The Arts and Crafts festival where Broken Social Scene and it’s many side projects would gather to play, which was eventually re-branded as Field Trip released their lineup yesterday. After last year’s two day party at Fort York that featured some of the best names playing in My Morning Jacket, Alabama Shakes, Father John Misty, The War on Drugs and a legacy set by De La Soul, expectations were obviously set pretty high.
The National received top billing showing their stature in the festival scene after taking a few years off. Singer Matt Berninger spent the break making an album with his new side project EL VY and toured a bit under that banner, but has stated that The National is hard at work on a new album as their last one, Trouble Will Find Me, came out way back in 2013. If you missed the bands free NXNE in 2013 this is a great opportunity to see them at a reasonable rate as weekend passes are only $125 pus taxes.
Also headlining is Robyn who after the huge success of her Body Talk EP series almost fell off the club pop throne she sat upon. She has since release two collaboration albums; one with Röyksopp in 2014 and one with La Bagatelle Magique last year neither or which got mainstream attention. The girl can outperform all of her pop contemporaries and her show should still be a treat. Really I am just using this space to plead with her to make another dance album, but Robyn does what she wants at the pace she wants so there is no use in begging.
The lineup is filled with Canadian bands, for two different reasons, the Canadian dollar is at an all time low and the Canuck acts are cheaper and because the fan base here will support our amazing artists. Once again the list of names is pretty diverse as Jazz Cartier continues to wrestle the Hip Hop market share away from Drake as he makes his ascent up the ranks of popularity; his recent sellout album release party at The Phoenix is proof of that. Alt Rockers July Talk hope to remind people that they can still push buttons in advance of their second album that should be coming out soon-ish. Electronica band Holy Fuck are an interesting choice for a festival that used to advertise itself as a family friendly event, but they make for a great addition to those that want to dance. Jason Collett represents the Broken Social Scene content for this year and Basia Bulat brings a touch of class and her indie cred to the lineup.
The festival gets even more diverse when you look at the other international acts booked. Weird psychedelic pop rockers of Montreal will bring out fans of bands like The Flaming Lips. Santigold, who after four years in finally releasing new music should get the crowd dancing as much as Robyn will. Charles Bradley continues to appear on every festival lineup over the past five years as he brings the soul that is not rampant enough in the world. DIIV is another band that took a really long time to release new music, and while Is the Is Are is a terrible album name hopefully they will finally break out like people thought they would after Oshin came out in 2012.
If you are a super fan of The National and are willing to dance around to Robyn, then this is a fantastic lineup for a great price. If you are only so-so about the headliners there really isn’t any act on here that can’t be seen for much cheaper prices. Setting the festival at Fort York is great, considering they cover even more ground than their TURF counterparts. If you aren’t hitting up Wayhome or any other large scale festival this summer you should really consider this one.
