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Attention Sappyfest friends and lovers! Perfect summer nights and Sappyfest 14 are fast approaching and we need your help to make sure everything runs safely and smoothly!
Follow these three easy steps for a perfect Sappy summer:
1. Fill out our volunteer form.
2. Help make Sappyfest 14 the best ever, meet the coolest people, and have fun making something exciting happen!
3. Get. Free. Tickets.
Sappyfest is what we make of it together! Thank you for being a part of it!
***UDPATE: the AGM is now on Wednesday, June 12th at 7PM. Sorry for the inconvenience, hope to see you next week!
SappyFest Inc. would like to invite its membership and those interested in becoming members to the 2019 Annual General Meeting at President’s Cottage (146 Main Street) on Wednesday, June 12th at 7 PM. This is an open meeting with presentations from staff and board members on the organization's activities, financials, as well as elections to the SappyFest Board of Directors.
The agenda, last year's minutes, current bylaws and the agenda, are available by request.
Key agenda items will include:
-- Elections to the SappyFest Board of Directors (2 year term).
-- Approval of 2018 Financial statements.
-- President of the Board of Directors statement.
-- Creative Director's statement.
-- Questions from the floor.
Hope to see you all there!
This is the beginning! We’re thrilled to announce the first list of performers for Sappyfest 2019, our 14th annual gathering of musicians, artists, dancers, punks, poets, and performers!
Apollo Ghosts // Deliluh // FET.NAT // Haviah Mighty // JOYFULTALK // Julie Aubé // Mauno // Motherhood // Snotty Nose Rez Kids // Tryal // The Weather Station
We come together every year in the heat and hope of mid-summer with the belief that art and music can teach us new ways to listen, new ways to hear, new languages of collaboration. We celebrate this chance to be together, to share this space here in Sackville, NB, welcoming new friends and old, from near and far, all with open hearts.
In addition to performances by some of the most exciting independent musicians working in this country, Sappyfest 14 will include Short&Sweet, a program of short presentations curated by contemporary dancer Katie Ewald. Twelve artists/dancers present a variety of work, with the single parameter that the performance be under 3 minutes duration. A timekeeper is present for the event and artists going over the allotted time frame will be immediately cut off! And Alex Samaras of Tryal (and The Queer Songbook Orchestra) will host an open group singing workshop culminating in an on-stage performance by workshop participants. We’re all in this together, so let’s start singing!
And there is so much more to come! More music, poetry, artist talks and workshops will be announced soon!
Sappyfest 14 Early-Bird Tickets are on sale now! The Early-Bird pass is a full weekend pass for Sappyfest 14, August 2-4 at a special discounted price. Together we think of summer! When the grey shadow that follows where we go turns into a cloud of beautiful flowers.
Get your tickets now: http://www.sappyfest.com/tickets
In perfect rhythm, in perfect tune, the year turns over and from wintry darkness we think of summer light, from the isolation of cold we think of communal warmth. Against the forces that separate, let’s plan to gather and sing! Sappyfest 14 will take place August 2-4 in Sackville, NB, and as we make our plans we’d love to know what you have been up to, beautiful artist, poet, thinker, maker of things and sounds!
Apply to perform at Sappyfest 14 by writing us at submissions@sappyfest.com with streaming links to music, performance videos, poems, manuscripts, images or any appropriate examples of your work along with a short description of who you are and what you do. This call is open to any form or format of human creativity or collaboration.
Due to the large number of submissions we receive we will only be able to contact those who we think we may be able to program this year. Applications close on February 15th. Thank you for your understanding and your interest!
**TIME CHANGE: Sappy AGM will now commence at 6:30 PM!
SappyFest Inc. would like to invite its membership and those interested in becoming members to the 2018 Annual General Meeting at Struts Gallery (7 Lorne Street) on Wednesday, November 28th at 6:30 PM. This is an open meeting with presentations from staff and board members on the organization's activities, financials, and future.
The agenda, last year's minutes, current bylaws and the agenda, are available by request.
Key agenda items will include:
-- Approval of 2017 Financial statements.
-- President of the Board of Directors statement.
-- Questions from the floor.
Hope to see you all there!
Sappyfest Presents: The Queer Songbook Orchestra
Please join us at Brunton Auditorium on Thursday October 11, for a moving and heartfelt night of story and song by The Queer Songbook Orchestra. The Toronto based Queer Songbook Orchestra (QSO) are a 12-piece professional chamber pop collective dedicated to exploring and uplifting queer narrative through the last century of pop music. The ensemble source their material through the personal stories of queer experience of 2SLGBTQ individuals and the songs that have been most meaningful to them. Founded in 2014, the QSO have played many of the most esteemed stages and festivals across Canada, including the National Arts Centre, Luminato Festival, High Performance Rodeo and Suoni per Il Popolo, and their collaborative album with multi-disciplinary artist Vivek Shraya, Part-Time Woman, was long listed for the 2018 Polaris Music Prize.
"Sensational, a superb pop ensemble" ~ NOW Magazine
"... absurdly brilliant" ~ Noisey
“An act of masterful remembering” ~ Exclaim!
Learn more at: http://www.queersongbook.com/
Tickets: https://sappyfest.ticketbud.com/sappyfest-presents--the-queer-songbook-orchestra
With many thanks to the Department of Canadian Studies for their assistance in this special presentation.
How excited are we? Beyond measure, beyond reason - we begin dancing! Any beat can't be beat! Wow!
Sappyfest 13
August 3-5, 2018
Sackville, NB
Ansley Simpson / BA Johnston / BBQT / Bonjay / Boyhood / The Burning Hell / Century Egg / Cris Derksen / Darlene Shrugg / DBPS / Delta Blip / Dog Day / Double Vision / Figure Walking / Ice Cream / Isla Craig / Jennifer Castle / Jeremy Dutcher / Julie & The Wrong Guys / Leanne Betasamosake Simpson / Michael Feuerstack / Motherhood / Nap Eyes / New Chance / Nick Ferrio / Pat Lepoidevin / Quaker Parents / Rich Aucoin / Rotten Column / Special Costello / Steve Haley / Ten Boy Summer / U.S. Girls / Washing Machine / WHOOP-Szo / Witch Prophet
Readings, Art, and Projects by Bart Vatour / Elizabeth Copeland and Beverly Glenn-Copeland / Emma Healey / Erick Garcia Gomez / Jaime Forsythe / Jesi Jordan / Lucas Crawford / Paul Henderson / People-People-Working
+more?
Sappyfest 13 plans are coming together. Signals beaming into dispatch. The static is clearing, a beat is coming into time, a shape emerges, a rhythm of anticipation.
Sappyfest 13 will include performances from:
Ansley Simpson / BA Johnston / Bonjay / Boyhood / The Burning Hell / Cris Derksen / Darlene Shrugg / Dog Day / Emma Healey / Ice Cream / Jeremy Dutcher / Jennifer Castle / Leanne Betasamoske Simpson / Motherhood / Nap Eyes / Nick Ferrio / Quaker Parents / Special Costello / U.S. Girls / Whoop-Szo / Witch Prophet / ++ more
Details and links about all performers can be found on the line-up page. Happy listening!
The sun came out this weekend in Sackville and we were freed from the burdens and the weight of heavy coats and tall boots. And as winter turns its last cold shoulder and departs we take another happy step toward our reconvening, our coming together in the "still surprisingly annual" gathering we call Sappyfest.
This is an important moment! This moment of making plans, of deciding to come together, here, in this way, with kind and open hearts: volunteers, organizers, participating artists, the full community of active listeners, those who cook and those who clothe and those who build. When so many things would keep us apart, we choose to come together; when so much of the world is defined by anger, we choose to welcome each other. To make a plan is to claim a hope for the future.
We have been making plans! This year we are are thrilled to welcome some of the most exciting and celebrated artists at work today. We welcome artists who moved us with their music at the first note, and for who celebration will surely come. We welcome poets and storytellers, thinkers and dancers. And of course we welcome back old friends, some who we haven’t seen in far too long a time, with new songs to sing, new stories to tell.
Sappyfest 13 will include musical performances from U.S Girls, Bonjay, Julie and The Wrong Guys, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Jeremy Dutcher, Jennifer Castle, The Burning Hell, Special Costello, Witch Prophet, Whoop-Szo, and BA Johnston, and a reading from poet and essayist (and former Sappy Times correspondent) Emma Healey. You can find out more about all these artists on our 2018 Line Up page.
And remember, this is just the start! We have so much more to tell you!
Sappyfest 13, August 3-5, 2018, Sackville, NB.
Sappyfest will be held, as always, on the first weekend of August in Sackville, NB. The dates this year of this still surprisingly annual gathering of musicians, artists, writers, and dreamers, are August 3-5, 2018. And our "Early-Bird" Weekend Passes are available now! This early-bird advance purchase saves you a few ever-important dollars and really helps us through the lead-up to the festival. We hope you will join us in ushering Sappyfest into it's teen years!
Hello! And happy New Year! From the depths of cold winter, when it can feel as if we're kept so far apart, we dream of warmer times when we can gather back together. Sappyfest 13 is happening this August 3-5, 2018 in beautiful Sackville, NB. Sappyfest is a curated festival, but we would love to know what you've been working on.
Call for submissions: Please email streaming links, performance videos, short films, or other examples of your work along with a short bio to submissions@sappyfest.com. This call is open to submissions for music, art, performance, poetry, installation, dance or any other form of creative expression.
Submissions close on February 15th. Only those applicants who we think we may be able to include in the festival this year will be contacted.
Thanks for your interest and support!
xoxox
SappyFest Inc. would like to invite its membership and those interested in becoming members to the 2017 Annual General Meeting at Struts Gallery (7 Lorne Street) on Wednesday, November 29th at 7 PM. This is an open meeting with presentations from staff and board members on the organization's activities, financials, and future.
The agenda, last year's minutes, current bylaws and the agenda, are available by request.
Key agenda items will include:
-- Elections to the SappyFest Board of Directors (2 year term).
-- Approval of 2016 Financial statements.
-- President of the Board of Directors statement.
-- Questions from the floor.
-- & voting on Amendment to bylaw 8e) “Election of Executive shall take place by secret ballot, at an annual general meeting of SappyFest, Inc.” to 8e) "Election of Board Executive: From time to time, and generally at the first Board Meeting following the Annual General Meeting of SappyFest Inc., the Board shall appoint a President, Vice President, Treasurer and a Secretary. The Board Executive shall, in addition to those prescribed by a by-law, perform such duties as may from time to time be prescribed by the Board. Executive appointments are held for one year."
Hope to see you all there!
Maybe you missed out on grabbing a Sappy Tshirt this summer (ooops!); maybe you spent all your money on Lido Pimienta merch and Fiver records (great choice!); maybe your size was sold out (dang!); maybe you couldn't make it to Sappy 12 but want to express your love and support (thank you!!!); maybe you want to give a gift of Sappy 12 to someone you love (so sweet!) - well, FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY, select Sappyfest 12 merch is available for mail-order! These t-shirts will be printed to order, so this sale is only open until NOVEMBER 19th, and all orders will ship in time for the holidays. Please visit the SHOP page to see the designs by artists Mollie Cronin, Patrick Allaby, Laura Watson, and Rachel Thornton.
With gratitude and love, Sappyfest
PHOTO BY PATRICK CALLBECK
There's a time in my life
When it ran so cold
Can't find a friend
Anywhere at all
So my brother said to me
Charles gotta stand tall
Because life is full of sorrow
Heartaches and pain
We're heartbroken to hear about the passing of Charles Bradley. His performance at Sappyfest Six remains one of the greatest performances we've ever had the privilege to witness, here or anywhere. Powerful, intimate, generous, and deeply human. There is so much life in this music, a life and a music we will cherish and remember.
We can't tell it any better than Matt Charlton's lovely description of the show as published in the SappyForever book:
I was one of the stage managers at SappyFest Six. This meant that I spent the weekend standing next to Steve Lambke looking concerned, which actually describes a lot of my time living in Sackville.
The strongest memory I have of that year’s festival began during Bonjay’s set. If you didn’t catch them, they were amazing.
The whole time though, I couldn’t shake the fact that the performer that had to follow them could never live up to this. There was no way he could do anything but fail. Most people hadn’t heard his name before the festival and this was probably the last time anyone would after he became the wet blanket on this thundering dancehall sound.
Finally, Bonjay’s set finished and the next performer’s backing band calmly set up. I felt for them. They were professionals. They knew what they were in for. They were being sent to the gallows. And it was SappyFest’s fault. Who would put a soul band after Bonjay’s electro dance attack?
The band started playing. Just music. For a long time. Where was the singer? He must have known what was coming and fled town. It was probably the smart move.
When it seemed, even disregarding the poetic license I’m currently taking, to have been a notably long time that the band was vamping, I went to look for him.
I met an equally concerned Paul Henderson on the way. We both looked in through the window of the green room. We could only see a silhouette of a man sitting. He was just staring down, head in hands, calmly, not moving at all.
Looking back, it seems like an inspiring moment. It was the peaceful meditation of a fighter before he enters the ring, a man with his god.
At the time though, I simply thought, “Oh shit.”
Before I had a moment to voice concern, the silhouette stood and walked out the door. Without acknowledging the waves of stress emanating from us, he continued to the stage. Strongly. We walked behind him, drafting his sense of purpose.
He got to the stage, walked on and…it’s hard to really describe what happened next.
His calm poise instantly turned into an amazing hip-thrusting bird dance. Then he walked to the mic and everything changed forever. And I don’t say that lightly. Everything actually changed forever.
Charles Bradley sang the opening line of Heartaches and Pain:
“There’ve been times in my life…”
…and it was so shockingly good that the crowd shrieked. It was out of joy, but the intensity of the moment made a thousand people sound like awkward teenagers all at once. They (we) shrieked like something truly horrible had happened (watch the Youtube clip to see what I mean).
No one was ready. There was no way we could have been.
Everyone was instantly in tears and it was impossible to escape this strange but unmistakable feeling that a thousand people were exactly where they wanted to be. That’s an odd and beautiful thing. It’s something that I didn’t even know existed.
I stood next to Steve Lambke, much less concerned.
Charles Bradley is the greatest performer I have ever seen. It was a flawless set that I could have watched for the rest of the night and simultaneously didn’t need another note from. We watched a piece of history unfold, this was SappyFest. Swamp Magic.
Poster by Patrick Allaby
We're never quite done - we always lean a little harder on the scales.
How do we make Sappyfest 12 even better? With Doldrums' extra sensory overload of ecstatic beats; with a rare and coveted and surely well-dressed performance from Daniel Romano's Ancient Shapes; with the artful grooves of Saint John, NB's Usse; with the drama and introspection of Guelph, ON's Shopkeeper; with the Peterborough/Toronto voice and electronic duo Joyful Joyful!
We are also thrilled to welcome poet Sue Goyette, who's wonder-filled Ocean has been companion and guide into strange corners of life on the edge of the deep. Sue's the real deal and has things to tell you.
HERE IT IS! The (nearly) complete musical lineup for Sappyfest 12! Our new announcements are in bold:
BAH NAH NAH / Beverly Glenn Copeland / Bird City / Bernice / Booji Boys / BUDI with Aquakultre / Construction & Destruction / The Courtneys / Daniel Romano / Eamon McGrath / Erin Wunker / Exit Someone / Fiver / Heaven For Real / The Highest Order / Jane Blanchard / Jon McKiel / Kirsten Olivia / Klarka Weinwurm / Lido Pimienta / The Magic / Myriam Gendron / Not You / Partner / Protruders / Richard Laviolette / Sarah Denim / Sweet Dave and the Shallow Graves / Teenanger / Tess Roby / Tough Age / Vulva Culture / Weaves / Willie Thrasher / Zones
Learn more about all these fine performers on the lineup page where there's links to music and more. Tickets for Sappyfest 12 are available now.
Toronto based songwriter Eamon McGrath will be travelling to Sackville, NB this August as Sappyfest’s 2017 Songwriter-in-Residence. Eamon’s work is based in a deep commitment to independent, grassroots arts and cultural production. He has released five full-length albums and published his first novel Berlin-Warszawa Express with ECW Press in May 2017. He is a member of Julie And The Wrong Guys, with Sappyfest co-founder Julie Doiron and Mike Peters and Jaye R. Schwarzer of The Cancer Bats. Eamon performed at Sappyfest in 2012 backed by members of Eric’s Trip, and as part of The Greville Music Tapes Revue in 2016.
“I'm thrilled at the opportunity to spend the month of August writing on the east coast as the Sappyfest artist in residence. This festival represents everything that's honest, grassroots and true-to-the-core of the Canadian music community, and is comprised of dedicated, hard-working and passionate people who exemplify the traits and characteristics of "Canadian" art: a spirit and attitude that transcends distance, and a unifying, diverse and eclectic outlook on musical styles and artistic approaches. Whether or not you play hardcore punk or folk music, if you've braved a winter snowstorm on the Trans-Canada to get to a gig, you come from the same place and can understand each other's experiences and stories, and Sappy really embodies that kind of genre-defying identity and outlook.
As a Torontonian I'm also ecstatic at the chance to leave the high pace and full-throttle speed of the city for the warm and welcoming summertime east coast air. With the pressures of having to support yourself in the competitive and expensive environment of TO, it's easy to get swept up in the more administrative aspects of the music industry and neglect the real reason why musicians do this in the first place. At Sappy this year I'll be focusing on completing a follow-up to 2014's "Exile" LP, as well as ironing out the first working draft of my second book.”
Eamon McGrath's participation in Sappyfest 12 is made possible by funding support from the Artist In Residence Program of ArtsNB.