The Lethbridge Electronic Music Festival celebrates their tenth anniversary this weekend, Aug. 27 in Galt Gardens.
“ Technically it’s 11 because we missed 2020 because of Covid type things,” said Lethbridge Electronic Music Festival president David Fritz aka DJ Marty Funkhauser, who is excited to go big for the tenth official anniversary of the family friendly rave which features two stages, professional dancers including a a poole dancing demonstration an expanded KidZone bouncy castle and chill tribute tent “chill tent” called the T Bird Lounge which is a tribute to artist Tanner Dietrich, who passed away two years ago featuring her artwork.
“ There will be donations and displays for mental health there,” he said.
“We were just getting back into it last year. We had a smaller lineup and an all Canadian line up because of travel issues. It just felt good to get it done,” he continued.
“This year, because it’s our tenth birthday, we wanted to do something extra-special, so we booked some pretty big names,” he continued.
“ We have a bigger sound system and a bigger light syste this year,” he said.
There will be 24 DJs performing from 10:45 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Los Angeles’ DJ Dan headlines the Zodiac stage, from 9-11 p.m.
Before that Chicago raised DJ Colette performs from 7:30-9 p.m.
“She‘s a really great artist. She sings over her beats,” said Fritz, who is especially excited about Joe Nice , who headlines the more drum and bass focused Unified Vibe Luminosity stage at 7:35-9 p.m.
“He’s the first DJ to really popularize dubstep. He’s one of my idols. He’s fairly old school I’ve been wanting to book him for years,“ Fritz enthused adding he is also looking forward to seeing Calgary DJ Joanna Magik.
“We‘ve expanded the YMCA KidZone, there will be a beer garden and we have an artisans market will local vendors,” he continued.
“It’s a free festival. We have been able to get more donations than usual. It would usually cost $200 to go to a festival with a line up like this,” he said, adding they held silent auctions, got a Heart of the City grant and had a couplefundraising events including bottle drives, burlesque shows and fundraising concerts in addition to getting several sponsors on board to finance the event.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years. It feels like only three. We started with one stage and 500 people and now we have four times as many people,” he said.
“ I look forward to seeing all the people and all the families. It’s very cool,” he said.
He agreed raves have a bad reputation for drug use.
“ We’ve been lucky we haven’t had any of those kinds of issues in 10 years. But we’re offing free Naloxone seminars at 2 p.,m. and 7 p.m. so you and learn how to administer it,” he said adding professionals will be on hand to administer it if necessary at the harm reduction centre.
The official afterparty is at Club Lime With DJ Opie opening at 10 p.m. followed by Funky la Freq, host Megan Hamilton at midnight and Marty Funkhauser bringing the show to a close at 1:30 a.m.
More information is at www.lemf.ca
— By Richard Amery, L.A. beat Editor
