Hillside Festival

I can't leave Guelph without mentioning my favourite event not just in the Guelph area but probably out of all of southern Ontario - Hillside Festival. This takes place every summer on the last weekend of July   and it is absolutely one of the most fun festivals I have been too. It's a great place to discover local talent within the music community but it also offers the opportunity to get up and close to some of Canada's greatest bands. Some notable bands that have played here in the past include: Metric, Tokyo Police Club, Arkells, Dan Mangan, Sloan, Bombay Bicycle Club, Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip, Shad, Sheepdogs, Hollerado, and so much more.

Hollerado performing at Hillside
photo taken by me

I have gone to this festival for the past four years (volunteered twice) and I can say with all honesty it is extraordinarily run, very organised, and I far as I can see things go on without a hitch. The event is built around being environmentally friendly as well this means there is very little garbage found in the park, all dishes and cutlery are reusable and continuously being washed by the volunteered dishwashers on site. There are also dozens of workshops that you can participate in from yoga to hula hooping as well as a spoken word stage where anyone can get involved. Festival goers have the option of camping on the grounds too since it takes place at the Guelph Lake Conservation Area, this way you're always a few steps away from the music and the party is always known to continue on into the wee hours of the night here even after the music has stopped. I could go on and on about how great this event is from the food to the vendors selling hand made products to the personal level you experience with the musicians.

Before I end this post I wanted to share a personal story of mine that I have with Hillside, though I have many this is the one that I've always connected with the most: It was my first year attending Hillside, I had just turned 16 and was trying to get my community hours for high school filled out so obviously I decided I would volunteer with Hillside because I always wanted to go and this way it would be free which is just an added bonus. So me and my friends decided to do it all together but because of certain conflictions they all bailed and I was left to go there all by my lonesome but this turned out to be alright since everyone there is super awesome and friendly and are there to have the same kind of fun as you. The entire weekend ended up being constant rain and by the end of the first night the whole park was a complete mud hole but even though it was raining it was never bad enough to shut anything down - until the last night. On the Sunday night of the festival everyone was gearing up to watch Owen Pallett, who at the time was going by the name Final Fantasy, he came out and played a few songs but unfortunately had to cut it short because of the intense wind and rain. After waiting a few minutes the rained actually stopped long enough for Owen to make a reappearance and complete his set but once again this was foiled by the rain, this time much more severe  and accompanied with thunder and lightning. Not wanting to get got off again he continued on to perform one of the best songs I've ever witnessed live, it was like the lightning was a part his show, the only word to describe it is magical.
Thankfully someone was there to capture the moment in video form so you can watch it here to get an idea of what it was like though you can't really see the thunder or exactly how hard it was raining it still looks wicked. *

Check the website for more info on next years festival as well as their more recent winter spin-off called Hillside Inside which takes place downtown February 1-3.

*I would also like to mention that I got to tell the lead singer of Tokyo Police Club where to throw out his garbage that year while I was volunteering - no big deal.