The Squamish Valley Music Festival was the largest ever this year, with over 17,000 jubilant concert-goers packing the Logger Sports Grounds in Squamish for this festival that first began in 2010. My intrepid photographer John Biehler took some great photos throughout the event for three days. Here’s what he captured up the Sea to Sky on Saturday:
Squamish Valley Music Festival Photos
Contributed by John Biehler: Saturday was the third day of the festival and it was jam packed! Here’s just a small sampling of photos from the acts I saw.
Local favorite The Matinée put on a great show on the Garibaldi Stage:
…Including one of the coolest banjo solos I’ve ever seen:
Dear Rouge‘s first trip to the festival (and my first time seeing them live) was amazing: Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
This post has been contributed by the Stanley Park Ecology Society (“SPES”). I have been following SPES since I moved into the West End almost eight years ago and I recently became a member. I wanted to offer the team an opportunity to share their news, events, and work so I have created “SPES Saturday” where they will be contributing stories with my audience once a month.
Stanley Park BioBlitz and Nature Events
By now, you have probably noticed that there will likely be a little more activity happening in Stanley Park on August 24th and 25th than usual. Stanley Park is turning 125 years this year and the City of Vancouver is putting on a grand celebration for Canada’s most popular urban park.
Celebrate! Stanley Park is a weekend of free events spread over five festival zones in the park. For music lovers there’ll be oodles of entertainment at Second Beach; those interested in the fascinating, and surprising, history of the park should check out the historical tours and displays in the Rose Garden; for sport fans, head over to Brockton Oval; those bringing their families will find lots to do at Lumberman’s Arch; and nature lovers should visit the Lost Lagoon festival zone.
We’re joining in on the celebrations too. This year we’re celebrating 25 years of bringing Vancouverites closer to nature and making a difference to wildlife in Stanley Park, and our main contribution to Celebrate! Stanley Park is the Stanley Park BioBlitz, which takes place on the same weekend. You can find us throughout the weekend in the BioBlitz tent at Lumberman’s Arch and at the Nature House on Lost Lagoon.
SPES Photos by Don Enright and Robyn Worcester
We invite you and the rest of our community to help us learn about all the wonderful creatures that fly, hop, crawl and flutter in Stanley Park. There’ll be lots of opportunities to get involved with biodiversity at the Stanley Park BioBlitz, through surveying local wildlife, taking part in hands-on stewardship activities and learning about everything from forest ecology to local birds, and bats to beavers at educational walks and talks.
Look at our schedule to see what takes your fancy. With more than 30 different events and activities, there should be something for everyone. Participation is free and there is no need to pre-register, just show up.
Never heard of a BioBlitz before? The basic idea is simple. Within a 24-hour period, scientists, volunteers and members of the public will collaborate on finding, identifying and recording as many species of plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms as possible to increase our knowledge of the Park’s native biodiversity. Building a more comprehensive ecological inventory of Stanley Park will help us to better guide future stewardship activities and provide improved management advice to the Vancouver Park Board, who we work closely with.
We did our first and only BioBlitz in 2011 in partnership with South Coast Conservation Program and thanks to the more than 1,000 community participants who joined in, we learned a tremendous deal about the different creatures that live in Stanley Park. The BioBlitz identified no less than 395 different species of flora and fauna, including 152 new species, and the results have greatly furthered our conservation efforts in Stanley Park.
With so much going on in Stanley Park on the weekend already, we’re hopeful that even more people will join us this year in our quest to identify species and provide some amazing opportunities for learning about the natural ecology of Stanley Park.
The 2013 Stanley Park BioBlitz is generously sponsored by TD Friends of the Environment Foundation and the Job Creation Partnership Program of the Ministry of Social Development. All our BioBlitz events are listed on our website. Find out more about what’s happening at Celebrate! Stanley Park.
Today is the last day of the Squamish Valley Music Festival, which opened its doors for its fourth annual summer music extravaganza on Thursday night.
I have covered this event, formerly the Live at Squamish Music Festival, every year and this was the busiest I have seen it during the first full day. About 17,000 festival-goers filled the Logger Sports Grounds and Hendrickson Fields to catch acts such as Said the Whale, Dragonette, Dan Mangan, The Boom Booms, Young the Giant Jordan Klassen, Jurassic 5, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, and Vampire Weekend — just to name a few.
Squamish Valley Music Festival Changes This Year
- There is a new wristband system for entrance and drink purchase. Each wristband has a chip that is read at the door to confirm your entry and instead of purchasing drink tickets in the beer gardens, you “top up” your wristband like a gift card at top up stations. Once you have an appropriate dollar amount loaded onto your wristband, you can walk over to the pouring station, have it scanned and debited automatically, and pick up your drink.
There were issues with the system on Thursday night at caused delays at the gate but these seemed resolved on Friday. However, the lines for the top up stations were far longer than the drink stations so it is worth it to full top up your wristband to avoid future top up trips in the future. That, and there is a service fee charged with every top up.
- The children have returned this year! In the first few years of the festival we noticed far more families but they seemed to have tapered off. Yesterday, there were many families, strollers, toddlers, and kids running around and dancing to the music — it was great to see.
- I hear the Glamping is the best option this year with access to showers and the Brennan Park Recreation Centre.
- The VIP beer garden’s only benefit this year isn’t just being closer to the stage. It’s also up on a riser so you get a definite improvement in your view of the Stawamus stage.
- The marketplace has grown, with more vendors and many more freebies and promotional items being handed out. With one pass between the rows my sister came out with a handful of granola bars, ice cream bars, iced tea, and other goodies.
- It seemed like music was just everywhere this year, not just in pockets around the Garibaldi or Stawamus Stages. The Market Square stage, Woodshed, and a smaller stage inside the main beer garden filled the air with music at all times.
Next year the site will be expanded as the festival, working with the District of Squamish, has been approved to expand to allow a capacity of over 30,000 each day.
Squamish Valley Music Festival Day 1 Highlights
You have to cheer for the homegrown Vancouver talent, Dan Mangan, who played for the festival crowd of thousands who got up from their comfortable blankets on the grass and danced their hearts out to his tunes.
When one song blended into another and the familiar chorus of Robots prompted fans to sing along, Mangan called up a few costumed members of the audience to stand on in front of the stage while he took a spin around the audience, crowd surfing over the masses.
Later in the evening, and incredibly happy, ground-shaking party ensued when the newly re-united Jurassic 5 hit the Garibali stage. This legendary alternative hop hip group, that parted ways in 2007, was a definite highlight, fully engaging the crowd who then migrated to the Stawamus stage to catch Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.
Macklemore, from Seattle, weaved stories between songs, captivating the crowd that was hungry to hear the blockbuster hits from his album The Heist, with Ryan Lewis. The music went well into the night, with the last acts of the day — such as Madeon — hitting their stages at 11:00pm after main stage headliners Vampire Weekend.
The schedule picks up again today at 2:40pm with Foy Vance followed by Yukon Blonde and The Matinée, and later this evening is Band of Horses, Childish Gambino, and Queens of the Stone Age.
John Biehler is my photographer this year as John Bollwitt and I have prior commitments this Saturday. He’s been snapping some amazing shots of the bands on stage and will be posting a photo essay by the end of the weekend. Stay tuned!
The Rio Theatre Rio Theatre has released its schedule of late night movie events for Fridays this month. I’m a bit late at getting the listings up but we still have four late night movie nights to look forward to which will all have bar service and affordable ticket prices: Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
The Abbotsford Airshow is coming up this weekend, with spectacular high-flying performances in the sky as well as an abundance of attractions at ground level from August 9th to August 11th.
John has a fascination with airplanes and while we have yet to make it out to the Canadian Museum of Flight in Langley, we’ve had the chance to get up-close with modern and classic aircraft at places like the Heritage Flight Museum in Bellingham, where some of their main attractions make it out to the Abbotsford Airshow — an event we’ve also been meaning to attend.
The Abbotsford Airshow is a highlight of summer for many families and flight enthusiasts, and it’s even been named one of the world’s top ten best airshows by USA Today. It’s also Canada’s largest airshow, attracting over 125,000 spectators who watch performances from the Canadian Snowbirds jet demonstration team, Canadian Army SkyHawks (parachuting team), USAF Thunderbirds, USN Blue Angels, and more. Here’s what you can expect this year:
All New Ground Attractions
The new Airshow Kids Zone has activities to entertain children and toddlers and will be open from 12:00pm to 5:00pm on all three days. Activities include a climbing wall, Huey Helicopter Ballpit, carnival games, obstacle challenge, Travis the Train, 9-hole mini golf, craft zone, and celebrity appearances in the charity dunk tank.
Mikey McBryan and Scott Blue of the famed Canadian docu-series Ice Pilots NWT are special guests coming to Abbotsford specifically to watch the airshow and interact with spectators including the children enjoying the Kids Zone.
Schedule of Events
The schedule is available online and is the same for all three days. Each day begins with a Skyhawks Flag Jump and the national anthems followed by the CF Combined Forces Tac Demo, Smoke-n-Thunder Jet Truck, Extreme Firebirds, CF Skyhawks, and much more.
“Sequestration”: According to US Government reports, sequestration is a series of across-the-board cuts to government agencies, totalling $1.2 trillion over 10 years. In relation to airshows, these imposed cuts directly impact all US Military demonstration teams and displays. The Canadian Forces (CF) has not been impacted. The budget cuts are related to US government decisions and focus on US agencies only. » more info.
Gates are open from 9:00am to 6:00pm daily, from Friday, August 9th until Sunday, August 11th, with flying events running from 11:00am to 5:00pm. Tickets are on sale now for individual days or the full weekend experience.
The Abbotsford International Airshow Society (AIAS) is the non-profit society that has operated in British Columbia, Canada since 1966, created as a distinct entity in preparation for the 1967 Canada Centennial Airshow. Follow the Abbotsford Airshow on Facebook and Twitter for more event information and show updates.
![[PIC] @DanManganMusic crowd surfs after inviting some robots on stage @squamishfest #vmsquamish](http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2841/9474217713_65ca92352f.jpg)
