Sled Island Announces 1st Wave
The Sled Island Music Festival brings together hundreds of acts in a multi-venue kaleidoscope of eclectic programming. Taking place this year from June 22nd to June 26th, the festival is Western Canada’s version of NXNE. Scores of independent acts will migrate to Calgary’s downtown core to celebrate art in multiple forms.
Sled Island is particularly special to the Cups N Cakes Network as they were our very first media partner, a relationship that still exists despite the pandemic forcing they festival to cancel their normal format for the past two years. Fingers crossed that 2022 will go down as planned because the planning has been well underway. The festival already announced that Sudan Archives will be the guest curator, helping rectify the cancellation of the 2020 festival which was supposed to be curated by the Los Angeles-based violinist and vocalist.
Today, we are very excited to help announce their first wave of acts for this years festival.
Joining Sled Island's previously announced 2022 guest curator, Sudan Archives, are acclaimed experimental hip-hop revolutionary Princess Nokia, the sultry soft rock croon of Australia’s Alex Cameron, genre-bending alternative artist SASAMI (formerly of Cherry Glazerr), the No Wave pioneering, fiercely poetic punk rock of Lydia Lunch RETROVIRUS, hardcore punk quartet PEARS, and psychedelic garage rockers Frankie and the Witch Fingers.
Also included in the first wave lineup are emotional avant-folk artist Circuit des Yeux, pioneering queer-country group Lavender Country, hair-raising doom metal band Primitive Man, high energy lo-fi post-punk outfit Sweeping Promises, the intense and brash post-punk trio Control Top, and the catchy art punk of Uranium Club.
Naturally though, we here at the Cups N Cakes Network are more interested with the amazing Canadian acts included in this first wave. We are very excited to report that some of our favourites have been included in this announcement, such as avant-garde classical composer Flore Laurentienne and the unimitable electronica of JOYFULTALK. Anishinaabe shoegaze project Zoon, Ombiigizi, the new genre-agnostic collaboration featuring members of Zoon and Status/Non-Status, indie pop multi-instrumentalist Eve Parker Finley, Montreal singer-songwriter Gus Englehorn, experimental indie rock outfit Ghostkeeper, alternative R&B artist Uyemi, and Calgary-based electronic producer Little Snake, and Filipina kulintang ensemble Pantayo.