Hevyfest back for seventh year

The slack is back.

Hevyfest is turning seven and all the action returns to Nexen Beach on Saturday (July 19) for five hours of fun.

Recognized as North America’s original slacklining festival, Hevyfest 2014 is billed as a fully interactive, fitness-oriented and family-friendly event. The free event is open to all ages and will feature more than 2,000 feet of slacklines for all skill levels.

This year features the debut of the Cirque De Dirt slacklining group at the festival and a kids interactive hour is planned with plenty of activities for children of all ages.

Slacklining is a balance sport that uses nylon webbing yanked between two anchor points. It’s distinct from tightrope walking in that the line is not held rigidly taut. Although it is still under a lot of tension, it is instead dynamic, stretching and bouncing like a long, narrow trampoline.

The line’s tension can be adjusted to suit the user, and different types of dynamic webbing can be used to achieve a variety of feats. The line itself is flat, because of the nature of webbing, thus keeping the slacker’s foot from rolling as would be the case with an ordinary rope. The dynamic nature of the line allows for impressive tricks and stunts.

Representatives from SlacklifeBC are expected to return for 2014 and that means the return of slackliner Spencer Seabrooke. The Vancouver resident made headlines last month with his highline between the Stawamus Chief’s North Gully. He said Hevyfest is always a good time and a nice event for Squamish.

“This is pretty amazing to see a place where there are so many lines set up for the public to use whenever,” he said of the set-up on Nexen Beach. “It’s technically banned in Vancouver and we get in trouble if we set up lines in city parks.”

It all goes down from 2 to 7 p.m. on Saturday at Nexen Beach and is free for anyone to check out.