V.I.C. Fest 2012. Yeah. YEEEEAHHH. If you thought a little rain would dampen the spirits of the hearty Islanders (and us ill-outfitted Vancouver-ites), you’d be dead wrong. If you thought the beer and wine aided in the f-ck it feelgood movement, you’d be absolutely correct.
After being really impressed at last year’s inaugural fest, Jay Haddow (photo extraordinaire), Nuv (beard extraordinaire) and I once again made the trek to see what an island of mighty creative people can pull together in a day. Set on the movie set-esque grounds of a private girl’s school, the festival was an open sprawl of constant music, food, drink, merch, kids crafts, face painting, films, grass, trees with a generous amount of rain cover, Grade-A people watching and the sickest interactive art ever.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Etc.
The art collective Wolf/Sheep Art House must have been kinda bummed that the wet kinda took away from their epic video game-inspired installation (including, might I add, LIVE. MOTHER. F-CKING. DUCK. HUNT.), but we were still mightily impressed by their 8-bit hustle.
Lightning-Strike-Power Envy!
Milling about while the sky finally smartened up, the smell of the waffles from Wannawafel was almost cruelly taunting. The rest of the food area was well curated with some tight choices ranging from pig poutine, Mexican extravangaza (gluten free!), sandwiches stuffed with local ingredients and thin crust pizza pulled from a wood fire oven. I ate some really great gluten free soft tacos and watched Nuv eat a waffle with lighting-strike-power envy. We left the food area sated with guts a sloshin’.
The booze – unlike the rain a liquid that was well appreciated (and a necessary element for a festive festival) – was excellent too. There were tons of Island brewed offerings, but my favourite, as you may have suspected was the ciders I could actually drink. The Rumrunner by Sea Cider was my inaugural drink of the festival and it settled in my belly like a warm fizzy hug. Later I double-fisted the red & yellow (too technical?) versions of Merridale Cider. They were both deeply delicious and the only bad thing I can say about my beautiful beverages was that they made me have to use the Port-A-Potties – God’s way of testing how well you can breathe through your nose.
For the musical part of the day – the sweet soundtrack to a day that eventually saw slivers of sunshine show up even thought we may have been too sloshed to notice/care – I’ll break it down like this.
Most Alliterate Songster
Vince Vaccaro, the sultan of smooth
Cutest Haircut
The keyboardist/vocalist Laura Smith from Rococode
Craziest Mashup of Sounds Ever
Kytami and her high energy electric violin over top of electronic beats.
Best Plaid-Clad Hair Whippers
Current Swell, the last act of the night. The crowd was swollen (nyuk nyuk) with love for these guys, who rocked out and finished off the day with a long slow bang as the sky faded to purple.
As we stumbled off the grounds, the air was sweet with boozy burps, yells, hoots & hugs amongst new friends. Thank you V.I.C. Fest – if you throw another party next year, count us IN.
PS – For sh-ts & giggles we asked some fine festival folks if they wanted to be famous for one second. Here’s what we got. One.
