Redoux for Igloofest | The Press

After a two-year forced hibernation, Igloofest will once again liven up Montreal’s winter with four weekends of electronic music at the Old Port. Australian star Flume will kick off the festivities on the 15th^e anniversary of the event, this Thursday evening, while waiting for the visit of Kavinsky, Tiësto and Eli & Fur.

Wednesday evening, Flume was already in Montreal to do sound tests for the opening night which marks the big comeback of Igloofest. “After two years of waiting, we are feverish,” says Nicolas Cournoyer, one of the founders of Igloofest, who is delighted “with the mild weekend with snow” looming on the horizon of the Old Port of Montreal.

Especially since Igloofest can finally celebrate its 15^e birthday.

Among the headliners expected during the 12 outdoor electronic music evenings scheduled until February 11, from Thursday to Saturday, there are Bob Moses, Eli & Fur, Olan, Kavinsky, Nora En Pure, Yotto, Josh Wink, Ben Böhmer and Belgian rapper Hamza. Montreal talent will also shine brightly with Tiga, CRi, Black Tiger Sex Machine and other TDJs.

Would a star like Tiësto have agreed 15 years ago to perform outside in the middle of winter in the Old Port of Montreal as he will do on February 10? “It’s the first time we’ve invited him,” replies Nicolas Cournoyer.

If Igloofest’s reputation is well established, convincing international musicians and DJs to perform in the cold, damp surroundings of the St. Lawrence was no small feat during the early years of Igloofest.

Nicolas Cournoyer still remembers the Portuguese band Buraka Som Sistema’s sound test in 2012. It was only then that its members understood that they were going to go on stage… outside.

Finally, João Barbosa declared that it had been one of the most memorable performances of his formation. He had for the occasion asked the spectators to kneel and jump at the same time. An unforgettable memory for Nicolas Cournoyer.

In 2019, Four Tet fully deserved the title of “cold warrior” by performing below -20°C. Buraka Som Sistema and Four Tet will have understood that it’s the harshness of winter that makes Igloofest so magical. A MétéoMédia team has already measured a difference of 9°C between the Igloofest dance floor and the entrance to the site… “The penguin effect”, says Nicolas Cournoyer.

Live the winter

Co-founded by Pascal Lefebvre, Michel Quintal, Nicolas Cournoyer and Louis-David Loyer, Igloofest is the winter counterpart of Piknic Électronik (which also had a record season of 178,000 people last year).

Approaching their thirties in the early 2000s, the four friends wanted to spread electronic music beyond the after hours associated with illicit substances. “Make it more accessible and change prejudices”, summarizes Nicolas Cournoyer.

Piknic Électronik was born in 2003, then Igloofest in 2007, with only two evenings on the program. “There were 2,000 people per evening,” recalls Nicolas Cournoyer. This was enough to give birth to the famous “competition of one-piece “, “the spirit of carnival” and the mantra of “living winter instead of undergoing it”.

Years passed and Igloofest ended up attracting some 85,000 people over four weekends.

Igloofest Quebec

In full adolescence in Montreal, Igloofest will hold a first official weekend of festivities in Quebec from March 2 to 4 with Diplo, Mistress Barbara, Claptone, DJ Boring and Alexa Borzyk. “We had already had parties, but the desire to set up an antenna in Quebec has been there for a long time, explains Nicolas Cournoyer. We are betting on getting people from the eastern part of the province. »

Quebec is practically the only big city where Igloofest can be exported, he points out. In Toronto, it is not cold enough and the chance of rain is too high.

Does climate change worry the Igloofest gang?

With the thaws that have multiplied, let’s say that Igloofest has abandoned “bars and ice castles”. “We have never canceled an evening”, underlines Nicolas Cournoyer, however.

After-ski evenings

Except for a few minor changes to the site, Igloofest’s playground on its Old Port site remains essentially the same as in 2019. Big news: the 27 “après-ski” evenings with indoor performances presented in particular at the Society for Arts and Technology, Center Phi and Auberge Saint-Gabriel. On the night of February 11 to 12, theafter-party artists from the Anjunadeep label at the SAT will be part of the seven evenings of the City of Montreal’s pilot project allowing the sale of alcohol after 3 a.m.

Seeing that a CRi wins the Félix for revelation of the year in 2021 and that Trois-Rivières also has a winter electronic music festival – the ArtikFest!, in mid-February – is a sign that music electronics is no longer confined to the niche it occupied in 2007, and that’s certainly partly thanks to Nicolas Counoyer and his band.

He does not hide that the cancellation of Igloofest at the last minute – with 60,000 tickets sold – had been difficult for his troops last year.

This year, their hearts are finally at the party for a whole birthday.

Three Suggestions

Kavinsky

We owe Kavinsky Nightcalla song that planted the nocturnal universe of the film so well Drive, starring Ryan Gosling. This will be a first visit to Igloofest for the French master of synthwave who launched the album in 2022 reborn.

January 26, at 10 p.m. (after Dabeull and Heidy P.)

Black Tiger Sex Machine and Apache

Black Tiger Sex Machine and Apashe, Montreal artists from Kannibalen Records, perform in major arenas around the world. They are the pride of Montreal internationally and their cinematic performances are always of great intensity.

February 4, at 10:30 p.m. (after Moore Kismet, Sam Lamar and PØPTRT)

CRi and the Anjunadeep gang

Revelation at the ADISQ Gala in 2021 and host of a major outdoor show last summer at the Montreal Jazz Festival, the local electronic music star CRi will perform with his friends from the Anjunadeep label: Ben Böhmer, Eli & Fur, OLAN and Hotto. First outside on the Igloofest site, then at the SAT until the early morning.

February 11, at 9:30 p.m.