I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Xfest 2013 for free (thank you so much for the media passes Xfest)! For anyone who is not quite sure what I am talking about, Xfest is an annual music festival held at Fort Calgary. It is hosted by Union Events and X92.9, and showcases talented alternative rock bands. This year was the first year it was held for two days instead of one.
Overall, the location and cleanliness of the event was great. There were tons of outhouses around the event area, food trucks and many merchandise booths. If I could fix one thing, it would be the water system. You can bring in your own empty water bottles into the event. There were two large water stations on site so you could fill up your bottles, or you could spend $3 on a bottle at the food stations. This would have been okay however, it was so hot and there were at least 300 people there, so the line ups were ginormous.
The musical lineup was very well chosen as well. This blog is going to cover some of the amazing talent that played on Sunday. So if you want the lowdown about Saturday check out Lauren’s post. Here’s a few quick reviews of some of Sunday’s bands.
Family of the Year: They are a very upbeat and fun band, they put on a nice show with energy. However, the commentary in between songs to pump people up was quite boring and kind of odd and unnecessary. Also knowing the band, I did expect a little bit more from the vocals.
Half Moon Run: Now I only knew the song Call Me in The Afternoon before I went to the concert, so I didn’t know what to expect. With that said though, I was pleasantly surprised. The energy was great and the vocals we’re even better. The lead singer is extremely talented and has some of the best vocals I’ve heard. It was by far my favourite Sunday performance.
Cold War Kids: This was the final performance I saw that day, and it was a wonderful way to end my weekend. The passion was there, the talent was there and the entertainment was there. A nice blend of ballads and up tempo pieces. Miracle Mile is one of my favourite songs at the moment, and their performance of it sounded pretty much exactly the same as it does on my iPod!
So there you have it! I hope you choose to come check out next year’s Xfest!