Sappyfest is more than a music festival! Read below about the full slate of special projects rising from the magic of the swamp: art, performance, installation, poetry, dance and storytelling will delight and dazzle Sappy festival-goers of all ages!
Art-lovers will want to make sure they check out performance duo New Suns Collective who create a conversation through improvised violin and movement; the experimental organ performance by Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo; AND you won't want to miss tween musical theatre sensations The Drama Queenz kicking off the festival with their new hit CHIPS: The Musical.
*You heard it here first* new additions to the music line-up include Wares' Cassia Hardy performing solo, and Fredericton's Chillteens.
For all of this and MORE explore the full lineup, schedule + grab your passes today!
Photo Credit: OSO
Struts Gallery x Sappyfest
Struts Gallery is co-presenting several exciting Sappy art projects this year!
WEave, a large-scale participatory weaving installation by Halifax design studio OSO will take over the Struts Parking Lot.
Sappyfest for Dummies consists of community-made life-sized self-portrait body doubles installed in the Mt Allison Library Theatre. Facilitated by superhero artist team Shary Boyle, Steven Lambke, and Graeme Patterson.
It’s Giving by Toronto-based performance artist Lisa Smolkin is a screening and performance that examines and satirizes contemporary wellness culture.
Mellow Yellow Bench is an interactive sculpture by Sackville-based artist Alex Keeling which will be floating around town, you can't miss it!
More information can be found on the Struts Gallery website!
Photo Credit: Canada.gov.ca
Storytelling Stands Out at Sappy 19
Canada.gov.ca is coming to Sackville for the first time ever!? Don't miss your chance to see John Batt, the infamous and hilarious New Brunswick-born internet sensation, bring the more obscure side of Canadian history and culture to life. Sunday August 4th, Royal Canadian Legion, 5:30PM
Universal Dawn is an annual showcase of writers that offer their gifts to the Bridge Street Stage. Prepare to be transported to fantastical planes by Colleen Coco Collins, Phoebe Marmura, Erin Brubacher, and Sue Goyette: poet-writers-artists-performers that weave fascinating webs of words. Sunday August 4th, Bridge Street Stage, 1PM
Start making plans and grab your day and weekend passes now!
Photo Credit: Amber Helene Müller St. Thomas
Artist-in-Residence Rita McKeough
Sappyfest is excited to bring back our Artist-in-Residence program with illustrious performance artist Rita McKeough!
Rita McKeough is an installation artist and musician whose work focuses on the environmental impacts of resource extraction and demonstrates her desire to use sound to create a rhythmic voice of agency to articulate forces of resistance in the natural world.
Artist Talk:
Sunday August 4th, 11AM
Sackville Commons
Rita's performance Felt Noise is a site-specific multimedia collaboration with artist-musicians Julia Rigby, Alec Brilling and Ursula Sokół. Felt Noise asks questions about empathy and interspecies relationships, navigating systems, and reconnections.
Felt Noise Performance:
Saturday August 3rd, 5PM
Mount Allison Chapel
The Artist-in-Residence program is generously supported by the New Brunswick Arts Board.
Umbrella Collective play Saturday night on the Bridge Street Stage
The Full Schedule is Here! Get your Passes now!
Join us for three days of live music, performance art, readings, installations, artist talks, screenings plus the legendary Sappy karaoke, our Zine & Craft Fair and Sappy Street Market, Kids Corner Power Jam, and so much more!
Check out the schedule and visit our lineup page to learn more about these special artists.
Start making plans and grab your day and weekend passes now!
REMINDER: Dance Party!
We hope you enjoyed the Very Amateur Comedy Night and Trivia! Come to Ducky's on Friday to dance the night away AND support the festival at the same time!
SAPPY SAPPY DANCE PARTY
Date: Friday July 26 at 8PM
Location: Ducky's Bar
Cover: $2 (or $3 debit)
Make new friends! Reunite with old ones! Earn free tix!
Volunteers and Billet hosts are the heart of Sappyfest. You are the reason things run smoothly and that everyone from audiences to artists are happy, comfortable, fed, and having fun!
Call for Volunteers
Volunteers are needed for a variety of crews, including bar, box office, band food, doors, merchandise, stage support, recycling, transportation, site set-up, band food, the safety squad, and more. Youth volunteers are welcome with a signed permission form.
Working one volunteer shift gets you a day pass for the day you work, and three shifts entitles you to a full festival pass!
Call for Billets
We are looking for Billets hosts who can provide clean, comfortable, and safe accommodations for our visiting artists. Each year, we depend on the generosity of Sackville residents who kindly open their homes. We billet artists according to their needs and the needs of the host, ensuring appropriate matches.
Billet hosts receive a full weekend pass!
SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS
We'd like to thank our community partners and sponsors Struts Gallery , Bagtown Brewing, Ducky's Bar, Victory Pool, Mount Allison University, CHMA 106.9 FM, Community Forests International, 4imprint, Exclaim! and Sackville Cinemateque, Sackville United Church for their financial, technical, and emotional support! We couldn't do this without you!
If you would like to get involved as a Sappyfest sponsor, please contact us at productionassistant@sappyfest.com
In addition we would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts, The Department of Canadian Heritage, The Government of Canada, The New Brunswick Arts Board, The Government of New Brunswick and Town of Tantramar for their support of Sappyfest 19.