What: Longwoodstock featuring Daniel Wesley, WiL, Northcote, Illvis Freshly, Jon Middleton and more
When: Friday and Saturday
Where: Various venues, including Longwood Brewery, The Queen’s and Koncept Nightclub
Tickets: $13-$40 daily, or $55 for a two-day pass
Information: longwoodstock.com
Beer. Music. Food. There is no easier way to describe the offerings at this weekend’s Longwoodstock festival in Nanaimo.
It should be a winning formula. The second annual event hopes to double its attendance this year, following a break-out inaugural edition. In order to do so, organizers have added a second day of programming and nearly doubled the number of participating venues. Should the day and night programming reach capacity, there’s the possibility more than 800 attendees could sample Longwoodstock offerings this weekend.
“Every festival starts out small, like Rock the Shores or Rifflandia did, and then it grows,” said promoter Andrew Roberts of Got Pop? Concerts, which is producing Longwoodstock.
“We wanted to keep it small and easy enough for us to handle, and then if it grows and does well that’s awesome. The possibilities are endless, it just depends on the support.”
Longwoodstock features a strong roster of performers from B.C., headlined by Daniel Wesley of Vancouver. The contingent of acts from Vancouver Island is also impressive, with sets coming from WiL, Northcote, Illvis Freshly, Jon Middleton, Sirreal, the Leg-Up Program and the New Groovement, in addition to 10 others.
Roberts, who has been promoting shows in Nanaimo for 12 years, said the city has been buzzing with activity all summer, and has not yet dissipated.
The interest in a two-day indoor-outdoor event such as Longwoodstock is suitably strong heading into the weekend, he added.
“This year, it seems like there’s a festival every weekend, so there’s a lot of competition.
“But we’re hoping that we can get people to choose our festival over the Pemberton Festival or wherever else that requires them to spend a lot more money. They can stay in town [with us]. There’s no camping, but they can sleep in their own bed and come back the next day and see another show.”
Longwood Brewery on Boxwood Road will host the daytime activity on Saturday, followed by a series of after-parties at The Queen’s, Koncept Nightclub and the Longwood Brewpub on Turner Road. The Queen’s will be in operation as the lone venue on Friday night.
The programming schedule was a handful for Roberts, but he’s hopeful the mixture of venues and charity component of the event will coalesce into something special for the city.
“It’s really not about making money,” he said, adding that the Serauxmen Service Club of Nanaimo will receive the profits of this year’s event.
“We’re donating all the profits to the service club, who in turn go out and donate to local charities.”
Roberts is excited about what the future has in store — not only for Longwoodstock, but Nanaimo as a whole. The city is often overlooked on the festival landscape, in terms of attendees coming up from Victoria to, so he’s proud to be offering something by and for area residents.
“We just want it to be something that Nanaimo can have fun at once a year.”
