What: Song and Surf Festival, featuring Band of Rascals, The Pack A.D., Bear Witness, K+Lab, JP Maurice and more
Where: Port Renfrew, various venues
When: Friday, Feb. 9, through Sunday, Feb. 11
Tickets: Sold out
Information: songandsurf.com
Those planning to attend this weekend’s Port Renfrew’s Song and Surf Festival don’t just have to keep track of who is playing when. At this time of year, they also need to study weather forecasts and tide charts, since many festivalgoers camp and surf during the four-day festival.
“You see it when the forecast is a good one — people are out on the beaches, people are out surfing,” said Mike Hann, director of the wintertime counterpart of Tall Tree, the popular summer Port Renfrew festival. “It’s a celebration of the area, really. The music is the cherry on top.”
Song and Surf, which is already sold out, differs from Tall Tree — which is held on a mountain and thus requires on-site camping — in several ways.
At Song and Surf, attendees, who primarily stay at nearby campgrounds and cottages, travel between town and the nearby site to take in the programming. Some bring RVs and make their own community outside the festival gates.
That’s a far cry from Song and Surf’s inaugural edition, Hann said. “I remember the early days, struggling to get people out there. When Song and Surf started, there was nothing going on in Port Renfrew at that time of year.
“There was no shoulder season, no winter accommodations. Nothing. As the years have gone on, Port Renfrew has developed as well, and is now able to house more people and add more restaurants. The event has grown along with that, to the place we are at now.”
The festival enters its 10th year this weekend arguably at its peak. Tickets sold out in 48 hours in October, its quickest sales-pace to date. “Accommodations in town sold out even before we announced the lineup, which has never happened before,” Hann said.
A range of electronic, rock and acoustic acts, including Band of Rascals, The Pack A.D., Bear Witness, K+Lab, and JP Maurice, plus more than a dozen others, will perform on three stages through the weekend.
During its early incarnations, the festival booked mostly up-and-coming acts. A huge part of its ongoing appeal stems from the fact that producers booked acts before they broke, from the Funk Hunters and the Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer to Current Swell.
“Just looking at some of the artists that have come through in their earlier stages, and what they’ve gone on to accomplish, has been pretty cool to see,” Hann said.
Set times are scheduled to allow for maximum flexibility, and take into account festivalgoers’ desire to take in both Port Renfrew and the festival. Hann, who also produces Tall Tree, enjoys what the down-tempo daytime schedule offers the musicians as well as the audience.
“The acoustic acts, in today’s festival landscape, don’t often have the opportunity to perform in these kinds of settings. There’s an opportunity for people to actually listen to music in a setting that’s quiet and respectful, and for those artists to play in that environment as well.”
The festival environment around B.C. has taken some hits in recent years. Some of the bigger ones near Vancouver (Pemberton, Squamish) have shuttered for good, while two prominent Vancouver Island events (Rock the Shores, Tall Tree) will return this year after one-year breaks.
Hann said he has been asked repeatedly if producers could expand the festival from its current capacity of a few hundred to something much bigger, in order to meet demand.
But Hann and his team are hesitant to do so, for fear of messing with a good thing.
“We’re not looking to grow it. We want to keep it the same and true to its roots. If it’s successful, why would we change it?”
The celebratory atmosphere of Song and Surf is something Hann likens to the Sourdough Rendez- vous, the annual Yukon event at which residents who’ve hunkered down for the winter “come out of the woodwork and totally cut loose” in late February.
“Song and Surf kind of has that vibe,” Hann said. “Things are starting to change, days are getting longer, and people want to get out and celebrate. It has taken on that life.”
