X Marks Summer’s Alt. Music Festival With X-92.9’s X-Fest

The Lowdown:

This year Calgary’s alternative radio-station, X 92.9, marked the end of summer and the September long weekend with their annual music festival X-Fest. Larger then previous years, this year the festival ran two days; Saturday August 31st and Sunday September 1st, and brought crowds of alt. rock and indie fans swarming to Fort Calgary. This year the all ages festival welcomed popular bands such as Passion Pit, Blink-182, Weezer, City and Colour, Mother Mother, and Awolnation, to name a few. As my review’s focus is on the Saturday the festival took place,

the bands I will be talking about in detail will all be from the Saturday. For a more in detail look at the Sunday see Audrey’s X-Fest blog.

Saturday’s Shows:

My favourite bands from Saturday’s portion of the show included the likes of Awolnation, Mother Mother, Weezer, and of course, the night’s headliner, Blink-182. Awolnation really got the crowd going, with a mosh pit breaking out in front of the stage during the show, and a plentiful amount of crowd surfers being pulled out during

their performance (during on song the band encouraged the crowd to “see how many girls we can get to crowd surf at once”). The band played such popular hits such as Not Your Fault, Kill Your Heros, Sail, and This Kids Not Alright. However, while their performance was flawless, it seemed almost formulaic and detached, and lacked the intimacy and oneness with the crowd one hopes for at a music festival. In fact, not even an hour after their performance, festival-goers hoping to buy their merchandise were told that they were unable to do so- the band had already packed up and left, it just seemed the band’s heart wasn’t in it.

Next, Mother Mother hit the stage with a great spread of new and old tracks including The Sticks, Hayloft, and Oh My Heart. As always (this was my third Mother Mother performance) the band did a great job with harmonizing their voices, and their unique sound caught my ear as it always had. The audience seemed captivated by their sound too, and I felt this performance held a lot more heart to it then Awolnation’s.

Weezer’s performance opened with their My Name is Jonas, and gave way to a number of tracks which had

bystanders exclaiming “I never knew this was a Weezer song!” While the band is little know itself, many of it’s songs are quite popular and really well played, and by the time they played Beverly Hills the audience was singing along, although their closer, The Sweater Song, was clearly a crowd favourite. Weezer’s performance was accompanied by a giant lit W behind the band, and although this was a neat touch, for those standing farther away, it was harder to view the band with this prop.

Finally, the night’s close and headlining band, Blink-182 came on after 9. For Blink’s performance the area in front of the stage was packed, even pass the sound tent. Luckily,

most of the festival-goers watching Blink-182 were happy to stand and watch, and there were far fewer crowd surfers then earlier during the Awolnation show. As always, the band’s performance was characterized by the attitudes and bad jokes of Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge, and while the band played fun, entertaining hits such as All the Small Things, Whats My Age Again, and The Rock Show, the show did not lack a love song with the band’s performance of I Miss You.

What Else was Happening:

The music wasn’t the only highlight of the festival however, and a range of vendors were set up along the

festival grounds. Of course, there was a band merch tent, along with other vendors selling wares such ranging from clothing and jewelry, to stickers and pins, or candy. As well there was a small fleet of attending food trucks including such selections as Indian “nacos” (tacos made using nan bread), Greek wraps, pizza by the slice, and of course, mini donuts. There was also a lemonade stand, which, due to popularity, was sold out of most selections by later on Sunday. A unique touch, one I had never seen at a

festival before, was a wrestling ring where fights took place both days of the festival.

Some Things to Consider:

In conclusion, for those considering attending X-Fest next year, here are a couple considerations:

• For both of the headlining bands the crowds were packed pass the sound tents, in order to get a good view of the show its best to show up well in advance for the band you’re hoping to see
• For everyone entering the festival there is a bag search, this means no outside beverages, not even unopened water bottles. They will make you dump it out (on this note there are water stations inside the festival where you can refill for free). They wouldn’t even let me take a Starbucks coffee in, I had to drink it before entering.
• Another consideration when it comes to the bag search is that they separate men and women, and due to most women having purses  brim full with  goodness knows, the women’s line is multiple times longer then the mens. This means a wait that could be up to, or more then, 20 minutes, so get there well in advance to see your favourite band.
• Once you leave the festival you can’t come back. I’m not sure why they have this rule, but its important to have in mind when entering, make sure you have everything you need that you won’t be buying inside.
• Many vendors are cash only (including the merch tent), and while there is a debit machine, the line for it was twice as long as the merch line, so its best just to bring some spare cash.