The Official Astral Harvest Festival 2015 Preview

For New and Old Harvesters Heading Home

For much of the Albertan festival scene, the beginning of July is a very exciting time. An incredible group of welcoming creatures will journey to Driftpile Valley, Alberta for Astral Harvest, a music festival that goes far beyond the connections you might find at other, similar gatherings.

It is a beautiful and unique experience. Stretching from Thursday to Sunday, there is a different air to this family-friendly festival than any other I have been fortunate enough to explore – a strong sense of community and the recognition of familial importance facilitates the creation of an extended crew, and the new friends you make are often ones you’ll see again and again at other west coast festivals throughout the summer. This wonderful collection of souls is a concentrated group of artists, in every sense of the word, that draws you in and breathes you out, reinvigorated and inspired for everything the season has in store.

From every corner of the festival culture, there comes an act to Astral Harvest. If you can dream of a visual experience, you can probably find it somewhere at this festival: stunning live art, thrilling performance groups, and all permeated by music to make your body flail and your face break out into a massive grin. The biggest challenge of attending the Harvest is balancing your time between the workshops and daytime events, while leaving enough time to make sure you can see every single one of the amazing musical talents taking the stage over the weekend.

Including the funky west coast artists we all know and love like Stickybuds, Slynk, and Timothy Wisdom, the psychedelic sounds of Desert Dwellers, the trappy bass vibrations of G Jones, and finally the drum and bass tip, where you’ll find Metrik and Technimatic, this festival holds a sound for every ear. Featuring showcases of music collectives as well as a plethora of locals, this festival also demonstrates the best Albertans in the festival scene – and, for those who heard of this particularly epic event, you can be certain that Pumpkin will be here again, though whether he can top his own 6 hour sunrise set of 2014 … we will have to wait and see.

Forever my favourite way to start festival season, Astral’s motto rings clear and true in my eager, electrified heart: Home is where the Harvest is. This year their theme will be ‘Fibonacci Farming’, a nod to the Fibonacci sequence which is often found in nature and appreciated in relation to the Golden Ratio.

If you are ready to know a new side to the west coast festival culture, you can purchase your tickets to Astral Harvest here. You can also check out which Astral Harvest Pre-Party is closest to you below, to see a slice of what’s in store for you!

As well, if you are fortunate enough to be in Calgary on June 13th you can come and see a slice of what’s in store for you by attending the Astral Harvest Pre-Party, featuring Harvest headliner Crazy Daylight, alongside Sugarpill and Flavours, presented by our good friends at The Genesa Series, and Philosonic.

We’ll see you at the Harvest!

Words by: Kiddo

Photos by: Luke GS