Sled Island

Let the planning begin! Sled Island is thrilled to release the full 2012 festival schedule featuring over 200 genre-defying and jaw dropping live bands performing across 30 venues in Calgary, AB from June 20 - 23, 2012.

Beyond the festival's headliners performing at Olympic Plaza, the festival includes dozens of unique and intimate performances at every turn. Sled Island's iconic venue, the #1 Royal Canadian Legion, offers two floors of the best emerging and established local talent alongside national and international acts including The Sadies, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet and NoMeansNo, for an end-of-the-night party. Sonic Youth member Thurston Moore  joins YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN at the beautifuly-restored Theatre Junction GRAND on June 22, while Tim Hecker and CFCF perform at the stunning Hillhurst United Church on June 21. 

With so many amazing shows going on every night, you'll find relief in knowing that several bands, including Shabazz Palaces, Boris, Duchess Says, are performing multiple times throughout the festival. 

Motivational speaker and party master Andrew W.K.'s curatorial work is at hand throughout the festival. He's brought along Aleister X, a white face-painted, Brixton-born dancehall goth, Baby Dee, a celebrated performance artist, harpist and smoky cabaret singer songwriter, Bad Brilliance, a gloriously ludicrous, ball-headed dance party, MAGAS, who is a one-man-party unit, SNAKATAK & Tessa G. (of Tayisha Busay), with their glitter and confetti-fueled choreographed electro and finally, Devon Sproule, the Canadian space-folk songstress. Local guest curator Danny Vacon's (The Dudes, Dojo Workhorse, HighKicks) picks include 90's indie icons Archers of Loaf, Vancouver-based prog rock stars Bend Sinister, NY's anthemic rockers The Hold Steady and East Coast Canada's hidden gem Shotgun Jimmie. 

Festival passes are available for $199 for the Festival Discovery Pass, $349 for the Festival Discovery Plus Pass and only $50 for an All-Ages Pass via the Shop. Olympic Plaza Tickets are available for $45 plus fees per day at Ticketmaster and select retail outlets. A limited amount of Single Show Tickets, including a few additional shows going on sale this Saturday, June 2 at 10am, are available at Prime Box Office and at Sloth Records. Walk up Tickets will be available for all Sled Island shows (except Hot Snakes at Dicken's on June 21) subject to venue capacity during the festival.

Thanks to a new partnership with East Village, the iconic Simmons Building, located at 618 Confluence Way SE, will become the hub for volunteers and attendees leading up and during the Sled Island Music and Arts Festival! Sled Island pass pick up and purchase will be available from June 15th - 22nd from 12pm - 8pm daily, with extended hours during the East Village Block Party on Thursday, June 21st. 

The Simmons Building will be used as the primary hub for the festival's 400+ volunteers, the blood, sweat and (volun)tears of the fesitval! 

In conjunction with Alberta College of Art + Design, Sled Island is transforming the historic brick walls of the Simmons Building into an art installation featuring original paintings, sculpture and more by some of Calgary's best emerging artists. 

Bike rentals will also be available to attendees and artists through a partnership with the Good Life Bike Company during the days of the festival and located in or around the Simmons Building. Email green@sledisland.com to reserve your bicycle today! RSVP for the Good Life BIke Company's fundraiser Put The Fun Between Your Legs happening this Friday at the Ant Hill Bulding, 2nd avenue & 10 Street NW, Calgary, AB.

Sled Island and the Alberta College of Art + Design are proud to announce a renewed collaboration to intensify, showcase and expand the diverse wealth of work coming out of Calgary’s many arts communities. Events include Chris J.J. Reimer, a photography show celebrating the life of the innovative and influential Calgary guitarist from such bands as Women and Azeda Booth, the C1RCAxSled Island Poster Show at Sloth Records which is your chance to own a limited edition, three-colour, hand silk-screened poster by local designers and illustrators, PICTURE BOOKS, Sled Island’s inaugural zine and printed matter art book fair, and several other events found here. This growing branch of the festival exists to foster the relationship between many artists and disciplines in captivating site-specific installations and venues.

In previous years Sled Island has featured special events and workshops ranging from intimate weirdo guitar workshops led by Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), panel discussions about what it is to emerge in Calgary’s arts community, and seances to evoke dead pop stars (Ian Svenonius). This year we’re not formalizing a thing, but have a series of diverse events intended to expand this growing festival component and spark conversation at Sled. Events will include our party inspiration Andrew W.K. taking questions from people of all-ages about what it means to party, Tim Hecker in conversation, a DIY bring-your-own-Gameboy chiptune instrument building workshop led by GreyScreen, a panel discussion about the landscape of Alberta music, and a noise maker tour of the National Music Centre.

Sled Island is excited to announce the Olympic Plaza schedule for Friday, June 22 from 5 - 11pm and Saturday, June 23 from 2 - 11pm. Olympic Plaza is the fully-licensed and all-ages outdoor main stage featuring performances by the festival's top headliners including Feist, The Hold Steady, and Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks. Entering it's sixth year, Sled Island is proud to present the centrepiece to it's programming in the heart of downtown, as the city, its residents and festival goers embrace Sled Island as both a vital part of life in Calgary and a premiere destination festival.

Friday, June 22 (gates at 6pm):

9:30 Feist
8:15 Timber Timbre
7:00 Wake Owl **

Saturday, June 23 (gates at 2pm):

9:45 The Hold Steady
8:00 Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
6:30 The Dudes **
5:15 Shabazz Palaces **
4:00 Bonjay
3:00 Parlovr

** just announced

Olympic Plaza tickets are on sale for $45 plus fees per day via Ticketmaster and select retail outlets. Admission to Olympic Plaza is included with the purchase of a Festival Discovery Pass, Festival Discovery Plus Pass or an All Ages Pass. Festival passes are available at the shop, shop.sledisland.com.

Sled Island is excited to present the East Village Block Party, a free outdoor event taking place on the East Village River Walk from 4 - 10pm on Thursday, June 21. The event will feature live performances on a stage curated by the HiFi Club, a street-style skateboard competition hosted by Vans Shoe Company and The Source, a special edition of Calgary's favourite community arts market hosted by the Market Collective and YYC Food Trucks on site to provide festival goers with locally-made sustenance throughout the event.

9:00 Flosstradamus **
8:15 HUMANS 
7:30 Max Ulis **
6:45 Calamalka **
5:45 Smalltown DJs **
5:15 Vinny Slappers **
4:30 Pho (DJ from Bonjay) **
4:00 DJ Teddy Celebration **

** just announced

RSVP for the East Village Block Party here.

Sled Island is pleased to announce several new additions to the festival lineup including legendary Japanese genre-bending band Boris, avant-rap duo Shabazz Palaces (members of Digable Planets), Ninja Tune recording-artist Daedelus, Calgary's own indie rockers The Dudes, featuring festival curator Danny Vacon, NYC punk rockers K-Holes plus more. Sled Island 2012 now features over 238 musical performers including 83 based in Alberta, and 70 from Calgary. In addition to music at the festival, Sled Island features an impressive comedy lineup, an excellent film program that runs June 18 - 20 and a comprehensive art program that will be announced on May 22. 

Festival passes are available at the shop for $199 for the Fesitval Discovery Pass, $349 for the Festival Discovery Plus Pass and only $50 for an All Ages Pass. Olympic Plaza Tickets are on sale for $45 at Ticketmaster and select retail outlets. A limited amount of Single Show Tickets are available at Prime Box Office. Get your passes and or tickets today before it's all sold out! 

Sled Island is looking for your help in establishing the Green Island Culture! Are you familiar with Green Island? If not, check out the Green Island page here.

Here’s how it will work: As part of our efforts to become a more environmentally and socially responsible festival we are planning to produce Green Island T-shirts made of 100% recycled polyester cotton. Using the guidelines below, your challenge is to create a T-shirt design/illustration that will incorporate the Sled Island 2012 aerial theme and the Green Island culture with sustainable thinking. The winning design will be printed on all of our Green Island volunteer T-shirts, and the winning designer will receive a complimentary Festival Discovery Pass.

Rules

1. This competition is open to all Sled Islanders – past, present and future!
2. You can enter as many designs as you like.
3. Your design/illustration MUST BE YOUR OWN. By submitting an entry you confirm that it is your own work!
4. Submit your masterpiece to green@sledisland.com as either a vector file (eps, pdf) or a 15*15" at 300dpi JPG.
5. By entering the competition, you agree to give Sled Island non-exclusive rights to publish your work on our website and use your design on our Green Island volunteer T-shirt.
6. All entries must be submitted by Thursday May 17, and the winner will be announced that Friday May 18 via facebook. 

Remember Less = More. If you can create a deadly design in ONE color, you will already be ahead of the competition. Judges will be selecting the winning design based on creativity and practicality. Design something you would be proud to wear yourself.

Ideas worth spreading should be given free reign. And they certainly shouldn’t be curtailed before dinner. That’s why TEDxYYC doesn’t end with the last speaker to grace our stage. Thanks to a partnership with the East Village and a musical line-up curated by Sled Island, they’re creating an environment rife with opportunity to make more connections and take ideas from tadpole to toad.

Join us at the historic Simmons Building in the heart of the East Village along the brand new Riverwalk for the TEDxYYC after party. Surrounded by some of the best bricks and morter in Calgary, it will be an evening of local music talent and more interesting people than you can shake a mattress at. Mattress, Simmons, get it?

Sled Island has teamed up with TEDxYYC to match ideas with music. Local acts Lab Coast, Extra Happy Ghost!!! and a memorable guest DJ will be mixed with Village Brewery libations, and as of yet unconfirmed, but sure to be tasty, YYC food trucks. Space at this iconic venue is limited, so hop on your bikes and head down early.

Where: Simmons building, East Village. 618 Confluence Way, S.E.
When: May 25, 7 pm - 11 pm
How: $5 at the door, 18+, cash bar

Sled Island is excited to partner with OCL Studios, an awesome new recording and production facility 20 minutes outside of Calgary. Located on the sprawling prairies, this new state of the art studio will cater to all possible clientele. 

In anticipation to Sled Island, OCL Studios has invited several artists performing at this year's festival to come out and record at the studio in what we're calling the "The Sled Island Sessions" that can be found here. The first session features Halifax's own Cousins tearing through a two-song set with material from their latest album "The Palm at The End of The Mind" out now on Saved By Vinyl records.

Sit back and watch this mesmerizing set, and look forward to seeing Cousins at Sled Island 2012.

Sled Island is back in the CJSW studios for the second podcast of 2012 featuring our trusty host, Gary Powers dishing out the insider's tips and sweet jams. This week's episode focuses on the fulll linup announcement and features a song by Olympic Plaza performer Timber Timbre, hilarious stand up comedian Natasha Leggero, a heavy psych number by recent addition to the lineup, Prince Rama, garge surf-rockers Hooded Fang laying it down, sweet soulful ways of Edmonton's Renny Wilson, and 10 to-the-point questions plus a song with local act The Gooeys. 

Listen to the this week's podcast here. 

To save the hassle and get the latest on Sled Island via this podcast subscribe to the RSS or iTunes feed today! 

Sled Island Music and Arts Festival, taking place June 20 to 23 at multiple venues in Calgary, is pumped to announce the mind-blowing full lineup featuring over 200 performers including Hot Snakes, Lou Barlow, The Spits, DJ Jonathan Toubin, Prince Rama, CFCF and many more! All of these are in addtion to previously announced artists Feist, The Hold Steady, Archers of Loaf, Andrew W.K., The Sadies, Thurston Moore, The Antlers, Tim Hecker, Reigning Sound, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet plus so much more! Check the lineup page to discover the variety of emerging and established independent local acts along side national and international independent music, comedy, film and art. 

Festival passes are available at the shop for $199 for the Discovery Pass, $349 for the Discovery Plus Pass and only $50 for All Ages Pass. Olympic Plaza Tickets are on sale for $45 at Ticketmaster and select retail outlets. A limited amount of Single Show Tickets are available at Prime Box Office. 

Sled Island Film is entering its fourth year! The film program runs before all of the great music from June 18 – 20, 2012. Admission is included with the Festival Discovery and Discovery Plus Pass, so be sure to pick your passes up early.

This year Sled Island Film presents a selection of music docs that explore the LA riots through Hip Hop, get to know Archers of Loaf up close and personal, explore the roots of the Vancouver punk scene (with a special guest panel discussion), and dig into the story of Toronto’s original Riot grrrls, Fifth Column. Sled Island Film 2012 feature documentary Just Like Being There exposes the rich and vibrant world of gig poster art and Lost and Sound shows you how passion for music transcends loss of hearing. Plus shorts, experimental feature The Great Northwest, and a late night outdoor Classic Film screening with CSIF to round out the film program at Sled Island 2012!

Explore all of this year's great films on the lineup page here.