Squamish Constellation Festival 2019: Day 3

Wow. What an unreal weekend. Day 3 at Squamish Constellation Fest, and it was a bitter sweet one. Time flies when you’re having fun! Sundays at festivals are always tough; everyone is tired, and people are feeling the heat. Sunday was definitely one the hottest of the weekend, rising up to about 28 degrees. However, Constellation knew exactly what we needed, and had the ultimate Sunday lineup. While Friday and Saturday brought us heavy hitters like Jessie Reyez, Serena Ryder, Dear Rouge and A Tribe Called Red, Constellation lined up the perfect chill, bluesy indie set our hung-over selves could have asked for.

Sunday was a slow start, people were trickling later during the day, but luckily we had the sweet Luca Fogale to wake us up! He is truly a gem of a human, and he definitely captivated his Sunday fans.

Constellation kept the activities going all through the day, with more stilt lessons, acrobats, and silk performers. There were still no shortage of tiny humans running around keeping busy, but I must admit, by the third day I was getting pretty frustrated but the amount of kids. Each day brought more kids than the last, while I was hoping for the opposite. While I do appreciate Constellation making their festival a safe space for kids and families, I also appreciate some more ‘adult time’ at festivals. While it was cute at first, especially for Fred Penner, by 9pm I was really hoping these kids would go to bed. From kids falling asleep in the middle of the field, to crying in the middle of sets, I wished that parents would sort of take the hint and take them home. I got to listen in on a particularly interesting conversation with a mom and son on Saturday, during Jessie Reyez’s set, while she was talking about “a producer asking her for a blow job to make her famous.” Yea, try explaining that to a 9 year old. Plus the amount of F Bombs being dropped from every set? Even the artists started to censor themselves. I think for next year, and this goes for every festival, Constellation needs to decide if they are going to have a ‘kid time’, and an ‘adult time’. Fred Penner? AMAZING idea for kids. Jessie Reyez? NOT a great idea. Perhaps the move would be to have one day that is advertised for kids and families, and the rest of the weekend can be a wild party festival. I understand that Squamish (and other cities) are always looking for family friendly activities, but when I think ‘music festival’, I think of drinking, smoking weed, and dancing your pants off to some loud music. Another potential option would to have a ‘designated kid time’, and invite the crazy adults later in the evening. Bottom line, musical festivals are not daycare.

Moving on from that rant, the rest of the weekend went off without a hitch. I mean, it went really well. Almost too well. And if anything did go wrong, they did a very good job of hiding it. As I had mentioned before, there were two stages on the field. At first I was a little worried, wondering if we were going to get an overlap of sound, like some years at Riff. However, due to expert scheduling, not only was there zero overlap, there was actually constant music. When one set at a stage ends, another begins on the other stage. It was seamless, an endless stream of music. The only time where there was no music was when Bahamas were about to come on stage, but instead of silence, ‘Under The Sea’ played loudly and proudly. How did Constellation know that’s my theme song?! In fact, their schedule was SO seamless, that they were on time for every single set, and on Sunday they were 5 minutes ahead! When does that ever happen at festivals? I am not exaggerating, it ran far too smooth. Unfortunately, this meant no time for encores. There was one awkward moment with our friends Half Moon Run, when the audience was chanting “One More Song!” Our lovely hostess of the weekend came on stage, as she always did after a set, thanked Half Moon Run for the amazing set, but sadly we didn’t have time for another. All of a sudden, we got the ‘Okay’ from off stage, and our boys came running on for another, which they definitely weren’t ready for. We did get a gorgeous Neil Young cover from them, though! Totally worth it.

Our favourite local boys Current Swell carried the bluesy Sunday along, getting everyone excited and singing along to every word. If you’ve seen Current Swell recently, you may have noticed a few of our boys MIA. With Scotty still leading the band, we are currently missing our other founding members, Dave Lang and Chris Petersen. Scotty announced on stage that Davers recently had twins, and is spending some much needed time at home, while on instagram it was commented that Chris is ‘over that tour life’. Completely understandable, CS has been going hard for the past few years. Also congrats, Davers! The band is still together, but they just have some new friends who replace Chris and Dave on tour. Playing some of their classics such as “Long Time Ago” and “I Want a Bird,” they also hit us with their new single “High Life”, which sounds incredible live. They all had such a blast on stage, rocking out to “Rollin’” and “It Ain’t Right”. Current Swell is a long time favourite of mine, and they truly have the best fans. And Current Swell fans know every. word. To every song. If you haven’t been to a Current Swell show, are you even a true West Coaster?

What our audience was truly waiting for (sorry, Scotty), was Half Moon Run. The girls in the audience were drooling waiting for them to come on stage. This is not an exaggeration, I heard one girl at the front of the stage say, “I think I just drooled on a bunch of people trying to get up to the front!” We all agree that Half Moon Run is dreamy, and as soon as they stepped on stage the girls went wild. The word for their set was indeed dreamy, there is no doubt about it. Even some of us girls in the pit were squealing. Why, you may ask? Devon Portilje’s voice speaks for itself. This Montreal band has that indie folk sound down to a science, a dreamy, magical science. Although they aren’t the most active on stage, mainly staying behind their mic stands (much to us photographers disappointment), and their massive drum and synth set ups, they do know how to memorize a crowd. If the crowd is a bunch of girls, that is. Admit it, boys, you think Devon is pretty too. Half Moon Run treated its audience to some brand new songs, giving us a taste of what to expect on their new album. The new album is set to come out this year, making it their first new album since 2015. Oh yes, get ready friends! Its going to be a good one.

Just as dusk was setting in and the stars started to appear in the sky, Wintersleep made an appearance next on the Creative BC stage. Although that stage was smaller, they filled every inch of it with sound. Breaking into such hits right off the bat like “America” (again, the pit thanks you!), the whole crowd was dancing along, making up some killer dance moves. One of our furthest travelling Canadian bands, coming from Halifax, NS (although The Jerry Cans are all the way from Nunavut!), they are definitely a true Canadian Indie gem. Their energy was infectious, their lighting was superb, and everyone gravitated from the main stage for their set. Our leading men Paul Murphy and Tim D’eon played off of each other, bouncing off each other’s energy, and at one point each other. Paul’s strong and haunting voice resonated through the entire festival, his tone captivating. It always gets me when they do “Weighty Ghost” live, which personally I enjoy more than the recording. They too have a new album that came out this year, “In The Land Of”, only recently finishing a Canadian tour for the new album.

Finally, as if we didn’t have enough Indie Rock/Blues to fill our hearts, the one and only Bahamas came on stage for the final performance of the festival. They sure set the mysterious and whimsical tone, with the whole stage filling with smoke and bright lights. Not the best for us photographers, but it’s not about us, its about you guys in the crowd. Like Serena Ryder did friday night, Afie Jurvanen emerges from the smoke, grabs his mic stand, and starts singing. Of course, no Bahamas show is complete without the truly entrancing backing vocals of Felicity Williams, who’s whistle tones make everyone speechless. Afie had a great time chatting with the audience, asking everyone ‘what kind of high’ their on, then settling on, ‘nahh, you guys are on a different kind of high, you’re all high on this mountain air!’ Getting a huge reaction from the audience. He’s not wrong, that crisp mountain air had everyone giddy. He then went on to say that ‘he’s always booked on a Sunday, never a Friday, never a Saturday.’ As Bahamas rocked on through the night, the crowd gave everything they got. Afie laughed, saying, ‘now we’re feeling like a Friday night, even a Saturday night!’ My absolute highlight of the set, and probably the most majestic of the weekend, was the mysterious balloons that suddenly appeared. At first, there was one balloon, dancing through the night sky, softly falling as Afie serenaded. Suddenly, more of these mysterious, oddly shaped balloons appeared. Then more, then more. All oddly shaped, long, clear balloons. Then it hit me. One of the booths this weekend was a Sexual Health booth, offering education on Safe Sex, birth control, and… you figure it out yet? Free condoms. Suddenly, the night sky was filled with soft, bouncing condoms, being tossed around as Bahamas played through their set. I burst out laughing, and soon others clued in. What a beautiful moment. I guess Bahamas really got some people in the mood?

Afie also loved to tease his audience, at one point getting everyone to participate in a ‘group activity’. “Okay everyone,” he said, “I want everyone to try this with me. Now pull out your phones, yep hold them up high. Okay everyone got them? Now put them back in your pockets, I don’t want to see them out.” Afie really does not hold back with the banter, and the monologues. My favourite monologue of the evening, was before Bahamas left for their encore, which they did get to have. However, not quite on their terms. “Okay if you’ve never been to a concert before, heres whats going to happen. We’re going to play one more song, say goodnight, leave the stage for 10-15 sec, then come back. Waste of time, but I don’t make the rules.” This got quite the laugh from the audience, and I hope the Constellation team thought it was funny as well. Their set was truly breath-taking, their gorgeous sound and epic guitar solos bouncing off the mountains, and giving everyone the final good vibes of the weekend. Even though they joked about ‘never getting booked on a Friday or Saturday night’, I wouldn’t have wanted to end my Sunday any other way.

For Constellation’s first year, they blew it out of the water, and set quite the standard for next year. With some of the most respectful audience members I have ever seen at a festival, absolutely no rowdy behaviour or drunken slobs, Squamish truly brought good vibes only. The field was spotless, the volunteers were eager and helpful, and the staff and security were an absolute dream come true. By the end I was laughing and joking with security in the pit, instead of sometime the usual stark and serious behaviour we encounter, and the police walking the grounds were high giving and fist bumping guests. The Constellation team jumped on stage after Bahamas, giving absolutely everyone involved a massive, heart felt THANK YOU, including a huge loving thank you to Creative BC, who donated $125,000 for this event. WOW. Constellation, Thank YOU for a beautiful weekend, and I cannot wait to see what you have in store for next year! Rocktographers will be there!