Wavelength Music warms up winter with the 17th annual Wavelength Music Festival running from February 17 to 19, 2017 in downtown Toronto, Canada. #WL17 is a three-night live curated mixtape of the best NEW independent music coming out of Canada. This year’s line-up includes TOPS, DIANA, Julie & the Wrong Guys, Phèdre, Fake Palms, Han Han, Vallens, Peeling, and many more.
One of Wavelength’s TWO annual music festivals in Toronto, in addition to August’s Camp Wavelength extravaganza on Toronto Island, #WL17 marks the 17th anniversary of the Wavelength Music Series. Every year, Wavelength’s winter festival programming is future-forward, a “live curated mixtape” line-up of the newest, freshest and most exciting sounds in the Canadian independent music scene. Highlights include female-fronted local heroes such as DIANA, Phèdre, Vallens, and Hush Pup, Canadian indie-music icon Julie Doiron leading hard-rock band the Wrong Guys, and buzzing Filipino-Canadian rapper Han Han, whose video World Gong Crazy recently blew up with over half a million views worldwide. Out-of-town visitors include Montreal soft-popsters TOPS, Baltimore-based ambient pop-head Fin, notorious Québecois art-punks Fet.Nat, Montreal mood-pop artist Helena Deland, and Hamilton conscious hip-hop artist, Emay.
All evening concerts will take place at The Garrison, 1197 Dundas Street West. Daytime programming will take place at venues within walking distance: Saturday afternoon (February 18) sees the launch of a new All-Ages concert series at the Monarch Tavern, co-presented with Exclaim! and Girls Rock Camp Toronto, featuring heavy, women-powered Toronto rock bands including Buzz Records’ Peeling and Weaves side project, Strands. On Sunday afternoon (February 19) at the Gladstone Hotel, Wavelength hosts its first-ever “Drone Brunch” – a free concert featuring live drone music performed while brunch is served in the venue’s Melody Bar – followed by a collaborative “Wikipedia Jam,” led by blogger Joe Strutt of Mechanical Forest Sound, in which participants fill in the gaps of online documentation of Toronto music history.
Single tickets are affordably priced, ranging from $7-10 in advance, and an all access festival pass is on sale for $26. Tickets and passes will be available online at TicketFly.com and in stores in Toronto at Rotate This (801 Queen Street West, Toronto) and Soundscapes (572 College Street, Toronto). The opening night concert (February 17) is presented by Red Bull Sound Select – the global emerging artist platform, for which Wavelength is a Canadian curator – and admission is just $3 with an RSVP.
#WL17 Festival Schedule
Friday February 17 @ The Garrison (1197 Dundas St. W.)
Red Bull Sound Select presents:
TOPS (Montreal / Soft-rock sensations / Arbutus Records)
DIANA (Toronto / Electro-soul juggernaut / Culvert Music)
Vallens (Toronto / Shoegazey mood-rockers / Hand Drawn Dracula)
Chandra (Maine + Toronto / Former post-punk child star, now backed up by T.O. weird-rock all-stars)
+ DJ JD
7:30pm • $3 with RSVP / $10 without • 19+
RSVP link: https://www.redbullsoundselect.com/events/2017/02/red-bull-sound-select-presents-toronto
Saturday February 18 @ Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton St.)
Exclaim! & Girls Rock Camp Toronto co-present: An All Ages Matinee
Peeling (Toronto / Stylishly pummeling noise-rock / Buzz Records)
WLMRT (Toronto / Punk rock that hasn’t lost its sense of humour)
Strands (Toronto / Jasmyn Burke from Weaves pulls out some A/V weirdness)
Denim Roses (Toronto / Girls Rock Camp graduates)
+ DJ Mar Sellars
2:30pm • $6.99 adv / $10 door • ALL AGES
Ticket link: https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1412385
Saturday February 18 @ The Garrison (1197 Dundas St. W.)
Julie & The Wrong Guys (Sackville NB + Winnipeg + Toronto / Canadian indie vet Julie Doiron rocks out w/ Eamon McGrath & members of Cancer Bats)
Fake Palms (Toronto / Heavy space-rock vibez / Buzz Records)
Fet.Nat (Hull QC / Québecois jazz-punk art attack)
Whoop-Szo (London ON / Ontario stoner-rock anthems)
Helena Deland (Montreal / Entrancing mood-pop)
+ DJ Alpha Strategy – Co-presented with Gladeye & Kazoo! Fest
7:30pm • $9.99 adv / $15 door • 19+
Ticket link: https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1412374
Sunday February 19 @ Gladstone Hotel Melody Bar (1214 Queen St. W.)\
“Drone Brunch” – co-presented with Mechanical Forest Sound:
North Atlantic Drift (Toronto / Lush ambient soundscapes)
Kat Estacio (Toronto / Kulintang gong flow / member of Pantayo)
12:00pm • FREE • ALL AGES
Followed by: Toronto Music “Wikipedia Jam” @ 3:00pm
Sunday February 19 @ The Garrison (1197 Dundas St. W.)
Phèdre (Toronto / Electro-pop decadence / Daps Records)
Han Han x Hataw (Toronto / Filipino-Canadian hip-hop/dance/rock revolution)
Emay (Hamilton / Jazzy conscious hip-hop)
Fin (Baltimore + Toronto / Experimental ambient pop / Hoss Records)
Hush Pup (Toronto + Victoria BC / Pacific dream pop / video release!)
+ DJ Bad Plastics – Co-presented with Silent Shout
7:30pm • $9.99 adv / $15 door • 19+
Ticket link: https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1412376
ALL-ACCESS FESTIVAL PASS $25.99 (guaranteed admission to all shows including Red Bull Sound Select)
Ticket link: https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1412403
Advance ticket outlets:
Rotate This (801 Queen St. W.)
Soundscapes (572 College St.)
Ticketfly.com (online retailer)
More about Wavelength Music? Toronto’s original independent music community hub, Wavelength is a non-profit arts organization renowned for its curatorial foresight and championing of a diverse array of emerging artists. In 2015, Wavelength launched its new Camp Wavelength festival of overnight camping and multi-arts on Toronto Island – which was lauded as one of Toronto’s best festivals of the year by local media. Wavelength was recognized with a nomination for Torontoist’s “Heroes” list for that year, with the publication stating: “It’s hard to imagine what Toronto’s music scene would look like without Wavelength’s influence.” In 2016, Wavelength’s co-founder and Artistic Director Jonny Dovercourt was recognized as a “Local Hero” by NOW Magazine.
Wavelength Music Festival 17 is supported by the Ontario Music Fund, Ontario Arts Council, FACTOR, Red Bull Sound Select, Toronto Arts Council, Department of Canadian Heritage, Exclaim! And Steam Whistle Brewing.
For more information about the Wavelength Music Festival 2017, visit wavelengthmusic.ca.
