Shambhala 2010

Article by: Tricia Raidun Scott

Photos by: James Medynski http://jamesmedynski.com

With the more than 10,000 people, the 6 unique and wonderful stages, the costumed characters, the funky psychedelic art, the lights, the lasers, the beautiful Salmo River Ranch, the many smiling faces, the five minute best friends, the long term connections and reminders of eternal truths, Shambhala is an amazing experience.  It is easy to forget that Shambhala is also, in fact, the largest electronic music festival in Canada.

For the first year ever Shambhala was sold out before the party had even begun. This created a truly exciting atmosphere. Everyone felt fortunate and happy to be there, but as usual with growth there are some growing pains. The staff member I talked to at the gate Wednesday night estimated that there was over 3000 people waiting before early admission had even begun Wednesday morning.  These overly zealous party goers created a 12 hour wait for themselves and anyone else arriving for early entry. Even as the flux of pre-party revellers got through, a typical wait to get in on Friday still clocked in at about three hours. I had some concerns regarding the level of douchebagery as I was taking stock of things on Wednesday. But for the most part it seemed the young, shirtless chaches seemed to find their inner Shambhala and chill in the love, or they ran out of beer and found some MDMA… One of the two I’m sure.

One glaring exception to this was the ass (or asses) who decided to dump a bunch of Flourocine dye in the Salmo River on Sunday. These kind of pranks that show no concern for either the people or the planet have no place anywhere but especially not Shambhala. Alas, it was what it was and despite the downside, for me it was my favourite Shambhala of the four I’ve attended. In the middle of the crazy psychedelic outlet of love and strange, amazing BC music and the best electronica the world has to offer, it’s hard to have anything but a damn good time.

The festivities started up earlier than ever on Thursday at noon with Vancouver’s Sweet Soul Burlesque Troupe bringing their theatrical sass. Miss Crystal Precious put on a memorable performance to Sir Mix Alot’s “Baby Got Back”, taking preconceived notions of feminine beauty and stirring them up with her ass tassels. The indisputable star of the Thursday performances was the crowd moving, keyboard smashing, Vancouver DJ, Long Walk Short Dock.  Using voice synthesizers, keyboard and mixers LWSD put on a performance reminiscent of Frank Zappa, Daft Punk and an 8-bit Nintendo making sweet, violent love. The set to follow by Calgary’s Audit was also noteworthy. The funky breaks with a dash of dustup was a crowd pleaser start to finish.

Friday night’s highlights included the Puppet MC’s the Funginears. If you have not seen a purple unicorn freestyle you have not fully lived. San Francisco scratch master Q-Bert put on an jaw dropping display, keeping the crowd in awe as he showed off his 20 years experience as a scratch originator.  Two more significant acts that night were Calgary duo Smalltown DJ’s and Vancouver’s Neighbour, both funky sets kept booties shaking into the morning.

Saturday night was defined by two things rain and dubstep. Excision and Noisia put on impressive sets in the deep bass driven genre and seemingly every other DJ of the night managed to mix some dubstep into their set. This is music you can feel in your lungs. Just as likely to be mixed with AC/DC as NWA as electro, dubstep provides a hard edge to almost any set. This is the same dark area of electronica once owned by the jungle scene.  There still are many people that put on impressive pop and lock dance displays to dubstep sets but unlike jungle music, which was characterized by the flux of triple time beats, pretty much anyone can take part of the cathartic body shaking head bang to dubstep, and no one needs to do crystal meth.

Canadian Excision packed the multi-tiered forest walkway of The Village stage giving a high energy performance that proved not only is he a top producer in the genre but can rock crowds with sets of original striped down, atomically dense beats. The Dutch trio that make up Noisia held the village crowd’s attention after Excision with their layered Drum and Bass heavy performance. Finnish DJ Rico Tubbs provided danceable bass heavy breaks to keep the party moving in the Fractal Forest area as the rains came down. The rain had a somewhat magical appeal in the forest stage where the lights projecting onto the screens and the lasers would catch on the drops, creating a sparkling psychedelic effect. A-Skillz from the UK delivered with funky hip hop driven dubstep infused beats that rocked my socks… my very soggy socks.

Sunday night was as it should have been, a pinnacle of music and dance under starry skies. Beardyman’s performance was somewhat inhibited because it was impossible to appreciate his beat-boxing, pop singing, mixing performance when you can’t move through the crowd to see him do it. But as he said himself near the end of his performance “Everyone in the room repeat after me. This is not a room. This is a forest. That is fucking sweet.” UK nufunk producer Featurcast took to the tables and proved he can put together funky dancetastic set as deftly as he can put together popular tracks for others to spin. UK duo The Plump DJ’s, came over for their long awaited first time Shambhala performance in the Fractal Forest.  Their techno electro infused break set  kept the floor full of booty shaking smiling bodies.

Boulder, CO’s Vibesquad got things going around the same time, providing high energy bangers getting the Ewok Village crowd pumped for the main event. BASSNECTAR.  Bassnectar, the dubstep king from San Francisco headlined Shambhala once again. The build up to this set was unreal. The round shape of the Village combined with the high production value video infused with the loudest and hardest dubstep on the planet created an upward spiral of energy that is truly unforgettable. Raw hard energy was being thrown from the turntables to the crowd to the DJ and back again as thousands of cramped bodies banged their hooded/ masked / sunglasses faces to the powerful beats. Despite the well deserved compliments to Bassnectar’s performance my personal favourite of the entire festival was UK duo, NERO. These guys brought good hard dubstep infused D&B and I loved every minute of it. They managed to carry on the powerful energy of the previous set but unlike Bassnectar’s, there was room to breathe and almost even dance.

Electronica uses the entire history of music as an instrument to smoothly blend from one sound to the next with one goal, to keep your body moving. That is why I love it.  However somewhere around the 48 hour mark something seems missing. This is when I somehow find myself at the Rock Pit stage, watching amazing Vancouver bands, and feeling once again whole. I could see the guitar being played, see the drums banged and vocal chords strained and appreciate live music for exactly what it is.  As lead singer Kyle from Los Furios stated sarcastically  “Who wants to go see a DJ?” And in that moment of grooving to their punk ska swagger, not many of us did. I managed to catch a few other exceptional Vancouver bands.  Delhi to Dublin put on a very high energy crowd pleasing show of eclectic world music Friday night. The sweet funk filled Ponderosas included a Spice Girls cover in their set. The rocking soulful latin stylings of The Boom Booms got hips shaking again on the hot Sunday afternoon. And the always consistent showmen of Five Alarm Funk rocked their set to a hyped crowd Sunday night. Van City you got some good music… and you don’t need to wait for Shambhala to get out and see it.

Monday at noon marked the painful time when the great mass of unwashed bodies came face to face with one simple fact. The party was over.  Many smiles were still seen as the sun beat down and sweaty gear was moved into dusty cars.  From the slow build up, to the dozens of different moments that just might have been the peak, to the blur of an exhilarating rush, Monday came like the end of the roller-coaster ride outside of time. That was Shambhala.