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All events are all-ages, which is new so a 16-year-old kid can get a wristband and go to every bar show and everything in the entire festival
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Newly stealth and predictably cool, Purple City Music Festival is set to energize and electrify the downtown core this weekend, vibrating with more than 70 different acts across nine stages inside and out starting Friday.
From California punk super-group Off! to Regina metal gods Black Thunder to Vancouver’s melodic Lightning Dust to the celebratory final hurrah of the local Switches, the diverse lineup largely leans into punk and a modern psych-rock vibe.
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It’s very much designed to appeal to an up-and-coming youth crowd — not exclusively, mind you — but every event is now all-ages, which is new.
“So, if you’re a 16-year-old kid,” says Purple City’s executive director, Ryan Rathjen, “you can get a wristband and go to every bar show and everything in the entire festival.”
But this isn’t the only change for the better.
“Last year was a bit of a learning curve,” says Rathjen, who took on an incredible, sleep-deprived amount of hustle in 2022 — the first, full-scale Purple City pushing out of the pandemic, freshly renamed from the innovative Up + Downtown Music Festival.
Straddling both sides of the river last year, Purple City boasted more than 80 acts playing Grindstone, Garneau Theatre, numerous downtown venues and two full days at Hawrelak Park.
“We’ve got almost as many artists this year,” notes Rathjen with a laugh. “We just kept adding new ones.
“But the price point is lower to make it more accessible and easier for people to attend.”
Admission down to $150 for the weekend
Prices have dropped to $150 for a three-day wristband — $200 for a VIP band if you want to skip the lineups, which also includs a limited-edition screen poster and festival T-shirt or tote. The posters are by Australia’s Callum Rooney, South Africa’s Simon Berndt and local visual wizard Lyle Bell.
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The biggest improvements to the fest, however, involve its compressed geography.
With Hawrelak Park closed for renovations, Purple City 2023 is letting loose with a free block party and beer gardens in front of The Starlite Room/Temple complex on 102 Street, just south of Jasper Avenue.
Overdrive ii Oblivion (O.ii.O), KT Laine and Misfortune Tellers top the first day’s garden bill, while Lightning Dust, Sam the Living and the versatile Rae Spoon close out the second.
These no-cover, open-air shows will bounce sound off the core’s walls 2-8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, off-ramping into the bulk of the nightly ticketed concerts.
And Friday night also has its own shows, including free programming at River City Revival House.
“We wanted to keep the festival in a closer proximity,” Rathjen explains. “So it was easier to have more of a community feel by having everyone in a centralized location.”
The street party is in the nucleus of the now all-downtown constellation of venues within a two-block radius, including Downtown Edmonton Community League, River City Revival, McDougall United Church, and multiple stages inside Freemasons’ Hall and the hallowed Starlite complex.
The festival producer envisions groups of fans walking around, comparing musical notes between venues.
“We also have more of a collective booking outlook this year,” Rathjen notes, “and the number of people who submitted to play more than doubled from the year before.”
Rathjen now takes us on a guided tour of some of the diverse programming highlights.
“I would say the biggest, most interesting score with the largest punk-rock royalty would be Off! with Keith Morris, who was the lead singer of Black Flag and the Circle Jerks,” notes the promoter. “So one of the founders of punk rock is coming to town to play for the first time.”
The supergroup also includes members of …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead and Thundercat, so this Friday night punk/hardcore/thrash showcase at Starlite including Bootlicker and Dead Fibres will be well attended.
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Rathjen also flags Pleasure Venom from Austin, Texas making its Alberta debut Saturday night at Freemasons’.
“They’re, like, riot-grrrl-meets-anarcho-punk-meets-thrash,” he says. “I think they’re going to rock it super hard, and that showcase is really femme-focused, lots of female hardcore and punk bands.”
A calmer, more folk-leaning vibe is happening Friday night: indie rock band Hand Habits, with Sister Ray and Edmonton ex-pat Calvin Love.
“I’m super stoked to be going back to McDougall because it’s such a great-sounding venue,” says Rathjen. “So we were happy to add some sit-down, theatre-style performances.
“Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy has a very atmospheric guitar sound, just a very unique player and vocalist. And Calvin Love hasn’t played since Purple City 2021.”
Sunday night’s darkwave show at Starlite, meanwhile, is a curator collaboration with Verboden Festival out of Vancouver, co-presented by Edmonton’s Fruit Loop Society of Alberta. The gothy/synth-pop Light Asylum headlines.
“Pixel Grip opening up is more of the new flavour of this stuff coming out of Chicago,” Rathjen explains of this showcase, to which one should definitely wear black eyeshadow and prepare to dance.
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One more suggestion Rathjen talks about is Saturday’s programming at McDougall, put on by the Edmonton Heyoka Healing Society, starting at noon.
“They’re launching a film festival in 2024 called Silent No More, but they’re going to be showing a bunch of shorts during the day,” Rathjen says, adding there will be free food, including bannock burgers, and Elders will speak.
Then, at 7 p.m., the music begins, starting with Donita Large, then Cassia Hardy of Wares, and finally the Polaris-shortlisted ZOON.
“ZOON is an Anishinaabe artist, a pioneer in a new form of music they consider moccasin gaze,” Rathjen explains, “so super dreamy and dealing with a lot of personal healing and content that comes from the lens of being an Indigenous person in Canada.”
There are plenty more bands, mind you, so take a look at the entire lineup and schedule at purplecityfest.ca, where you can buy wristbands, or tickets to individual shows ranging from $15-40.
“If you have the wristband, you can really pick and choose even the specific bands on each bill and bounce back and forth every night,” Rathjen notes. “But with all the free programming, even if you’ve never been before or know any of the bands, you can come check it out and dabble before going all in.”
PREVIEW
Purple City Music Festival
When Friday – Sunday
Where Various downtown venues
Tickets $150 wristbands; individual shows $15-40 at purplecityfest.com
fgriwkowsky@postmedia.com
@fisheyefoto
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