by Hiedi Irvine
I realized having not experienced any music festivals this summer, just how empty the months can feel without the sound of music. Luckily there are those festivals that aren’t limited to July and August, including the Treasure Island Music Festival in San Francisco, happening Oct. 17 and 18.
The line-up is impressive to say the least, with The Flaming Lips, MGMt, The Decemberists, Brazillian Girls, Beirut, Grizzly Bear, Passion Pit, DJ Rush, Girl Talk, among others are all set to take the stage.
Flaming Lips will be performing at the Treasure Island Music Festival in October.
Noisepop Industries is one of the companies behind the festival , partnered up with Another Planet, some of the largest promoters in the San Francisco area. Stacy Horne, events director for Noisepop Industries said the line-up is usually determined by a wish list and convenience for bands.
“I think what drives it the most is the availability and what artists are out and touring and whose around over the summer and because primarily we don’t do fly ins so it’s bands that make sense with their routing,” said Horne.
The festival is located off the Oakland Bay Bridge on Treasure Island and although organizers had originally dismissed the location for the festival, they re-visited the idea. In order to avoid the traffic of people going on and off the bridge, there’s a shuttle bus available.
“We have everyone park at AT& T Park and we provide free shuttle buses then to the island which picks up so it’s really quick and easy and the first year people were really kind of skeptical and worried to be away from their cars and now it’s kind of become an integral part of the festival, where people get out of their cars and their immediately on these really nice shuttle buses that are green buses and they’re really nice and they have TV’s on them and everything so it’s really nice and it’s sort of become part of the festival experience,” explained Horne.
There are about 10,000 people at the festival daily, and many listeners come from the Bay Area. Horne said the location is key to the experience.
“The spectacular location itself is just something that’s obviously very unique, it’s the only place where you can get an uninterrupted view of the San Francisco skyline, the bridges, Alcatraz, quite beautiful. We also have a 60 foot Ferris wheel and that also gives people a really unique beautiful view of the city and a lot of people in San Francisco and the Bay area haven’t been to Treasure Island. It was a military base so it wasn’t opened to the public until about ten years ago, it’s not really a place that people go, so a lot of people that are coming there, it’s right in their backyard and they’re just discovering it for the first time,” she explained.
Treasure Island's lineup for 2009.
Horne said what they pride themselves on is mainly the fact that despite the big acts they bring in, it’s managed to remain relatively small scale compared to some other festivals.
“The venue itself is one big open field, it’s got a really intimate feel to it, there’s really any lines or if there are they’re really short for the food and the porta potties and all the different things going on so you really don’t kind of feel like your whole day is spent waiting on lines, your time is spent enjoying the festival. Another thing is that we’ve got two stages and we have just one band playing at a time so you’re actually able to see every note of every band if you choose to do so so it’s not like a lot of festivals where you have to kind of make choices and sometimes they’re really sucky choices because there’s two bands that you want to see and you can’t possibly see them because the site is so big and they’re playing at the same time. And then of course the spectacular location itself is just something that’s obviously very unique, it’s the only place where you can get an uninterrupted view of the San Francisco skyline, the bridges, Alcatraz, quite beautiful. We also have a 60 foot ferris wheel and that also gives people a really unique beautiful view of the city and a lot of people in San Francisco and the Bay area haven’t been to Treasure Island. It was a military base so it wasn’t opened to the public until about ten years ago, it’s not really a place that people go so a lot of people that are coming there, it’s right in their backyard and they’re just discovering it for the first time,” she said.
It may be something special to Bay area residents, but there is a desire to see it expand and become something people from all over the world want to take in.
“It is definitely a great place to come for the weekend, we wouldn’t mind it becoming more of a destination festival and San Francisco weather at the time is perfect, and hotels in San Francisco are pretty inexpensive for a major city so it’s a pretty great place to come for the weekend, we’d love to have your audience come down,” said Horne.
For more information visit: www.treasureislandfestival.com
Here are just a few of the upcoming Festivals happening in Canada in the months to come:
Pop Montreal from Sept 30-October 4.
Celtic Colours International Festival in Cape Breton Oct. 9-17
Orillia Jazz and Blues Festival Oct. 17-19
Frostbite Music Festival in Whitehorse-February 13-15
Saskatoon Blues Festival from February 26 through March 1.
Canadian Music Week (awesome, like a festival!) in Toronto March 11-14
New Music West in Vancouver May 14-18
For an impressive line up, country by country, date by date check out : http://kadmusarts.com/countries/Canada.html
