Much anticipated music festival boasts great line-up and atmosphere

Nick Mann

This summer’s Hillside festival will be taking place on July 22-23 on the Island at Guelph Lake.  This year’s festival is going to be another popular event with almost 5000 people per day expected to be at the weekend event. The Hillside Festival started on Guelph Lake in 1987 and has since been established as one of the top 5 festivals in Canada.  Weekend passes sold out in record time showing the popularity of Guelph’s unique summer festival.  Hillside is known for being an environmentally friendly event and it is going on this year, once again, without any corporate sponsors.

 “If anything it is one of the most diverse lineups we have ever had,” said Sam Baijal, the Artistic Director for this year’s festival. “We have booked a lot of new artists who have never played the festival before and some that have.”

The diverse lineup will feature performers such as Los Lobos, Calexico, Hidden Cameras, Sarah Harmer, Shad, Tannis Slimmon, Laura Marling, Neema and the Easy Star All- Stars to name a few.  Along with these headlining performers, there will also be many local artists. This year’s organizers have made a special effort to include several youth bands from Guelph. Guelph talent will also be on display with the presence of the Guelph Spoken word team. They will be performing alongside popular spoken word artists such as David Delisca, Krystle Mullin, Leviathan, and Made Wade.

The presence of Los Lobos at this years festival shows the festivals growing popularity for not only festival goers but for also for performers. “Los Lobos is playing this year and this is a group we’ve wanted for a long time,” said Baijal, “The festival has gotten to a place where it is attractive to artists and this is a great accomplishment for us.” 

The growth of the festival and its ability to showcase artists that are pegged to be the next big thing has even made Hillside a popular event for music industry big shots. In the words of Baijal, “If you want to see bands that are the next big thing, come to Hillside.”

Along with the musical performances this year’s festival will also include its usual share of interesting and entertaining workshops. The workshops will be on a variety of specialized topics including many instructional workshops focused on the healing arts. There will also be many children’s events and also craft workshops to give people the opportunity to try something new between and during the music sets.

This year’s festival will also continue to provide an atmosphere suitable for people of all ages. The easygoing atmosphere is one of the key reasons Hillside has continued to grow throughout the years.

“Hillside Festival has always been a family oriented festival.  A lot of it is that the audience is very open-minded and the festivals atmosphere is one that is good for all ages,” said Baijal. “The family focus has been a priority for a long time.”

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