The Squamish Constellation Festival is back after a two-year hiatus with one of B.C.’s longest and most diverse musical lineups.
The weekend event, slated for July 22 to 24, began in 2019 with a wildly successful premiere event. Organizers were all set for another blowout weekend in 2020 when the pandemic put the kibosh on almost everything. In 2021, things were still not back to normal and so another year was missed.
That pent-up party vibe makes the planned 2022 event especially welcome, with the message of togetherness resonating perhaps more than it did when the festival was first imagined.
“The gist behind Constellation is it’s about love, community and connection,” said Kirsten Andrews, one of a trio of creatives behind the festival. “We are all stars, so we shine brighter together, coming together as one. It’s really about creating positive energy, good vibes and being able to take that away after the weekend and fill your gas tank and live off of that for months and months to come.”
Andrews is partners in the venture with familiar media personality Tamara Stanners and former Squamish mayor Patricia Heintzman.
About 40 musical acts are booked for the three-day event. Friday’s headliners are Toronto grit-rockers July Talk, joined by nine other acts, including Dear Rouge, Lights, Yukon Blonde and Moontricks. Saturday is headlined by psychedelic soul duo Black Pumas, along with another 10 acts, including Andy Shauf, Black Pistol Fire and Whitehorse. Sunday’s showstopper features local legend Sarah McLachlan, along with Jarvis Church, Ocie Elliott, Terra Lightfoot, iskwē and others.
The mix of emerging bands with seasoned acts is only part of the diverse nature of the festival. The variety of musical genres is also varied.
“We have everything from Inuit throat singers that perform with beats and loops to alt-rock and pop-punk,” said Andrews. “William Prince might be a little bit in the country vein as an Indigenous singer-songwriter from Manitoba but definitely crossing the line to alt-rock as well. Pharis and Jason Romero are two-time Juno Award-winners in the roots category and have a strong bluegrass feel. It’s very varied.”
The Constellation Festival features primarily Canadian talent, with about half coming from southwest B.C., though there are some U.S. acts and Teddy Thompson is “from England by way of Nashville,” said Andrews.
Cultural differences are also a key component of the event.
“We are really strong promoters of diversity, so we take a really hard look at the acts that we book and make sure that we are representing female-identifying artists, LGBTQ+, Indigenous artists — we make an extra special effort to make sure that there is a really strong variety of representation in the artists that we book,” she said.
Visual arts are also part of the festival. The on-site painting will produce, Andrews estimates, six new murals. There will also be circus arts and other activities, possibly including Sḵwxḵwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) carvers.
A site-wide liquor license will allow guests to sip at their picnic blanket or while wandering the grounds, while a “weed garden” will allow those who want something smokier to enjoy that pastime without bothering those who don’t want to smell it.
Constellation Fest prides itself on being a “zero-waste” festival, minimizing single-use items and reducing trash. In 2019, the event achieved a 94% waste diversion rate, said Andrews, easily exceeding standards for the term.
“One of the bigger challenges of being in Squamish is land,” she added. Finding a place to have the festival but also having enough room for parking and for camping is a challenge. Working with the District, the festival has received permission for camping at Centennial Field in Brennan Park to supplement sites at the municipal campground.
As many as 15,000 festival-goers are anticipated. Tickets are available at constellationfest.ca.
*Please note, this story originally ran in The Squamish Chief’s biannual magazine, Discover Squamish, in the summer 2022 edition. No one involved in the magazine gained any benefit from the festival for publishing this story financially or otherwise.
