Lovefest, the annual music festival on Cortes, will feature major acts this year, with more regional and international artists in the lineup.

The headliner Adonis Puentes, a Grammy and Juno nominated Cuban-Canadian artist, is new to Cortes. Marianne Grittani is included in the lineup, along with Josephine Simpson and Healther Wolf. A local, regional favorite will also be featured at Lovefest: Willow from Quadra Island.

Rex Weyler, one of the founders of Lovefest, explained the intentions for this year’s festival.

“It's extra special this year- we put a little more effort and resources into bringing in some better bands,” Weyler said.

He said one of the intention is to stay true to the local favorites and to pay the artists.

“We always use as many local acts as we can fit in, and everybody gets paid and it's a good setup," he added.

The festival organizers are also extending the acts this year.

“This year we've tried to extend the length of the sets a little bit so that we …have some special acts from off island who wanna play a little longer, wanna be heard a little longer. It's a little different in the programming,” Weyler said.

Lovefest originally began in 2017 as “50 Summers of Love,” an ode to the 50th anniversary of 1967’s "Summer of Love." The event was also inspired by previous festivals on Cortes Island hosted at Hollyhock, the Cortes Natural Food Coop grounds, and Trude’s Cafe.

In 2017, the festival offered 10 hours of live music, food and art vendors, a kids zone, and a Bob Dylan contest which Dylan Stone won. Stone will return to the Lovefest stage this year with Unfaithful Servants. Juno winners Pierre Schryer and Adam Dobres will also be returning from last year’s festival.

To hear more about this year’s Lovefest, local music festival listen to the CKTZ News Update below: