Squamish Valley Music Festival adds performers including Chvrches, Phantogram, Nas

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      The Squamish Valley Music Festival has added more clout to its already lengthy lineup with the announcement of new acts including Chvrches, Phantogram, tUnE-yArDs, Nas, and the Temper Trap.

      The additional performers released by festival organizers today (May 2) boost the 2014 bill to more than 60 artists. This year's expanded event takes place from August 8 to 10 at Centennial Field, Logger Sports Grounds and Hendrickson Fields in Squamish.

      Erik Hoffman, Senior Vice-President of Talent for Live Nation Canada, said the latest additions to the lineup are a snapshot of the festival itself, with artists spanning genres and countries.

      “I’m pretty proud of the mix,” he told the Straight by phone. “I think it’s a really broad span.”

      Glasgow electro-pop act Chvrches, which sold out the Commodore before the trio even released its first full-length album, New York electro-rock duo Phantogram, Australia’s Temper Trap, rapper Nas, who will perform the album Illmatic in its entirety, and experimental indie-pop act tUnE-yArDs are also sure to draw a diverse crowd.

      “I think [tUnE-yArDs is] definitely an act where she’ll do her thing and…where not everybody knows what it is…it’s a little more of an education,” noted Hoffman. “That’s what festivals are to me.”

      The other new artists announced today are Irish singer James Vincent McMorrow, Canadian reggae-pop band Magic!, Toronto indie-rock act Wildlife, Calgary’s Reuben and the Dark, and Vancouver violinist and vocalist Hannah Epperson.

      The pre-festival Campers’ Kickoff lineup scheduled for Thursday (August 7) evening will include returning Squamish performers A Tribe Called Red and the Matinée, as well as heRobust, Kastle, the Strumbellas, and Sleepy Tom.

      This year’s bill is continuing the Squamish festival’s focus on local acts, according to Hoffman. Other previously announced B.C. bands that will take the stage include the Zolas, We Are the City, Top Less, Aidan Knight, Rykka, Good for Grapes, and Louise Burns.

      “The spirit of the festival when it started…was to showcase some local and B.C.-based talent, like any good festival should with the region,” Hoffman stated. “They can be game-changer events for a local artist.

      “The local stage isn’t like an afterthought or a little stage in the corner, it’s well produced and it’s focused on—and we’ve invited a whole bunch of what we feel this year are meaningful artists.”

      The 2014 lineup features headliners Eminem, Arcade Fire and Bruno Mars, in addition to acts including Arctic Monkeys, Broken Bells, Foster the People, the Roots, Lykke Li, Thievery Corporation, the Head and the Heart, Austra, and Kevin Drew.

      The event is expected to draw up to 35,000 attendees per day to an expanded festival site, up from 19,000 daily attendees last year.

      It’s quite a coming of age for Squamish, I think,” added Hoffman.

      “It’s great when there’s a natural evolution to these things. I think if you just drop in a mega-festival into a region, it doesn’t really grow with the region. You can’t learn from it in the same way, and there’ s a bunch of learnings…this thing is its own animal, and we’ve never been more pumped up about it.”

      More details on this year's event are available at www.squamishfestival.com.

      Comments

      2 Comments

      blah

      May 2, 2014 at 11:55am

      The Roots are awesome and should be fun. And the Head and the Heart are very talented, but most of the rest of the lineup seems boring.

      music fest junkie

      May 4, 2014 at 11:21am

      squamish headliners are top-notch. having eminem must have cost a lot. I'd say about 5-8 million for the top headliners themselves. which probably accounts for the lackluster undercard.

      all in all squamish did great. they've improved every year and it's clear they are appealing to a more mainstream audience when compared to say pemberton. it's an interesting format...i think it's a sign of what music fests are turning to. I hope pemberton targets a diff market like they did with their lineup which is less mainstream and appeals more to the 25+ crowd.