This year’s longer River & Sky Music/Camping Festival is longer and bigger than ever this year.
The now four-day festival of emerging and celebrated indie music hits the banks of the Sturgeon River from July 14-17.
Read on to find out who’s going to be there.
Acts headlining the eighth R&S Festival include Polaris short-listed Hey Rosetta!; New York’s indie-surf-rockers Beach Fossils; alt-country and psych gurus The Sadies; the noise-rock of Ottawa’s METZ; and electrifying singer-songwriter Basia Bulat.
“Each year we have 130 or so members helping put on the festival. They’ve asked for a longer, extended mix of River and Sky,” said Peter Zwarich, festival director. “And so this year, we’ll have four days of music with great bands from across Canada and the US, as well as our regional stars.”
Last year, weekend pass sales jumped 22 per cent while days passes jumped a massive 66 per cent, organizers said in a news release this afternoon.
This year’s bigger music budget means 37 bands — yes, you read that right — will take to the main, campfire and beach stages, with more workshops and art installations, too, organizers promise.
Canadian bands include: Constantines frontman Bry Webb & the Providers (Toronto), indie rock trio The Courtneys (Vancouver), art-punk rockers Ought (Montreal), 1980s’ movies inspired TOPS (Montreal), the “smurf” or “smooth surf” sound of Moss Lime (Montreal), fiery super-group Darlene Shrugg (Toronto), the dreamy-sounding Language Arts (Halifax), cosmic reaching Nap Eyes (Halifax), the rootsy-blues of Samantha Martin and Delta Sugar (Toronto), spoken word and throat singing of Quantum Tangle (Yellowknife), singer-songwriter Steve Lambke (Toronto), and the post-punk grooves of PHERN (Montreal). Yonatan Gat, whose sound ranges from surf to jazz to Afrobeat, will travel from their home in New York City to the festival.
Whew, that was a lungful.
Regional acts aren’t forgotten in all of this either. And organizers have tapped some of the area’s best bands to ply their trade by the banks of the Sturgeon.
They include Hurt Protector (Copper Cliff), Hidden Roots Collective (North Bay), Dunes (Sudbury), Dirty Princes (Sudbury), Hello Holiday (Sudbury), David Dino White (North Bay), Barry Miles (Sudbury), Submerged Objects (Sudbury), Josh Turnbull (Sudbury), Night Terrors (Sudbury), Matt Foy (Sudbury), Sik Rik (Sudbury), the Ape-ettes (Sudbury), Annie Sumi (North Bay), and Eric Clancy (Sudbury).
Whew, another lungful.
As if that isn’t enough, organizers promise more groups will be announced in the coming weeks, including DJs for late-late night dance parties, deep in the woods.
The festival is held on the grounds of Fishers’ Paradise (between Sudbury and North Bay), offering camping in field and forest, as well as swimming off a sandy beach on the Sturgeon River. R&S will be adding a second sauna in 2016, in memory of Kodee Daoust.
River & Sky Music & Camping 101:
- You can bike, paddle or drive to River & Sky, located at Fishers’ Paradise in the community of Field (West Nipissing), between Sudbury and North Bay.
- 4-Day Advance Passes: Arrive July 14, at noon and stay until July 17. $180.
- 3-Day Advance Passes: Arrive July 15 and stay until the evening, July 17. $135.
- Full Day Passes (advance): Thursday $45, Friday $65, Saturday $65, Sunday $35.
- Night Passes (advance): Friday $45 and Saturday $45.
- Children 16 years and younger with their families get in for free.
- Dogs welcome on leashes.
- Sauna and Swimming – yes, but always at your own risk.
- No Beer tent: BYOB at your campsite.
- Camping available in field and forest area on the property. Tenting included in the price. This year trailers/RVs will pay a fee of $25 or $50, depending on the size.
Volunteers: arrive July 13 for orientation and a party with live music. Membership ($25) required.
More info and tickets: www.riverandsky.ca.
Here’s more particulars on each night’s headlining act. You’re welcome!
Thursday Night
Hey Rosetta! (St. John’s, NL) From the coast of the Atlantic comes Polaris short-listed Hey Rosetta!, sailing ashore with an overflowing chest of wonders filled with group chants, crunchy guitars, wailing string sections, and layered instrumentation of all shapes and sizes. Longing and thoughtful anthems build and build into celebratory walls of sound throughout.
Friday Night
METZ (Ottawa, ON): Noise rock has come to R&S in the form of high flying trio METZ, touring on their rough and dirty 2015 release “II” -- long-listed for the Polaris Prize. With a titanic immediacy and raw explosive energy, the band shakes the foundations of audience and stage through ferocious, abrasive, dark and sloppy shockwaves. METZ leaves the warts on their music for all to see, and the results couldn’t be better.
Saturday Night
Beach Fossils (New York, NY, USA): Sinuous, reverb drenched and dew speckled, New York’s Beach Fossils earn their apt name through a motecloud of shoegaze, surf rock and dream pop. The project began as the solo lo-fi ponderings of Dustin Payseur, slowly evolving into a four-piece affair that is as clear and punchy as it is unearthly and elusive. In 2016, the band will star in supporting roles in the HBO television series, Vinyl.
The Sadies (Toronto, ON): In their decade plus of performing, the band have utilized indie, pop, psych, bluegrass, surf, gospel, and blues elements, all with the consistent country-tinge and tight structures that denote their music. Their albums are driving and propulsive, but it is the aurally blistering live shows where The Sadies have made their name. “Darker Circles” was a shortlisted nominee for the Polaris Music Prize, and won a juno award in 2012 for best video. Frontmen Dallas and Travis are the sons/nephews of the Good Brothers and have collaborated with other iconic artists from Blue Rodeo to Greg Keelor to Neko Case.
Sunday
Basia Bulat (London, ON): Basia Bulat brings dance to the hills, rhythm to the wind, and pop to the old country. A lover of the oldies from a young age, this Juno nominated artist has a keen talent for taking traditional styles and infusing them with an electric spark. The multi-instrumentalist jumps between guitar, ukulele, piano and autoharp as tools for her pastoral and booming indie folk.
