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Musical mayhem

Organizers announce Elvis Costello and The Imposters, The Roots, and more to perform at Whistler’s summer music festival
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Elvis Costello

The Coca Cola Tube Park will play host to some special guests during the first Whistler Music Festival this summer.

The inaugural event, which is being organized by the Festival Network, is set to take place at Base 2 on Blackcomb on July 19 and 20, the same week as the Vancouver Folk Festival and just one week before an expected 40,000 people descend upon the Sea to Sky corridor for the Pemberton Festival.

Organizers announced on Tuesday that Elvis Costello and The Imposters will be one of the headlining acts, with The Roots, Broken Social Scene, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Medeski Martin & Wood, Bedouin Soundclash and Serena Ryder also taking the stage during the two-day event.

There are also offers on the table to a few other artists, and Jay Sweet, producer for Festival Network, said they expect at least two more acts will be added in the coming days, and are hoping to be able to release a detailed performance schedule soon.

In the meantime, they decided to release the names of the artists they have secured to build some excitement within the community.

“We just said, ‘hey, we’re going to have this great festival, we have some amazing acts already signed on, let’s just get this thing rolling!’”

Sweet said the lineup is designed to appeal to an open-minded, eclectic audience with a sophisticated ear.

“We’re always trying to serve a very sophisticated audience — people that like all types of music and aren’t expecting just one thing to turn them on,” he explained. “I think we’re all just so open to new things, and that’s the kind of audience we’re hoping to draw.”

The idea is that the diverse range of musicians will feed off of one another’s energy, and the enthusiasm from the crowd.

“If they feel it, then they’re going to put on a great show,” Sweet added.

The festival is the result of a joint partnership of Tourism Whistler, who will help with promotions, marketing and accommodation, the RMOW, who will handle licensing, and Whistler-Blackcomb, who are providing the venue.

Earlier this year, the three entities signed a multi-year non-exclusive contract with Festival Network to organize various events throughout Whistler.

Breton Murphy, spokesperson for Tourism Whistler, said they are very pleased with the progress Festival Network has made on the Whistler Music Festival so far, but added that they are still doing their due diligence, waiting to make sure that organizers meet all of the agreed-upon deliverables, like securing their second headlining act, before they stand behind the event 100 per cent.

“We’re really looking closely at ensuring we’re protecting interests of our community members and whatnot, and when we stand behind something, it’s with that confidence that it’s moving forward and it’s going to be a success,” said Murphy.

They hope the festival will raise Whistler’s profile and help boost accommodation numbers.

“We’re looking forward to working with the festival event organizers on ensuring we’ve got a really solid system for encouraging visitors to come here and stay overnight throughout the festival,” Murphy said.

The festival won’t be an all-night affair — performances will start at 11 a.m. and go until 8 p.m. — but organizers are working on putting on some smaller shows at venues within the village during the evening.

“In our dream scenario, people have this great time on the mountain and they just come pouring into the village and really get to check out the village at night,” said Sweet.

Aside from an amazing musical experience, Sweet promises the event will offer a well-rounded, festive atmosphere, with some other surprise entertainment in store.

While the timing may seem a bit questionable, Sweet said it was purely coincidental, and their intention is not to try and take away from the highly anticipated Pemberton Festival, but rather, to build a community-based event here in Whistler.

Organizers hope the local community will support the event, and are offering a reduced ticked price for residents to encourage them to attend.

“I think that every person that comes to visit, every person that visits Whistler from afar, when they hear, ‘oh, well we have this great music thing that happens in the summer’ and they talk about it, that to me is the best advertising and the best marketing for any kind of event you can have, is just the community itself being really proud of it,” said Sweet.

Eventually, they hope the event will attract people from far and wide to Whistler.

Tickets are $67.50 per day, or $120 for both days, and Whistler residents will receive a discounted rate of $57 for the one-day passes if they purchase them up to a month before the event. There will be volunteer opportunities available, so people can offer their time in exchange for a free ticket to the show, and Tourism Whistler will also be unveiling ticket packages and other deals within the next few days.

Tickets went on sale today, Thursday, May 29, at 9 a.m., and are available through the festival website, www.whistlermusicfestival.com .

Single day tickets coming

If you can’t afford to shell out $259.50 or manage to get three days off of work to fully immerse yourself in the musical extravaganza that Pemberton Festival promises to be, you can breathe a sigh of relief — one-day passes will be going on sale soon.

Shane Bourbonnais, president of North American touring and business development for festival organizer Live Nation, said they still finalizing the detailed daily schedule, and are trying to decide when to start selling the one-day passes. Bourbonnais said they had to wait to see what camping numbers would be like, to ensure that traffic management was under control.

“When we put this event on sale, it was really important that we had a certain number of people staying in the campground,” he explained.

The RV site has sold out already, family site passes are almost gone, and while general campground passes have been selling “phenomenally,” they aren’t sold out, yet.