have massively stepped up their game on the website and lineup. There is something for everyone musically, making it almost impossible not to love.

Patrice Mathieu of NROTB on Piknic:

We played at the Sugar Shack Picnik with DJ Hell and Diplo. Hell opened a bottle of champagne and gave us all a glass on stage, that was nice. And one year we played with MSTRKRFT, the vibe was surreal, so many people we at that Piknic, I think there was 7000-8000 people, the place was rammed.

Well Picnik has its own vibe, you are on an island facing Montreal, so the view is beautiful, dancing under a Calder sculpture which is very nice, and a lot of grass around to piknic so you can relax if you dont want to dance. It always has a good vibe, it’s not like a big festival, its more intimate if i can say.

MEG FESTIVAL – Montreal July 29-August 1 Club Soda Featuring: Black Strobe, Holy Ghost!, In Flagranti, Beat Torrent etc.

MEG Festival is in it’s 12th year, It’s the electronic, inner city answer to Osheaga’s big festival feel. They also have an annual boat cruise that’s pretty insane. This year The Juan MacLean, Beat Torrent, VHS or BETA Dee Jays, and our fav MTL local, Jordan Dare are playing. It’s got a very city feel, all the club people come out, low on the tourist vibe for sure.

Photoshoot Credits: Photog: Kira Crugnale, Hair: Caitlin Cullimore, Makeup: Ashley Kohler, Styling: Andrea Leigh, Assist: Mica Le John