Live at Squamish: Day Two

Before John and I headed out to cover a second day of Live at Squamish we took a detour to the estuary for a quick stroll. Afterward, on our way back to the festival grounds, we ran into a roadblock setup by a black bear. It was a great start to another great day.

Arriving at the festival grounds we noticed immediately that dancing, hopping, and sometimes somersaulting were just a few ways concert-goers kept warm on the breezy Sunday afternoon.

As John and I spent about 10 hours a day at the Logger Sports Field in Squamish we survived on truck/street food. Pulled pork, gyros, jerk chicken wraps, mini-donuts, and homemade oatmeal chocolate peanut butter cookies. One thing I’d like to see next year is more of a “lighter” selection when it comes to the food. Inviting folks from the local Farmers’ Market to sell fruit and some vegetable options wouldn’t be a bad idea. However, I did hear the “Bucket o’ Poutine” was pretty good.

There were quite a few families at the event and all of the young ones we saw seemed to be having a fantastic time. I think the kids really added to the fun and happy-go-lucky atmosphere.

It also seemed the enclosed beer gardens helped control any rowdiness although I’m not sure what the perk of the VIP beer garden was other than it being closer to the stage (you still paid the same for beer). However, I’m glad we had VIP access so that we could use the washrooms that were inside portables (with stalls, running water, etc.)

At the end of the day, we were all there for one reason: the music. Here are just a few of the acts we checked out during Day Two of this first annual Happy Times in a Big Field event.

You Say Party

Mother Mother

Kuba Oms
I did a quick interview with Kuba and had to hold my Flip camera pretty close to ensure I captured audio so please excuse the poor framing of the shot.

Tokyo Police Club

Bad Religion

The bands were on fire (solid sets, great voices, rocked out instruments) and the mood was light and festive. My highlights included We Are the City, Jon & Roy, Mother Mother (who drew an immense crowd & hung out in the audience after their set), and Bad Religion. I tweeted last night that one of the first mp3s I ever downloaded in the mid-90s was ’21st Century Digital Boy’ and it was awesome to see Bad Religion — celebrating their 30 year anniversary — rock it out last night.

One thing I failed to mention in any previous post was the abundance of Canadian content and I’d say well over half of the acts on the schedule were from British Columbia. Kudos to the organizers and host radio stations, Mountain FM and The Peak, for cultivating this enthusiasm for home-grown talent.

We’re looking forward to seeing how this annual festival will grow; there’s definitely room for more people to come out and party in the giant venue. As long as they can maintain the mix of good wholesome family fun combined with beer garden silliness and carefree dancing to wicked tunes, I think Live at Squamish will become a regular end-of-summer highlight around here.

See also my recap of Day One. All photos used in this post were taken by John Bollwitt for Miss604.com. You can view the rest of John’s photos in his Flickr set.