Three is the new number for Riverfest Elora, with 2015 marking the introduction of a third festival day and a third stage.
The weekend-long music festival has upped the ante in its seventh year, introducing Sunday performances and a third smaller, more intimate stage.
The festival will take place at Bissell Park in Elora from Aug. 14 to 16 and organizers expect to sell out the 6,000 capacity on Saturday and be close to capacity on Friday and Sunday.
“Our ticket sales are right on par with what was happening last year so we expect that by Saturday we will be sold out,” said Riverfest Elora director Shawn Watters.
The third stage (dubbed the Dine Alone X Roots – Wax On Wheels Stage) will feature more intimate performances, he said. However, that doesn’t mean big name musicians will be excluded.
“Though we have Tokyo Police Club playing on the main stage, Dave Monks, who’s the lead singer for Tokyo Police Club, is going to be playing on that small stage doing sort of an acoustic (set),” Watters explained.
The smaller setting gives artists a chance to do workshopping with the audience on the stage, Watters said.
Another big name performing on the stage will be Tim Kingsbury from Arcade Fire.
“In some ways it’s kind of cool to have these artists who play in stadium environments and then play on this really intimate stage,” Watters said.
The new stage will also feature more local talent, Watters said. Because it was announced after the main lineup had been set, it gave the festival the opportunity to approach artists from the Fergus, Elora and Guelph areas to perform.
The stage will also provide some entertainment just for the kids.
“The Funky Mammas are going to play at that and some of our artists who are playing on the larger stage are going to do a children’s set,” Watters explained
Riverfest Elora is also introducing its first ever after-parties series.
Festival-goers can purchase an additional wristband for $10 for exclusive access to six downtown Elora venues to visit after the main Riverfest lineup is done for the day.
Participating businesses include The Elora Legion, The Elora Brewing Company, Shepherd’s Pub, The Metcalfe, The Creparie and Wreckless Eric’s.
“So what we’re doing is on the Friday and the Saturday night … from around 10 o’clock, 11 o’clock at night those musical acts will be playing,” Watters explained.
“So once you leave … Riverfest the festival you can go downtown, and they’re ticketed … so you’d get a wristband at the festival and then you can sort of go from site to site.”
Despite all of the new and exciting additions, Riverfest Elora has stayed true to tradition, producing an exciting lineup of over 50 bands.
The the main stage lineup begins on Friday with Lighthouse taking the stage around 6:30pm and Sam Roberts Band closing the show from 9:30 to 11pm.
Saturday closes with Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea at 7:45pm, The New Pornographers at 9:15pm and Metric from 10:45pm to midnight.
“Metric is a massive act,” Waters said.
“They don’t usually do these types of festivals … they’re basically a stadium artist so to have them coming to Elora is a pretty big deal.”
The weekend will round out with Bruce Cockburn closing the festival from 8 to 9:30pm on Sunday.
Watters said the lineup this year is very accessible for people of all ages and musical tastes.
“When we’re putting these lineups together we’re really thinking hard about these lineups and we want to make the lineups accessible by many age groups,” he said.
“And we knew that in this community and Fergus and Elora that bands like Sam Roberts, Lighthouse, Sarah Harmer and Alan Doyle were going to be big draws because they’re just the type of music people like in this community.”
The event is fully accessible with free water available and guests are welcome to bring lawn chairs.
Three-day weekend passes cost $140 plus tax and fees, while day passes are $60 for Friday, $80 for Saturday and $60 for Sunday.
For more information visit http://riverfestelora.com.
