Bringing together delicious food and rockin’ live music, East Town Get Down ushers in the spring with a program spanning 10 venues and over 40 bands, all in one night. Though a hefty undertaking, the festival’s artistic producer Colleen Kruegar takes it in stride.
“It’s the starting point of festival season, especially in Calgary,” says Kruegar. “Everyone’s just sort of emerging out of winter. It’s such a fun environment for people to come out.”
East Town Get Down is a music festival focused entirely on a six-block stretch of 17th Ave. S.E., otherwise known as International Avenue. This moniker is granted by the area’s diverse culinary offerings, which the festival strives to highlight. In its sixth year running, ETGD continues to pack as much as it can ambitiously in a one-day run that keeps crowds crawling through an epicentre of multiculturalism in Calgary.
“Every year we have more people who attend,” says Kruegar. “We try to keep it quite grassroots year after year.”
A feature that sets the festival apart from others is its emphasis on food. With many of the venues being restaurants every other day of the year, ETGD takes the opportunity to expose crowds to the local businesses inhabiting that stretch of the avenue. They collaborate with their hosts on accessible $5 dishes that often showcase the best of what each venue has to offer food-wise and drink-wise.
“Everyone just raves about the food experience … They’re getting to see music and they get to try different cultural foods all in the same night, so it’s pretty sweet,” says Kruegar
Of course, building a music festival with a base of mostly restaurants presents challenges. Many spaces transform overnight, clearing tables for standing space and building makeshift stages in whichever corner has the most free power outlets. While one might think this would significantly limit the festival’s programming, ETGD still offers a healthy balance of talents local to Calgary and Alberta and acts from other provinces.
“We have really great names that can come to these small spaces. It’s my favourite way to see a show — in a small space that’s very DIY,” says Kruegar. “I really just curate based on how a band sounds and how it’ll work in the spaces that we have.”
Kruegar also asserts that the festival is an all-ages space. With establishments that don’t exclude younger crowds, there are opportunities for teens to have a great third space for the night and for parents to get out of their houses. To keep the fest accessible to this audience, ETGD offers free entry for kids under 14 if they’re with a parent, and the events all start at the very reasonable time of 6 p.m.
“It’s a safe space for parents to bring their kids to a venue festival and have that experience,” Kruegar says. “It’s just a really nice bridge that we’re able to build for people to come out, … The younger people get involved, and the younger kids are going to shows and being exposed to different genres, the healthier our music community is going to be in the future.”
ETGD’s audience has grown throughout the festival’s lifespan, but the ambition at the heart of the fest is not necessarily to become the next Sled Island. East Town Get Down is really all about what’s in the name: getting people down to a part of the city they otherwise might not go to. In doing this, they spotlight great local businesses and foster community growth.
“I love the community it brings out,” says Kruegar. “It’s a destination space that you are coming to … It’s for the music, for the food, for the experience [of an] ‘east of Deerfoot’ kind of moment. You know, not many people go over that way. It’s fun when people do come over, and they’re like, ‘Where am I? This is a part of the city I’ve never seen before.’”
East Town Get Down goes down on May 24. Readers will find a full list of bands playing and venues available on the festival’s website, as well as a discount if they buy their wristband ahead of the date. Check it out at easttowngetdown.org.
Music To Look Forward To
This year, East Town Get Down offers an insanely broad range of music: country, folk, punk, pop, and even some genre-agnostic offerings. All can be found across the 10-venue crawl.
Headlining the festival is Kiwi Jr., a Toronto-based band of childhood friends currently working on their fourth album. They’ve been praised for their
refined and sturdy approach to indie-pop rock, with Exclaim! referring to them as “one of the best indie rock bands around.”
“We like to draw on our influences, for sure, but we also like to kind of pivot and make things interesting and less obvious to the listener,” says Brian Murphy, the band’s guitar player and keyboardist. “Whether it’s a chord change that you might not see coming, a funny lyric, a poignant lyric, or a chaotic drum fill. We like to inject things that make people kind of sort of bend their ears a little bit.”
Kiwi Jr. has played in a few interesting venues, from an auto body shop-turned-vintage-clothing-warehouse to an Italian castle courtyard. Murphy notes that playing non-traditional venues can be difficult to make work, but that he trusts Kruegar and the festival to get it right.
“She’s bringing stages to all these places. She’s bringing P.A.’s and backline,” says Murphy. “It’s not easy to build a show in a restaurant or a cafe. You kind of have to build it from the ground up. It takes a lot of work.”
Anna Horvath, a more folk-leaning singer-songwriter who performs under the name Merival, is another Toronto artist coming to ETGD. She’s best known for her enchanting voice and her personable stage presence.
“A lot of people cry at my shows,” says Horvath. “’I’m always trying to capture a sense of the tension of what it is to be a human and question constantly the things around you, whether that be relationships or the way the world works.”
Horvath is excited to be playing at a festival that so heavily relies on non-conventional spaces. She has a love for playing house shows and record shop sets. One of her most memorable performances was in a park gazebo on a rainy day. Horvath focuses on transcending the audience from their surroundings.
“At the peak of a Merival performance, I’m really weaving that world and people are really caught in it,” says Horvath. “I’ll tuck into any little corner that’s ready to have me.”
Both Kiwi Jr. and Merival are not only pleased to be part of the fest, but are also looking forward to playing next to recognized Alberta talents. Local highlights from the ETGD lineup include Abby Webster, Ginger Beef, Jolene Marie, Sea of Lettuce, Stucco, and Vissia.
“[Calgary is] definitely punching above your weight when it comes to good bands and good artists,” says Murphy.
