The 2017 Up Here Urban Art + Music Festival is set to invade Downtown Sudbury from Aug. 18 to Au. 20.
The third edition of the public art festival that famously carpets a closed section of Durham Street with grass for a weekend, hosts rooftop concerts and is increasingly turning the downtown into an urban art gallery, has quickly become a favourite of Sudbury's summer festival season.
This year's festival will add a pair of large-scale murals to the cityscape and two dozen smaller public art projects throughout the downtown, on top of offering 30 shows in 10 different venues — all packed into an exhilarating three days.
Up Here released the full festival lineup this morning. Here are the highlights.
Two New Murals
Acclaimed Canadian artist Jarus will paint a portrait of a miner as an homage to his grandfather, who was a miner in Sudbury in the 1960s and 1970s, thanks to the support of Becker Mining Systems.
As Sudbury.com reported earlier this month, Jarus has travelled the world painting large portraits (really, really large portraits) — some as high as 13 stories.
If Up Here has locked down the location for the Jarus mural, they're not telling ... yet. Look for that announcement in the coming weeks.
Originally from Field, the small community between Highway 11 and Highway 17 near Sturgeon Falls, Franco-Ontarian Métis artist Mique Michelle will create a colourful piece inspired by her Anishinaabe roots thanks to the support of Collège Boréal.
Power Up Project
New this year, Up Here has formed a partnership with the Social Planning Council and Greater Sudbury Utilities to bring colour to 24 electrical utility boxes within the downtown core.
In total, the Power Up Project will give canvasses to 24 local artists, including 12 curated by Up Here and 12 from youth organizations partnering with the Social Planning Council.
The local emerging artists invited by Up Here are Kallie Berens-Firth, Sonia Ekiyor-Katimi, Melanie Gail St-Pierre, Madison Kotyluk, Bianca Lefebvre, Matti Lehtelä, Scott Minor, Maty Ralph, Jay Rice, Holly Robin, Julianne Steedman, Dani Taillefer and Isaac Weber.
This project is made possible in part thanks to the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
Over 30 shows by emerging artists
Up Here is once again curating an ambitious musical program that cultivates the event’s signature sense of curiosity and discovery in festival goers.
More than 30 up-and-coming artists will be performing in Sudbury during the event.
The Northern Series presented by Porter Airlines is back this year offering free concerts by emerging musicians from Northern Ontario in small downtown venues from 5-7 p.m.
Discover the ghost-tinged folk of Jennifer Holub, smoky reflections of Brian Dunn, indie-pop loops of Jamie Gia, and the jack-in-the-box dance music of BBBRTHR.
Friday Aug. 18
Friday’s acts include the eclectic and experimental Whoop-Szo, moog rockers Duchess Says, and unruly pop icons Deerhoof.
Late night lineups include bubble-glam punks Fashionism and iconic garage rockers The Fleshtones at the Townehouse Tavern, presented by Stack Brewing, while noise dancers Eyeballs, mystic crooner Bernardino Femminielli, and the industrial trance duo Ice Cream take over Little Montreal.
Saturday Aug. 19
Saturday’s Family Day returns with enhanced programming in Memorial Park and all around Downtown Sudbury.
Taking the stage on Family Day: Sudbury’s own pop rockers Tofino, punk rockers The Ape-ettes, the Sudbury-born, female beatbox champion Sparx, and Mozambican electro-pop artist Samito will be sure to keep things cool on a warm day.
Memorial Park will serve as the central playground with music, mini-murals, and other exciting children’s activities provided by the Carrefour francophone; vendors by local artists, artisans set up by Makers North, a gallery tour with the Downtown Sudbury Art Crawl; and a performance of Cello Steps, an interactive project that combines contemporary dance with classic music in a dance mob.
Later, younger audiences can also look forward to an all-ages punk show at Zigs presented by Ottawa Explosion featuring up-and-coming Sudbury punks Kommissars, Ottawa’s absurdo-punks DJ Smoke Weed Guy, Ottawa’s queer hardcore-punks Doxx, and the protopunk baristas Teenanger.
The Saturday night show begins with indie-electro purveyors Fevers, followed by feminist force Lido Pimienta, and the culture-clashing, noh-wave opera group Yamantaka // Sonic Titan.
Nighthawks can head to the Townehouse and Zig’s after for late shows.
The Townehouse features the riffs and thrifts of Dirty Princes, the quirky power pop of Dany Laj and the Looks, and a command performance by The Fleshtones presented by Stack Brewing.
Meanwhile, Zig’s features local 1990s dance-inspired trio Telecolor and the smooth beats of Montreal based electronic artist CRi. Finally, late-night festival-goers will be swayed by the exposed voice of Michele Nox backed by raw guitar and transcendent electronic swells.
Pop-Up Shows
The pop-up concerts have quickly become part of the festival’s nature and there will be many more this year thanks to the support of Downtown Sudbury. Festival goers will want to download the official Up Here app (available in a couple of weeks; Sudbury.com will let you know) to make sure they don’t miss out on spontaneous shows on rooftops, underground chambers, and other unexpected locations.
One of the groups that festival goers can expect to see pop up somewhere is DF, an audiovisual duo that merges looping saxophones with beautiful sound activated light installations.
Sunday, Aug. 20
On Sunday afternoon, Dear Criminals, the indie-pop group from Montreal, will present 2GPU, a stunning augmented reality concert with 3D projections.
The audience is invited to immerse themselves into the musical world of Dear Criminals with the help of complex imagery generated in real-time stereoscopic 3D.
The project was developed by David Paquin and the New Media team at the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue and is presented by the FME (Emerging Music Festival from Rouyn-Noranda).
Dear Criminals is two voices, one intense and strong, and one vulnerable and fragile, complementing each other in a unique and touching way. This vocal mixture is blended in a textured sound scape created by spellbinding arrangements and wisely chosen instrumentation, creating a musical tone deeply inspired by James Blake, Timber Timbre, and Elysian Fields.
Passports On Sale Now
Early Bird passports have already sold out and regular passports are available at UpHere.com for only $90.
Individual tickets for concerts are on sale now, as of 12 p.m. June 30.
