Tie your toques with snowblower tire chains: Thursday night, Pascale Project will give its first ever performance at Igloofest. “I often played at Piknic Électronik, but never at Igloofest. I’ve been “booked” to play it for two years, let’s just say I can’t wait! breathes the composer and DJ.
Similar excitement for Nicolas Cournoyer, co-founder of Igloofest, who inspected the Old Port site last week, which was to welcome nearly 15,000 spectators at the launch of the 15e edition of the winter festival: “Imagining the crowded place, I felt the excitement again! I missed it…”
“This 15e edition, we’ve been trying to organize it for three years,” he explains.
Igloofest was one of the last major cultural events to take place in 2020, before the World Health Organization declared the planet to be hit by a COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, the artisans of Igloofest had fallen back on a virtual edition which “was received like a balm by people”, indicates Nicolas Cournoyer. ” It was cool, but we didn’t want to celebrate our 15th anniversary on the Web. “The following fall, the government had relaxed the sanitary measures in the theaters, after a milder summer than expected on the viral level. “The day after the announcement of the relaxation, we put our tickets on sale for Igloofest 2022. In one week, we already had 40,000 sold. We felt that the revival was coming, and that it was going to take place with the holding of Igloofest. Except that [le variant] Omicron has arrived. »
When the Premier of Quebec imposed new restrictions on December 30, 2021, more than 60,000 tickets for Igloofest 2022 had already been sold. Several evenings were sold out. This celebration of Nordicity against a background of electro rhythms, with retro snow suits and breathtaking views of the river, was hoped for by hungry dancers. Hopes of a comeback then melted like snow in the rain of an abnormally hot December.
“Our false start last year was hard on morale,” admits Nicolas Cournoyer, who however smiled again last summer after a successful edition of Piknic Électronik at Parc Jean-Drapeau.
For the 15ethe organization has put all the gum: it kicks off on Thursday with Australian DJ Flume (and Pascale Project on the second stage), acid house veteran Josh Wink the next day, young EDM star Porter Robinson on Saturday evening, and we pass some as good.
The day after the announcement of the relaxation, we put our tickets on sale for Igloofest 2022. In one week, we already had 40,000 sold. […] Except that [le variant] Omicron has arrived.
Kavinsky and Swiss trance house sensation Nora En Pure will visit Old Montreal the following weekend; the last two weekends will first see the Belgian rapper Hamza, the Montreal group Black Tiger Sex Machine, the pillar of electro Tiga, Tiësto, and a poster dedicated to the English record company Anjunadeep, with the star local CRi.
Relaunch
The poster is strong, but there is more: the rebirth of Igloofest, in its 15e edition, also signals the desire for expansion of its organizers. This is expressed in a first real edition in Quebec, on March 2, 3 and 4 (with Misstress Barbara and Diplo, among others), and in the even more dense poster of its “Après-ski” section, which, to the delight of dancers (and chilly people!), will keep the party going in various bars and clubs in Montreal.
“We really assume the identity of the festival” with this component, says Lucas Jacques, programmer for Igloofest – and for the company he founded, Courage, specializing in electronic music and passed into the bosom of Multicolore, which oversees Igloofest and Piknic Electronik.
“We have growth ambitions for Igloofest, but we won’t hide the fact that we invite musicians and DJs who enjoy greater influence”, as Tiësto, planetary star of mainstream electro, admits Lucas Jacques. If the second stage of the outdoor site welcomes artists with more adventurous musical practices, including many local artists, the “Apres-ski” component allows the festival to reconnect with its roots. underground providing solid counter-programming to the galaxy of stars that will parade across the big stage.
“And the musical selection work of a festival, that’s what is the fun “, underlines Lucas Jacques, who had fun programming the British composers and DJs Kahn & Neek, purists of the original English dubstep sound, on the second outdoor stage. A choice that he notes to note that the outdoor site always dares some musical audacity, “but ‘Après-ski’ is a slightly more alternative offer, a little more niche, in clubs and indoors, which allows to continue the experiment.
An electro dessert, rich in local ingredients, after the main course in the Old Port. On January 20 at the Phi Center, Hiroko Yamamura will defend Chicago’s house and techno heritage; the next day, New Yorker AceMo, a mixer of dancing styles, will be at Francesco’s, a small club on rue Saint-Jacques. At the Phi Center on January 27, cheers for Canadian Jessy Lanza’s return to DJing, while deep house veteran Marcellus Pittman will turn heads at the same venue the next day.
Still ? The legendary Little Louie Vega, member of Masters at Work, the cream of New York house, is expected at the Auberge Saint-Gabriel on February 3, and adventurous techno lovers will delight in the poster of the Center Phi le same evening, composed of the Anthony Naples-DJ Python duo, preceded by Montreal composer Anabasine. Add to that the free Igloofête afternoons (with Poirier, Robert Robert, DJ Karaba, LUNICE), and a final on February 11 at the Society for Technological Arts, with DJs from Anjunadeep, until 6 a.m.
For her performance at Igloofest, the composer, DJ — and, more recently, host of monthly karaoke nights at the Système (the next one will take place on Valentine’s Day!) — Pascale Project promises a selection with a Eurodance flavor from the 1990s, an influence music that grew in her after her last tour on the Old Continent, in the fall of 2022. These sounds will be reflected in new songs from her next microalbum, to be released in the spring.
“I’m very pleased to finally be able to take part in Igloofest,” she says. It’s a good way to bring together lots of people and, above all, different audiences, as I have seen as a spectator. And besides, it doesn’t happen very often that we have the opportunity to make a dj set outside, at -15 degrees! »