The pilons will go up this evening for a planned closure of Bridge Street between Lorne and Main Street to prepare for the return of Sappyfest to downtown Sackville.
CHMA spoke with Sappyfest volunteer, board member and past chair Jeska Grue about what’s in store for the weekend-long music and art festival.
Grue says the large tent that serves at the main stage for the festival goes up Thursday night, and set up will continue on Friday. The first mainstage show is Friday night with Julie Doiron, Kelly McMichael, Tough Age, and Hot Garbage.
Shows will also take place at the Sackville Legion, Ducky’s, the Vogue Cinema and the Mount Allison Chapel. Struts Gallery is also a focal point with art on exhibition, an artist panel discussion, and local busking favourite Harris McSheffery performing at the weekly Friday BBQ.
Struts is also hosting the Phonoautomat on Saturday afternoon, billed as “a miniature, instant recording booth where you can record up to five minutes of anything you like and walk away with physical copies on cassette to share with friends and family.”
The shows and events run through to Sunday night, when the festival wraps. Scroll down for the full schedule listing (subject to change) or check out sappyfest.com.
Grue says she expects several hundred attendees this year.
“It may be a little bit smaller than our last in-person festival,” says Grue. “People have a lot of commitments this summer and a lot of traveling going on, but we will have quite a few people around.”
The festival board decided to go with a mask mandate for all their venues this year, and are asking concertgoers to sport N95 or KN95 masks while at the shows, except while eating and drinking.
The Sappy schedule features some surprise or secret shows, and Grue says she is particularly looking forward to a Saturday night show at Ducky’s. The schedule hints at the artist or artists, simply as rhyming with “boy gull squawk.”
“If you figure it out, or if you don’t figure it out,” says Grue, “it will be worth your while.”
Grue also mentions a vendor’s market happening on Bridge Street near Main which is running during the daytime, and open to anyone. “There’ll be crafts, there’ll be food,” says Grue. “So check that out.”
Sappyfest runs with the help of over 100 local volunteers, says Grue, who help out with everything from working the Bridge Street tent bar, to selling Sappyfest merch as well as band merch from visiting artists.
Here’s the full schedule as posted by the festival on Wednesday, with the caveat that things are subject to change. For the most up to date information, see sappyfest.com.
SAPPYFEST 17 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
FRIDAY, JULY 29
STRUTS GALLERY (on view all weekend 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM)
Kim Edgar – Altar to the Threshold
Lee Henderson – A Mortician Walks Into a Bar
Sook-Yin Lee & Dylan Gamble – DEATH AND SICKNESS + WHO CARES?
ROD ALLEN CO. PARKING LOT (STRUTS GALLERY) (12:00 PM – 1:00 PM)
Harris McSheffery
BRIDGE STREET STAGE (7:00 PM – 12:00 AM)
Julie Doiron Kelly McMichael Tough Age
Hot Garbage
LEGION (12:00 AM – 2:00 AM)
Weird Lines Apollo Ghosts
SATURDAY, JULY 30
ROD ALLEN CO. PARKING LOT (STRUTS GALLERY) (10:00 AM – 2:00 PM)
Phonoautomat
LEGION (DOWNSTAIRS) (10:30 AM – 12:00 PM)
Panel Discussion: Co-Creating Care: Accessibility, Safety, and Wellbeing in the Arts
LEGION (UPSTAIRS) (12:00 PM – 4:00 PM)
Zine & Craft Fair
BRIDGE STREET STAGE (1:00 PM – 5:00 PM)
Steven Lambke Cedric Noel Weary
Jon McKiel
VOGUE CINEMA (5:00 PM – 7:00 PM)
Jake Nicoll
Michael C. Duguay feat. New Hermitage & Joyful Joyful
BRIDGE STREET STAGE (7:00 PM – 12:00 AM)
Colleen Coco Collins Ami Dang
Sook-Yin Lee Kierrah
Wolf Castle
LEGION (12:00 AM – 2:00 AM)
Karaoke
DUCKY’S (12:00 AM – 2:00 AM)
SURPRISE SHOW! RHYMES WITH BOY GULL SQUAWK! Last one there is a rotten but jubilant egg!
SUNDAY, JULY 31
ROD ALLEN CO. PARKING LOT (STRUTS GALLERY) (10:00 AM – 2:00 PM)
Phonoautomat
VOGUE CINEMA (11:30 AM – 2:30 PM)
WHO CARES? (35 min)
DEATH AND SICKNESS (80 min)
Q&A with Filmmakers Sook-Yin Lee & Dylan Gamble
OWENS ART GALLERY (1:00 PM – 4:00 PM)
Do it Together: Mini-Zines and Mighty Buttons Workshop
BRIDGE STREET STAGE (1:00 PM – 5:00 PM)
Universal Dawn
Al & Pal’s Parade
DJ SKY RAT + DJ ROOF TROLL The Burning Hell
MOUNT ALLISON CHAPEL (5:00 PM – 7:00 PM)
José Contreras
Valmy
BRIDGE STREET STAGE (7:00 PM – 12:00 AM)
Klarka Weinwurm
OMBIIGIZI
Circuit Des Yeux
Mister Monark & The Dirty B-Sides Zaki Ibrahim
LEGION (12:00 AM – 2:00 AM)
Bird Feet
Lee & Gamble Unlimited
DUCKY’S (12:00 AM – 2:00 AM)
SURPRISE SHOW!