The Squamish Valley Music Festival (SVMF) is shaping up to be a completely different music festival. Formerly known as Live at Squamish and rebranded for this year's edition, SVMF is still a three-day music extravaganza located at the Logger Sports Grounds and Hendrickson Fields, but the fest's executive producer Paul Runnals said the event has "grown significantly" for 2013.
New this year is an expanded DJ area in the "Woodshed," as well as a much larger marketplace and bazaar with tons of festival shopping available.
"It's also going to have the Red Bull Tour Bus that folds out to a stage," said Runnals. "It's a whole new, bigger marketplace that's more of a vibe-y area. We've really built out the vendor area."
The whole festival has actually increased in size.
"Our capacity this year is 19,000 people," he said. "That's up a lot from last year when our capacity was for only 13,000."
Brisk ticket sales are a good indication the extra space was needed.
"We're at 17,000 right now," Runnals said on Monday, Aug. 5. "We may not quite sell out, but ticket sales are way ahead of previous years, so it is obviously a huge year for us."
Camping has also always been a big part of the festival, and Runnals said this year more than 6,000 were expected to tent out under the stars.
"It's all part of this festival culture we're trying to develop," he said. "It's huge in terms of having so many people on-site. A lot of time and effort has been put into the campground so it is not just a place to sleep at night. We don't want people to feel trapped on-site, so the campground is right beside the festival area, with security, port-a-potties, showers, sinks and more."
And what would a music festival be without the music?
We've got lots of diversity in this year's lineup, but also a lot of depth," he said. "Of course there's a lot of buzz around Queens of the Stone Age, as well as Vampire Weekend and Jurassic 5, but we have lots of anticipation for many of the indie acts, and in our Brand.Live offices we're stoked for some of the electronic stuff. We have lots of great music and there really is something for everyone."
Planning such a large event takes a lot of time.
"I've been working on next year's festival which we just got approval for a capacity of 35,000 for the past six or seven months," Runnals said. "But we don't just plan for developing and building out the festival and camping sites. We are also mindful of the impact the festival and all those people will have on the Squamish community. We have to have a good plan and work on mitigating issues of congestion, traffic and all those issues affecting people in town."
Locals are even invited to a $20 "soft opening" of this year's festival on Thursday (Aug. 8), featuring special live musical guests and an opportunity to check out the festival's vibe and see if you want to stay for the weekend-long affair.
"There are some cheap tickets still available at the Squamish Adventure Centre," he said. "Locals should take advantage of those while they last, so they don't have to pay at the gates or online where there's extra fees."
Organizers are also offering shuttle service to Squamish from both Vancouver and Whistler, plus a new cash-less way to hit the festival's beer tents.
"When you enter the festival you'll be given a wrist bracelet, which is equipped with an RFID (radio frequency identification). So you can go to stations around the festival area sort of like ATMs and upload credit to your bracelet. Then, when you go to the beer garden you just use your bracelet to pay."
The bracelet "top up" stations accept cash, credit and debit cards.
"We're the first festival ever in Canada to use the RFID technology in this way," he said. "It just makes it more convenient for people. We want it to be a chilled out weekend. And, the weather looks like it's going to be great, too... so it's shaping up to be one great festival."
For the full lineup, FAQs, maps, tickets and more, go to squamishfestival.com.
