Only a month has passed since the Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival rocked Fredericton, but local music lovers already have another opportunity to take part in a full week of live shows.
The Capital Complex is teaming up with Sonic Concerts and Picaroons Traditional Ales this week to present Pre-Pop(ped), a festival of travelling acts, which kicked off last night with art rock band Braids.
“It’s a very unique line-up that [the Capital normally only] gets to see in bits and pieces,” said the festival’s main organizer and Capital Complex booking agent Zach Atkinson.
Pre-Pop was born after Atkinson noticed a lot of bands contacting him to book shows in the Maritimes on their way to Halifax Pop Explosion. Before he knew it he had an entire week of music planned, so he decided to give it a name and some branding.
The Capital Complex recently started working with a new ticketing company and their initiative was to try out online ticketing. Concert-goers were given the option to either buy advance tickets for individual shows or for the whole festival online, which Atkinson said was a big part of the decision to package the shows together.
“I think the idea was instead of trying to say, ‘Hey come see this! Hey come see this! Hey come see this!’ we wanted to give everyone an opportunity to get out and see everything they could for a lower price,” he said.
The festival pass was available leading up to the show for $50, which meant admission to all nine shows would save concert-goers $40 to $60. As of last Friday, Atkinson said there were only around 20 left for purchase.
He said he hopes the festival will help continue attracting acts to the city, making Pre-Pop an annual event.
“It’s our first year. Our goal is that everyone’s out, we have a big crowd, and that the band and everyone else walks away happy,” he said. “In terms of any other goal, [I’d like to] try to recreate this next year.”
Atkinson said The Capital wanted to give back to such a supportive community by putting on a great week of music with savings. It’s not normally feasible for people to take in a show every night of the week, he said, but Pre-Pop is an opportunity for music enthusiasts of all kinds to enjoy live performances without putting too much of a strain on their wallets.
Eric Hill is the store manager of local music store Backstreet Records and has been living in Fredericton for the past 25 years. He said the city has always been music-friendly and had a talented pool of musicians to draw from.
Hill says Pre- Pop’s emergence has a lot to do with Atkinson’s determination and Fredericton’s already existing music scene.
He said the buzz around Pre- Pop shows the potential that the festival could have. If the festival becomes an annual event, he said, it will only grow in popularity, attracting bigger names each year.
“We’ve been seeing a lot more touring music and bands are more likely to come all the way out east and play shows here,” Hill said. “As far as [Fredericton] being a spoke in the greater scene throughout Canada I think we have a pretty good place.”
With files from Julia Whalen.
Tickets for Pre-Pop(ped) range from $10 to $15 and can be purchased online through the Capital’s website or at the door, depending on availability. The rest of the week’s schedule is:
Tonight – Shotgun Jimmie with Motherhood and Repartee, doors 9:30 p.m.
Wednesday – Plants & Animals with The Darcys, doors 9:30 p.m.
Thursday – Early show at Wilser’s Room with Spookey Ruben. Doors 8:30 p.m. Main show – Library Voices with Graham Wright, doors 9:30 p.m.
Friday – Wildlife with Bruce Peninsula and Writer’s Strike, doors 9:30 p.m.
Saturday – Ohbijou with Snailhouse, doors 9:30 p.m.
Sunday – Chad VanGaalen with Jennifer Castle, doors 8 p.m.
