What: Phillips Backyard Weekender, featuring Cake, Current Swell, Junior Reid, Common Kings and more
When: Friday (4 p.m.-10 p.m.), Saturday听(1 p.m.-10 p.m.) and Sunday (noon-9 p.m.)
Where: Phillips Brewing & Malting Co., 2010 Government St.
Tickets: $34.50 (Friday), $46.50 Saturday), $42.50 (Sunday) or $105 (for a weekend pass) at ticketfly.com or Phillips Brewery
Information: backyardweekender.com
听
The Phillips Backyard Weekender鈥檚 philosophy is based on a听universal music-festival truth: If听you book quality bands from stem to stern, regardless of genre, audiences will come out. All killer, no filler is the general idea.
鈥淭he headliners you end up with, you want to build around that, but it doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean the whole day is going to turn into reggae day or hip-hop day or roots-rock day,鈥� said event co-producer Dimitri Demers of Atomique Productions.
鈥淵ou need to keep things moving and changing and come up with artists which are complementary to each other, not just the听same as each other. We鈥檙e not听a genre-based festival 鈥� we鈥檙e听simply a festival.鈥�
Since its inception five years ago, the Weekender has grown into one of the city鈥檚 most dependable outdoor music events. The three-day event in the back lot of听Phillips Brewing & Malting Co.听on Government Street has steadily grown its profile, tinkering with themes and up-and-coming acts before settling on a concept that checks several stylistic boxes. This year鈥檚 edition welcomes alt-rockers Cake, roots-rockers Current Swell and reggae act Common Kings beginning Friday, the first of three eclectic days of programming.
Demers has also booked several standouts that may be off the radar for some. That鈥檚 part of the appeal, he said. 鈥淚 like unique acts. I don鈥檛 want the Weekender to feel听like it鈥檚 the same festival as all the听others this summer. We dig听for听the deep cuts.鈥�
Notables include The One and听Only PPL MVR, a group of听Los Angelinos who perform dressed as yetis; Mariachi Flor De听Toloache, an all-woman mariachi group from New York; and Common Kings, a California reggae band whose members have roots in Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji and Tonga.
Jamaica reggae favourite Junior Reid is perhaps the festival鈥檚 biggest coup, however.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a rare thing to get him out,鈥� Demers said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 only so many reggae legends left touring these days, so you鈥檝e got to enjoy it when it happens.鈥�
The festival has come a long way since its first edition, which came about somewhat by accident, Demers said. His event-production company, which produces the annual Rifflandia festival, had been offered a date for Australian group The Cat Empire. Atomique needed a venue bigger than a nightclub, so Demers called on the brewery.
鈥淚t is a ton of work to set Phillips up for just one day, so I听called De La Soul and got them to come out, too. It turned out The Dirty Heads wanted to play the same date in Victoria, so we had a听festival.鈥�
The Weekender would be almost unrecognizable to those groups today. Friday marks the unveiling of The Picnic-er, to be held behind the brewery on Discovery Street, where surf shop and clothing store ANI脕N is located. Food trucks and picnic-table seating 鈥� in addition to a stage showcasing 16 local acts over three days 鈥� will give fans a听place to relax away from the main stage inside the Phillips Brewing & Malting Co. gates. All told, the festival site will be activated for an average of eight hours per day through the weekend.
鈥淚t鈥檚 similar to what we did with Electric Avenue [for the Rifflandia festival], but not quite the massive scale,鈥� Demers said of the area on Discovery Street, which will be closed to vehicle traffic.
鈥淭he feedback we received, if听there was one thing people really hoped would improve over听the years was to give them somewhere to sit and chill. [The Picnic-er] is where you can go and have a bite, have a beer and chill out for a little bit.鈥�
The site, which has a capacity of 3,000, has been expanded this year to allow for both The Picnic-er and other improvements, the latest in a steady string of tweaks designed to make the Weekender better and the site more suitable for audiences.
鈥淭here鈥檚 plenty of room on the site overall,鈥� Demers said. 鈥淭he site has steadily expanded. Some of that had to do with the need for capacity, but a lot of it has to do with comfort. You don鈥檛 want to feel hemmed in everywhere.鈥�