Happy Monday folks! There’s nothing like a grey Monday to get caught up on blogs and let me introduce you to some amazing new music to get you through the day. I spent the weekend at The Hillside Music Festival in my hometown of Guelph, Ontario. Wow! I’m both amazed and embarrassed that it was my first time attending since I grew up in Guelph. But better late than never and I’m soooo happy that I finally got to experience it and I’m pretty sure it won’t be my last. I’m a big music fan and I’ve been to more music events and festivals than I could possibly count and I can say confidently that this is a contender for the best music festival I’ve ever been to. While it, unfortunately, didn’t have the loudspeakers, Visual Display Systems or promotion as some of the bigger festivals I’ve been to, it more than made up for this with its charm and uniqueness.

First I should say that I’m always torn between truly enjoying and living in the moment and documenting it to share with my readers. This was one of those times that it was more about living it than documenting it. Having no power for my phone or a camera also may have helped make the decision for me. So you’ll have to use your imagination when it comes to visuals but you’ll have lots to listen to be inspired.

There is so much to share with you about The Hillside Festival. It’s been happening for over 30 years on the Guelph Lake conservation area and I guess 30 years of experience makes for a well oiled machine. People have and always will enjoy coming to this festival – it is one that offers people an amazing experience. It is a place for people to let loose and enjoy themselves. To drink themselves silly, try out a few drugs and just enjoy themselves. Of course, it’s still important that you are safe, so if you are planning on taking drugs then please be careful – it might be worthwhile buying a drug test (like this MDMA testing here), of course, it’s up to you though. Just remember to enjoy yourself, and make sure to enjoy the music that this festival offers. Its roots are in folk music and community and I would say this is still the main focus but it’s grown into an award winning festival that brings a huge eclectic audience together. You can read more about the Hillside experience & history on their website.

My personal experience is that I’ve never been to a festival of this size that was so well organized, unique, thoughtful, clean,unpretentious, non-commercialized, peaceful (but not in a boring way!), and so jam packed with talented performances and people just so happy to be there. There were handmade art installations around every corner or hidden among the trees, handmade signs for everything you could possibly think of, not a piece of garbage in sight and it was sold out but not too crowded to be annoying.

Usually festival food isn’t a topic for review but can I say that I’ve NEVER seen such amazing food at a festival. Pictured above is my traditional Indian Taco, including edible flowers (!!) by The Flying Chestnut. I was thinking just as much about what I was going to eat than what music to watch. The selection of food was amazing, it was all ‘real’ food if you know what I mean.

PLUS in keeping with Hillside’s policy to be green, it was all served on reusable dishes & cutlery. Everyone got a Hillside mug with entry for drinks. They had waste stations everywhere with very clearly labeled bins for the dirty dishes, compost, recycling and garbage. There honestly was very little waste and no garbage (or plastic water bottles & beer cups) to be seen on the festival grounds. It was truly amazing and an inspiration and example to all events that it can be done for large festivals if people are given the right tools.

Ok, on to the music – so much amazing live music is such a short time. Pretty much every show I saw was great. I came home with a long list of new artists to love and now you will too!

Here are some of my favourite new artist discoveries & highlights from the festival for you enjoy!

Friday night kicked off with the high energy bluesy tunes of Matt Anderson and The Mellotones.

Then Saturday brought with it more amazing music. I would say that one of the highlights of the festival was discovering the super young and super talented Daniel Champagne and being in awe of his guitar skills and beats…yes, guitar beats. It was pretty amazing to watch. Here’s a video I took of the performance just to give you a little taste. One day I will remember to turn my phone the right way when taking videos.

Here’s one of his official videos. Side note – doesn’t he look like Pacey from Dawson’s Creek?! You can catch Daniel live at The Horseshoe Tavern August 27th in Toronto.

Speaking of young, talented & easy to look at Aussie’s, another jaw dropping young talent was Kim Churchill who blew the audience away with his one man band show and beautiful voice. If you closed your eyes you would swear he was playing with a full band. How is it possible that I can barely walk and talk at the same time and some people are so gifted to be talented on four different instruments at the same time?

Another pleasant surprise was the honky tonk blue grass-y sounds of Spirit Family Reunion. The description “American music to stomp, clap, shake and holler with” is perfect. They got the crowd, including me, up and shakin’ pretty much every song.

There was so many new music discoveries, some other favourites included Elephant Revival, The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer and Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar.

It’s really hard to pick just one highlight from such a musically jam-packed weekend but if I absolutely had to I would say that it was the Sunday morning gospel session, lead by Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar with guests, Elephant Revival, Spirit Family Reunion and Red Moon Road. I had never heard of Elephant Revival before, but I absolutely love their music now! I haven’t stopped listening since! I found them on Spotify and they actually have loads of followers and plays. I’m not sure if they Buy Spotify Plays or not but I can’t believe I never heard of them before!

I’m not a religious person, I don’t go to church and I’m sure neither did most of the people at this performance but the music magic that happened during this session was definitely out of this world. If church was like this, I would be there every Sunday. Each artist took turns singing cover or original tunes that had some spiritual meaning. It was almost 2 hours of tears, hand raising, stomping, shaking, singing and just overall happiness. The sound that was going coming out of that tent was extraordinary, it almost made me want to go home and try it out for myself! My friend had told me before that there are companies out there like dj finance who enable you to get kit without having to pay upfront. I thought that was a great idea, nothing could be more fulfilling than making this music yourself.

Here’s a short clip I took to try and capture the magic but it really doesn’t do justice. If you ever go to Hillside, this Sunday morning tradition is a must-see.

There you go. Now you have a new playlist to enjoy the rest of the summer. If you’re already a big Hillside Festival fan then I’m happy to be joining your club, I can’t believe it took me this long. If you’re disappointed you missed out, make sure to put it on your calendar for next year. I’ll see you there!