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MICHAEL FRANTI AND SPEARHEAD SET WHISTLER AS ONLY WEST COAST CONCERT DATE
Pure rockers join enlightened rocktivists at the TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival for North America’s biggest free outdoor concert series
WHISTLER, BC , February 19 2008 –
Over a decade ago, it was decreed that no action should go unsoundtracked at the TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival, a decree that would rapidly turn the Mother of All Winter Wrap Parties into the biggest free outdoor concert series in North America.
The anthems of reggae, rock, hiphop and indie-funk pound out their daily summons at the Outdoor Concert stage at the base of Whistler Mountain every day from April 11 – 20, 2008 from 3pm.
And the summons will be heard around the world, with early details about the line-up promising huge crowd-magnets.
Just announced, Michael Franti and Spearhead will offer their special brand of “thinking man’s hiphop” in Whistler, their only West Coast gig south of Anchorage, on Sunday April 20.
Franti’s newest album Yell Fire!, offers his most uplifting set of songs to date, inspired by a trip to war-ravaged Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Explains Franti, "The thing that I found when I was in war zones was that nobody wants to hear songs about war. They want to hear songs about connection to people, and songs about love and life, songs that make them dance."
Says Festival Director Sue Eckersely, “Franti has the perfect energy to wind up the Festival – it’s guaranteed to go out on a high note.”
Rolling Stone cover-boy and organic roots-rocker, the John Butler Trio, offer the perfect parenthesis to Spearhead, with their Sunday April 13 gig.
Described as Australia’s answer to the Dave Matthews Band, John Butler Trio’s fifth album, Grand National (2007) upped the ante after their Sunrise Over Sea (2003) went five times platinum, making Butler the posterboy of indie success. They also joined Bono and Eddie Vedder to play the Make Poverty History concerts in 2006.
Not all the Festival’s 2008 line-up will be made up of rocktivists, although the event has traditionally shown a soft spot for music acts with a life-affirming, peaceful revolutionary message like K’naan, Toots and the Maytals, Stephen Marley and Jr Gong, Blackalicious, Xavier Rudd, Bassnectar and Bif Naked.
Sometimes, the program calls for pure rocking out. Which Canada’s own, The Trews, is sure to deliver. The boys from Antigonish, Nova Scotia declared their third album,
(No Time for Later) which launches nationally today, to be the heaviest, but most artistically coherent album yet: “a total roots rock album” according to frontman Colin MacDonald. Reviews have hailed the “shrewd marriage of new and classic rock”, that appeals to every generation of rock aficionado.
The TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival’s Outdoor Concert Series calls music-lovers to drop the earbuds and pack away their pods for 10 days and nights, and join the collective groove at the biggest free outdoor music festival in North America. Live music for ten sound-struck days, flooding the ampitheatre of Whistler Blackcomb, BC, Canada. No tickets required.
The TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival is produced by Watermark Communications, a Whistler marketing & communication company, and presented in partnership with Tourism Whistler and Whistler Blackcomb. Founded by W1’s Doug Perry thirteen years ago, and now the largest annual winter sports and music festival in North America, the TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival is a high-octane 10 day and night showcase of the best of snowsports, music, arts and mountain life. Featuring major professional ski and snowboarding competitions, the largest free outdoor concert series in Canada, the legendary Pro Photographer and Filmmaker Showdowns, and many more unique art and cultural showcases, the Festival is the ultimate winter wrap party. For information on the 2008 TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival , April 11-20, visit www.whistler2008.com
Contact:
Lisa Richardson
Communications Manager
Tel: 604 938 3399 x34
Email: lrichardson@watermarkinc.ca
Watermark Communications Inc
10-1006 Lynham Road
Whistler, BC V0N 1B1
whistler2008.com
Fax: 604 938 3398
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