SAPPYFEST 14 IN REVIEW: Love lift us up where we belong

Thank you for an amazing Sappyfest!!!

Sappyfest is what we make of it together. We all hold this up together - like a crowd surfer! It can seem so improbable, year after year. It can all feel so lucky, but it’s not luck, it’s the result of a lot of people saying yes to this idea, that we can come together and listen to each other, that we can gather here in this place, this beloved nowhere, and we can connect with each other, and we can connect with great and inspiring music and art and ideas. I am in the privileged position of hearing those yeses first hand, a beautiful, collective sound, like the singing of a choir!

An incredible and echoing thank you to everyone who volunteered with Sappyfest this year. Thank you for ensuring that the weekend ran smoothly and safely. Thank you for taking responsibility for making this peculiar swamp magic possible. Some of you worked far too hard. We see you and we love you and we thank you.

Thank you to the artists, musicians, and performers who come here, often for very little money, out of a belief in this project. We love your songs, your sounds, your ideas, your movement, your art. You challenge us and fortify us and inspire us.

Sappyfest is a not-for-profit, volunteer led organization. We operate without corporate investment or interests of any kind. We receive some financial support from public sources (more on this below), but rely to a great extent on ticket sales to fund this festival, to bring these artists here, to raise the stage. Thank you for buying passes, for buying Sappyfest t-shirts and hats, for buying your summer beverages in the beer tent. Money has no heart, but it’s still the necessary method of exchange in this world. Thank you to everyone who supports Sappyfest in this way!

Thank you to the The Town of Sackville for welcoming and supporting this event, here, in the very centre. Thank you to Struts Gallery & Faucet Media Arts Centre, Mount Allison University, Owens Art Gallery, and CHMA-FM 106.9 for your partnership and encouragement, and for your ongoing work in the cultural life of this place.

Thank you to the Black Duck Café for the festival office space and your fine strong coffee. Thank you to Terra Beata Cranberries for much needed infrastructure help and for adding a big white cube to the Sackville skyline. Thank you to Hounds Of Vintage and Payzant Home Hardware for your important and welcomed contributions to Sappyfest. Thank you to the Rotary Club of Sackville for their sponsorship of the Kids Corner Power Jam and their assistance in raising the next generation of artists and rockers.

Thank you to the Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des Arts du Canada, The Government of Canada, The Province of New Brunswick, and the Province of Quebec, for your support of Sappyfest. Art is the true measure of a place, and you have made this place and the people that have come here better through your support.

Sappyfest can feel like an impossible dream, but it’s a dream that we make happen together. It is an affirmation of connection, of group effort, of music and art. Thank you to everyone who holds Sappyfest up.

YES!

Photograph by Niko Stratis.

SAPPYFEST 14

Sappyfest poster art by Danika Vandersteen.

August 2-4. 2019, Sackville, NB

MORE NEWS FROM NOWHERE - SAPPYFEST 14 (NEARLY) COMPLETE LINEUP ANNOUCEMENTS!

It seems like we’re never quite finished! As some of our oldest, most inspirational and foundational friends return, as some new friends pay surprise and anticipated visits, we’re thrilled to welcome their legendary songs, their poetic wisdom, their story telling inventions, their sonic instigations, their musical deconstructions, their creative energy to the Sappyfest 14 program. We hope for Sappyfest to be a conversation between everyone willing to share this space in the spirit of goodwill and with open hearts, across disciplines, genres, and forms of expression. We hope you will join us!

SAPPYFEST 14
Allumette // Annick MacAskill // Apollo Ghosts // Aquakulture // Barnacle
Cursing & Swearing // Danika Vandersteen // Deliluh // Dog Island // Diamondtown
FET.NAT // Flour // Gianna Lauren // Haviah Mighty // Ian Roy // Janowskii
José Contreras // JOYFULTALK // Juice Girls // Julie Aubé // Julie Doiron // Kate Mildew
LAL // Lillia // Liz Brain x Doug // Lo Siento // Marilyn Lerch // Mauno // Motherhood
Nyssa // Papal Visit // Patrick Allaby // Positive Body Language // Short&Sweet
Shotgun Jimmie // Tim Baker // Tryal // WHOOP-Szo
The Weather Station // Yves Jarvis

SAPPYFEST 14 - CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

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!

SAPPY AGM - JUNE 12 2019!

***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!

SAPPYFEST 14 - FIRST LINE-UP ANNOUNCEMENT!

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 WEEKEND PASSES ARE AVAILABLE NOW!

SAPPYFEST 14 EARLY-BIRD PASSES ON SALE NOW!

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

Submissions open for Sappyfest 2019

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!

2018 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

**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

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.

SAPPYFEST 13 LINEUP GROWS!

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 - SECOND LINE-UP ANNOUNCEMENT!

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!

SAPPYFEST 13 - FIRST LINE-UP ANNOUNCEMENT!

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.

Weekend passes are available now!

Sappyfest 13 Early-Bird Weekend Passes

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!

Sappyfest 13 Early-Bird Weekend Passes Available Now!

Sappyfest 13: Call for Submissions

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

SAPPY ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING: NOV 29!

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!

Sappyfest 12 No Secrets T-shirt Sale!

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

CHARLES BRADLEY

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.