Festival Spotlight: Shambhala

Shambhala Music Festival | August 8th-13th, 2012

Shambhala Music Festival is easily one of the most amazing, fantastic, sophisticated, diverse, fulfilling, depleting, enriching, collaborative and inspiring gatherings one might ever hope to attend. As with, I expect, any gathering of this size – there are things that are predictable and things that aren’t. On the side of predictable – while, there’s a bunch of different stages to get your dance on, and you can easily find a zone that fits your inner groove – at any moment you can go hard, be social, drift away or disappear entirely. There’s tons of amazing vendors to peruse, plenty of which are amazing BC craftspeople & artists sharing their magic with us! Be sure to explore them – and if you feel so inclined, ask if they need an iced tea or something – many get stuck to their tents for far too long! Also predictable – wind, rain, sun, mud, dust, heat & cold. Be prepared for all of them!

As for the unpredictable, well, there’s no point in trying to make something up to communicate the sorts of scenarios that may arise.. but in my years I’ve had a lightning bolt hit my friend’s car, there was the naked man climbing the speaker tower during Bassnectar’s set in the Village, the adventure with a friend to photo shoot every stage in 30 minutes, there was the not-so-great green river incident, amazing unexpected rendezvous & hangouts with Luciterra, DubFX, Gaudi, Mr.Rogers, Beardyman… and obviously, tons of surprise performances that just blow your mind.

Ultimately, Shambhala may say it best: ‘This is Canada’s premiere Electronic Music Festival. Cutting edge Talent, Lights and Sound come together in Paradise to give life to a non -sponsored family run anomaly. Seeing it for yourself is the only way to understand exactly what is Shambhala.’

Through the last couple years I have had the pleasure of being part of the Shambhala Media Team, and have captured a number of amazing performances there. Until your next visit to Shambhala, here’s some links to some of my Youtube videos to tide you over!!

For the Love of Water (green river incident, Shambhala 2010)
Lynx Beatbox (Living Room, Shambhala 2010)
Gaudi Grooves (Living Room, Shambhala 2010)
Beardyman Invades The Funginears (Living Room, Shambhala 2010)

And one of my favorites…