There were a ton of bands to check out and one of the wonderful parts of SappyFest is that you leave with a list of music to add to your iTunes list. This year the fine folks who organize SappyFest put together a FREE compilation with a track from each artist/band who played the festival. I highly suggest you check it out, here.
I didn't bring my good camera to take pictures of the band; I'm not one to fight through the crowd to get up close and I will not be one of those people who watch the show through their camera in hopes of getting a good picture while flailing with zoom options. So I took a snap here and there to just remind myself of the different venues. Clockwise from the top right: Christine Fellows plays a wonderful set in a very, very warm church, the lead singer from Fucked Up ran through the crowd during a song and kindly posed for a picture to our right so I took advantage, TomBoyfriend is one of the most bizarre bands to grace the stage with their 7 individual band in a mish-mash of stage get ups, Eternal Summers play a catchy set at the home of the Acadia University President's house, Canailles - a french country band plays by far the most dance inspiring set of the weekend:
Picaroons is responsible for bringing the beer to the festival, this year we received these lovely re-useable cups to quench our constant thirst:
Saturday morning we hung out at The Cackling Goose Cafe, just up the street from the main tent. It was wonderful, we had their back deck to ourselves (and a squirrel who was very nosy) and enjoyed a yummy meal with dairy free carrot cake for dessert. The topping is actually whipped nut fat (I can't remember from which nuts, almonds perhaps?) and it tastes quite a bit like real whip cream. I made such a fuss over how I can actually enjoy carrot cake given that it's lactose free that the server gave us the biggest piece they had - and we ate it all:
Each year Struts Gallery has some sort of interesting exhibits to go along with the festival. This year there was an very interactive piece: a mini put course made up of bizarre found items. Greg is putting on my favourite hole: through a bathtub down a ramp made up of vintage wrestling figurines:
Each year there is something called City Mail at the festival where people write notes/letters/pictures to each other and throughout the weekend it will get delivered to them. Typically you would check the board (below) to see if you have mail and check in with the folks who handle the mail at different locations at the festival. Sometimes people have to be tracked down based on a description given. It's all very awesome and works well at a festival this size:
Left: a bubble machine and beautiful flowers just up from the main tent. Right: "This Is Nowhere", the slogan for SappyFest 7, and as it is taken from the title of a Neil Young song "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" there were much rumblings that Mr. Young would be the secret show. Clearly this is much too crazy of a thought but the sign hung next to the main tent all weekend.
On the note of a secret show, this year there was no secret show per say. It was announced before the last band played on Sunday night (Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra) that they were in fact the not so secret show as they were in the program and in the line up. To remind you, last year Arcade Fire played under the name Shark Attack, as they were playing with U2 in nearby Moncton. Two years ago, Sloan showed up and played their entire Twice Removed album from beginning to end. So it wouldn't be much a secret if each year there was some sort of surprise. This keeps this interesting and I'm sure in years to come the organizers will manage to surprise the audience.
Okay, so throughout the weekend Greg and I had a few ongoing 'competitions'. The first was the 'best' tatoo and second was the 'best' piece of clothing. Best being a loose term for most ridiculous. It was too awkward to get pictures of both the winning tatoo and piece of clothing so I will explain them.
'Best' Tatoo: there was a tie, between a poorly drawn narwhal behind a gentleman's right ear and a GIANT deer head on the thigh of a woman in her 20's.
'Best' Piece of Clothing: went to a gentleman sporting a solid moustache (to give you a better visual) who was wearing a tucked in dress shirt that had a scene of horses in a field near the water on both the front and the back - I think the scene wrapped around from the front to back actually. The best part was that it was about 2 sizes too small so it fit even more awkwardly. It was amazing.
The reason for these two competitions were because SappyFest is filled with bizarre tattoos (perhaps ironic hipster tattoos best describes it) and a total disregard for any fashion trends. Seriously, you could show up in just about any piece of clothing from any time period and would not be that strange person in strange clothes.
A few general trends in fashion however could not be ignored:
Ladies: Lots of high waisted skirts, pants and denim shorts. There were also alot of cropped tops to meet these high waisted bottoms. Kind of like this:
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So this top (there were a few similar hats):
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Overall it was a great people
One more musical re-cap before I end. I thought I would sum up my favourite bands from the weekend, in no particular order:
- Canailles
- The Blow
- Fucked Up
- Del Bel
- Christine Fellows
- Cold Specs (the singer is AMAZING!)
- BA Johnson (the grossest man I have ever been around, EVER)
Ali's Musical Awards:
Best Show Overall - Fucked Up
Most Danceable - Canailles
Most Bizarre - BA Johnson
Worst Show - Yamantaka//Sonic Titan
Thank you SappyFest for an amazing weekend, we'll be back!
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