Alt-Soul – Vancouver

The Boom Booms are an Alt-Soul band from Vancouver, BC. The group consists of Aaron Ross (lead singer), Sean Ross (keys), Geordie Hart (bass), Tom Van Deursen (guitar), Theo Vincent (drums).The Boom Booms live show is highly energetic, honest and original, resulting in them headlining the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival and earning slots at the province’s top music festivals like Squamish Valley Music Festival and Pemberton Music Festival. They spent three months in Brazil, shooting and funding their socially charged documentary, “Boom Boom Brazil”. They were awarded $75,000 in BC’s prestigious Peak Performance Project and The Georgia Straight readers voted them Best Unsigned Band in Vancouver four years in a row.

Bluegrass – BC, Canada

The Slocan Ramblers are Canada’s young bluegrass band to watch. Rooted in the tradition, fearlessly creative, and possessing a bold, dynamic sound, The Slocans (2015 Edmonton Folk Fest Emerging Artist Award recipients), have quickly become a leading light of Canada’s roots music scene, built on their reputation for energetic live shows, impeccable musicianship and their uncanny ability to convert anyone within earshot into a lifelong fan.

Reggae/Latin – Mexico

Antidoping is a Mexican reggae pioneer band that was born in the summer of 1992, founded by the brothers Manuel and Pedro Apodaca, originally from Coyoac’n, Mexico City. Antidoping is considered a band of cult and as one of the most important of Latin America in the genre reggae. Antidoping music combines elements, roots and forms of the city’s cultural mosaic with the rhythm and flavor of the Rastafarian movement to create an alternative within the expressions of the country’s musical milieu. Antidoping offers listeners the possibility of sensitizing themselves in body, mind and soul through a fresh and committed reggae, shaped by their experiences within a range of concepts that affirm their convictions towards respect, fun, peace and The reunion with nature and humanity. Antidoping is one of the founding bands of the Razteca movement that originated the idea of creating a hybrid between Jamaica’s Rastafari culture and Mexican culture. It is a group that has maintained its seal of love, peace and brotherhood for more than 23 years despite the political and social conditions that surround them. Antidoping is the reggae band in Mexico.

Slide acoustic/Blues – Calgary

Born in Nashville, living in Japan from the age of two as part of an International Community, this slide guitar legend grew up listening to a combination of New Orleans R & B, European Classical, Grand Ole Opry, Japanese Shamisen, Indian Citar, and much more of what is now called “World Music”. 

Her high energy Rhythm & Blues, along with Middle Eastern laments, Indian, Pakistani & West African influences and a capella Gospel numbers all drive her amazing Slide Guitar and Vocal Acrobatics to make for a dynamic show. Anecdotes & stories from her forty-some years in the business add warmth and humour to her unforgettable performances. 

Folk – Kaslo 

It has been said that all Canadian writing inevitably reflects the almost impenetrable vastness of the land and the great distances that separate us. If “The Road We Once Knew” by the Eisenhauers, the husband and wife duo of Jeremy Eisenhauer and Sheree Plett Eisenhauer, is any indication, you’d be hard pressed not to come to the same conclusion about Canadian music. Simple, spare and heartbreaking in its directness, the concepts of distance, time and the wavering arcs of separation and reunion have rarely been as compellingly explored as they are in this powerful debut album. 

Electronica/Violin – USA

Govinda is the alter-ego of Austin based producer/composer Shane Madden. He began studying violin and composition at the age of eight and went on to study classical violin at the University of Texas where he fell in love with electronic music production. It was in Madden’s pursuit of his gypsy roots that he opened his ears to music from around the world. From experiences learning violin with mysterious masters on his journeys across the globe and his passion for modern design and technology, the current sound of Govinda was born.

Blues/Folk/Rock – Blewett

Cam Penner doesn’t so much sing songs as summon them up like a medium calling up spirits. His gentle growl can become a Delta howl, as if he is the conduit, a mere medium articulating the blues of a whole continent, emanating from a bottomless well of shared everyman experience. His remarkably sympathetic foil and musical cohort, electric guitar and lap steel sound sculptor Jon Wood, conjures up sound and colour, building spaces where ghosts dwell and shadows beckon. The distinctive flow, the masterful musical bonding and the overall atmosphere they create is both endearing and humbling. They make you want to listen closely to every word and each hand-crafted note. Their unrivaled attention-demanding presence marks this duo apart from other acts.

Full Contact Folk – Okanagan

Ari Neufeld performs from his center. It’s a flourish of young and old songs, familiar and brand new, fleshed out in alternating rhythms and melodies, performed on a wooden amplified stage, with added percussion, and elements of electric and acoustic guitar, piano, banjo, ukulele and harmonica. Neufeld has lived, worked and performed internationally and shared the stage with musical giants. Neufeld is recently transplanted to Vancouver, actively touring his one man band show around Western Canada, after three years of working with a musical development project in Austin Texas.