Some thoughts on VEMF 2008:
- VEMF 2008 was in Centennial Square. Our speakers were pointed directly at City Hall this year – their idea.
- Best out of town talent: Charles Feelgood and Jay Hamilton.
- I was told that my voice sounds very different when I am MCing – makes sense, though I have never listened to myself MC
- My official role this year was Creative Director, though most of my time was spent on managing the website, coordinating with management and being Master of Ceremonies on day-of, and much less was spent on Creative Direction – which is really more of a “planning” role than a “doing” role.
- This years feature colour was blue – a cyan type of blue at that, or shall I say a blue type of cyan?
- Our shirt colours did not arrive as intended – we had planned different colours, but due to timing, our selection of available colours was narrow.
- We were broadcast live on CFUV 101.9 FM on Sunday from 5-10 PM – if anyone has a recording of this, I’d love to get my hands on it.
- I played Sunday night at the Sunset Room. I love playing in that room. I had originally planned on playing some progressive-electro-tech, but the festival had more than enough electro so I removed that from the equation and differentiated the set by making it purely progressive. Felt great to feature it as different – usually I am differentiating my progressive sets by making them a bit dirtier (via compression and texturing via distortion, or switching percussional styles) but going prettier did the job this time.
- Music was good, but I felt overall that the genres represented were not well rounded enough to adequately represent the scene outside of clubs. This is not any one artists’ fault, rather it is the domain of bookings.
- Working with new management this year was both challenging and rewarding.
- Snap – Rhythm is a Dancer was played twice at VEMF – once by Charles Feelgood, and once by Fractal and Matt What.
- We had two night clubs for each night: Sugar and Hush. Hush was, predictably, ram packed full. Sugar also had good attendance on the Saturday night that we made it to.
- We had two after-hours venues for each night: Jellyfish Lounge and the Sunset Room – I was never able to make it to Jellyfish. If you went, I’d like to hear what you thought of it.
- As usual, the commitment and contribution from staff, artists and volunteers was outstanding.
See below for sixty more photos!
