INFINITE VARIETY - LINE-UP ANNOUNCEMENT!

We’re throwing our hopes and dreams into the spectacular infinity of the unknown! ALL TOGETHER NOW!

SAPPYFEST: Infinite Variety is a 26hr online broadcast of music, art, film, poetry, storytelling, workshopping, cooking, pets, puppets, plant care, yoga, costumes, and much much more. Part music and art festival, part online party, part amateur television studio, part community celebration, part love letter, part postcard from home, part sleep deprivation experiment, INFINITE VARIETY will be broadcast out from Struts Gallery to all of you everywhere from 8pm on Friday July 30 straight through until 10pm on Saturday July 31st. (Details on where to tune into the stream coming soon!).

Performers at SAPPYFEST: INFINITE VARIETY include (watch this space as it keeps growing like a garden!)

AMY SIEGEL / ARIEL SHARRATT & MATHIAS KOM / ERIN BARDUA / BLACK DIMES / BRANDON HICKS / BRIAN NEILSON / BUCKY BUCKLER / CAGED ANIMALS / CENTURY EGG / CHRIS MEANEY / CLUTTERED / ELM & AMPERSAND / G.L.A.M. BATS / MARILYN LERCH & GEORDIE MILLER / IZZY FRANCOLINI & DESDEMONA SHAW / JERRY ROPSON / JESKA GRUE / JOHN KILPATRICK / JON MCKIEL / JULIE DOIRON / KLARKA WEINWURM / LAURA WATSON / LUCY KOSHAN / MARISSA SEAN CRUZ / OLIVIA MCNAIR / PHIL MERCIER / RACHEL M THORNTON / REBECCA BLANKERT / SARAH WENDT & PASCAL DUFAUX / THEO CROCKER / WANDARIAN / TORI WELDON / WOLF CASTLE

++++ MANY MORE!!!!

Please note: Sappyfest: Infinite Variety will exist only in the time of it’s happening and the show will not be able to be accessed after that moment has passed.

Infinite thanks to our partners at Struts Gallery & Faucet Media Arts Centre, as well as The Canada Council for the Arts, The Government Of Canada, and the Town of Sackville.

SAPPYFEST: INFINITE VARIETY

Dearest Sappy friends! Oh my how we miss you! These have been long months of isolation and separation. And while the days of communal gatherings, under a big tent, basking in music and art, look to be returning, we have for this summer simply run out of time. Sappyfest 16 will not be an outdoor festival, will not be a large, live music gathering.

But all is not lost!!! We have always said that Sappyfest is what we make of it together. It is the magic creation of those who come here, it is your unique personalities and interactions and relationships that make it what it is; your kindness, your efforts, your talents, your genius, that makes the magic in the place. That’s the secret! That’s it! That’s the swamp magic!

And so this is a call! We want your participation in the creation of Sappyfest: Infinite Variety!

Sappyfest: Infinite Variety will be just that - a variety show of infinite possibilities, inspired by cable access telethons and the spirit of community presentation. It is every good and hopeful idea we can squeeze into a full 26 hour online broadcast. Infinite Variety will be performed live at Struts Gallery in Sackville, NB from the evening of Friday July 30th through the evening of Saturday July 31st and streamed out to a worldwide audience on the Sappyfest web channels. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be strange. It’s going to be Sappy.

So:

Artists! Poets! Musicians! Dancers! Cooks! Thinkers and Scholars, Magicians and Acrobats, Creative Presenters – we're looking for your participation in Infinite Variety! Maybe you have a performance, reading, chat show, workshop, scientific demonstration, cooking show, comedy routine, or unexpected prowess or skill you'd like to present? We’d love to hear your ideas! Have fun, be serious, get real. The application form is linked here: https://forms.gle/eqPRP2oQu8Cs63tw5. It’s short and easy and we can’t wait to here from you!

We hope that Sappyfest: Infinite Variety can be a reestablishing of connections and a reaffirmation of a shared sense of place through the creation of a collaborative project - LET’S WORK TOGETHER AND PUT ON A SHOW!

Infinite thanks to Struts Gallery & Faucet Media Arts Centre our partner in the production of Infinite Variety.

—————

All public health guidelines will be followed in the creation and presentation of Sappyfest: Infinite Variety. There will be no live audience and the on-site crew will be following all COVID safety protocols.

Sappyfest and Struts Gallery are committed to diversity and inclusiveness. We encourage applications from candidates who are members of racialized communities, women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, persons of minority sexual orientations and gender identities, and others with the skills and knowledge to productively engage within diverse communities.

SAPPY AGM - SEPT 29 2020!

SappyFest Inc. would like to invite its membership and those interested in becoming members to the 2020 Annual General Meeting on the worldwide web via Zoom on Tuesday, September 29th at 7 PM AST. To RSVP and receive Zoom meeting ID / passcode email producer@sappyfest.com ahead of the meeting. 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. Voting in elections to the SappyFest Board of Directors requires a $20 voting membership, e-transfers accepted.

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 2019 Financial statements.
-- President of the Board of Directors statement.
-- Creative Director's statement.
-- Questions from the floor.

Hope to see you all there!

SAPPYFEST NEAR AND FAR

“Loud music playing people gathered in a big white tent then the sun shinning bright….”

It’s all going to be a little different this year! In place of our usual happy gathering in the heart of the heart of Sackville NB, Sappyfest will present artist projects, online performances, publications, conversations, radio broadcasts, and a whole lot of missing you.

Stay tuned for all the particular details as we try (as ever) to create a platform for excellent art, a space for connections and surprises, a chance for collective dreaming, and a little bit of swamp magic.

Sappyfest presents near and far, more or less between July 29 and August 1

Featuring:
Ariel Sharratt and Mathias Kom
Egyptian Cotton Arkestra
Hélène Barbier
Jennah Barry
Jon Mckiel
Julie Doiron
Klarkam Weinwurm
Kwento
Lavender Bruises
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Lido Pimienta
USSE
Wares

Artwork by Della and Theo Crocker
Machine For Really Real Imaginaries
URL: UnRealLife Initiative

15 Dreams by Amy Seigel, Bart Vautour, Colleen Collins, Emma Healey, Geordie Miller, Kate Miller, Kawama Kasutu, Laura Watson, Marilyn Lerch, Patrick Allaby, Rachel Thornton, Rebecca Roher, Steven Lambke and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and Sue Goyette

---
We would like to acknowledge the support of The Canada Council for the Arts, The Department of Canadian Heritage, and the Town of Sackville.
—-

PS - "The drawing is about a flying cat with a forest/world growing on it's back with a population of children that hatch out of eggs which are included in the drawing" - Della

A STATEMENT FROM SAPPYFEST ORGANIZERS

We believe that Sappyfest is what all of its participants, artists, volunteers and audience, have made of it together, each year; that the best of this has been in the face-to-face encounters and discussions and shared presence of all who attend. We have prioritized artist and community interaction ahead of drawing attention to ourselves as an organization.

But the time for a clarifying statement of our intentions and beliefs is now.

We witness the ongoing reality and injustice of anti-Black racism and the ongoing criminality of genocidal colonialism in this country. We recognize the corrosive effect of misogyny and trans- and queer-phobia. We live with governments that promote and enable endless resource extraction and environmental destruction.

This is the context in which we exist and in which we work. Against this, we, as a grassroots arts organization, hold the idea that art can be a powerful tool in the fight for justice and a powerful way of imagining better worlds.

Sappyfest is a not-for-profit organization led by a volunteer board of directors. In a normal year the festival is organized by a seasonally contracted Creative Director, and 1- to 2- paid student summer internships. These contracts have been significantly reduced in response to the cancellation of our regular physical gathering, and we are organizing our Plan B "virtual" festival with an even greater reliance on volunteer effort. From here on, we will continuously seek opportunities to improve our models of operational transparency with the hope that this transparency will help in the dismantling of structures of gate-keeping and white supremacy within the arts.

We believe in art and music as a medium for knowledge sharing, protest, healing and celebration and remain committed to presenting and supporting art made from a diversity of traditions, discipline and experience.

---

We wish to offer our support and solidarity to those on the front lines, protesting and fighting for justice within their communities. The following list includes links to anti-rascism organizations working here in New Brunswick. This is simultaneously a local, a national, and an international struggle and we encourage you to seek out organizations in your own communities for support.

New Brunswick Black History Society

Black Lives Matter - Fredericton/New Brunswick

Black Lives Matter - Saint John/New Brunswick

No One Is Illegal - Fredericton

New Brunswick African Association

SAPPY FOREVER

For 14 consecutive years, Sappyfest has been held, here in the heart of the heart of the heart of the maritimes, in the hot heart of summer, on the August long weekend in beautiful Sackville NB. It is with a certain sorrow that we have to acknowledge that even impossible dreams sometimes meet impossible realities. The ongoing public health situation will prevent us from hosting Sappyfest, as we’ve come to know it and love it, this summer.

So many of you have gathered here, from near and far, year after year, and given your kindness and your generosity and your genius to make Sappyfest what it is. Please know we miss you dearly and true, and look forward to a time when circumstances may be more lenient and allow us to welcome each other, face to face.

For those of you who trusted us enough to purchase an early-bird ticket for this year, we thank you, foreverly, and will be in touch to work out the details of your refund.

While we cannot meet this year in person under Sackville’s magic summer sky, all is not lost. The Sappyfest spirit remains strong. Swamp magic still rises unexpectedly, and our dreams and goals remain the same: to foster connections, collaborations, and encounters; to celebrate and present great art and music; to work together to make something surprising and kind and hope filled.

Sappyfest will manifest this summer, at more or less the appointed time, in a new way. More on this soon.

With love, sappiness, and good dreams,
Team Sappy

“LOVE IS A SONG” project by Andrew Maize, Amy Seigel, and Paul Henderson. Photo by Corey Isenor.

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!