Up Here returns for year eight
With passport delays plaguing the nation, there’s a new kind of passport hitting the streets. It’s just in time for summer, and it’s promising holders as much adventure as any international expedition.
Up Here is back, baby, and with it, a limited number of all-access, entry-guaranteed passports to the eighth edition. The festival, known for its creation of new murals and the presentation of emerging artists, runs from Friday, August 19 to Sunday, August 21, 2022, in Downtown Sudbury.
Just who’s playing? Headlining on Saturday, August 20, they’ve got La Luz, all the way from California, capturing sizzling summer in song with their psychedelic “surf noir,” and Pierre Kwenders, from Kinshasa, Congo by way of Montreal, singing and rapping stories across boundaries of language and geography on Sunday, August 21.
On Friday, August 19, the festival will also host another of their now-famous hip-hop nights, with two Torontonians taking the stage: DijahSB — whose music is a raw look into the mind of a Black non-binary artist rapping their way through hope, heartbreak, and breakthroughs — and Exmiranda — rapper, advocate, entrepreneur, curator, and cultural connecter.
As always, Up Here boasts a famously wide range of programming, a contrast illustrated best by melancholic Ghostly Kisses from Quebec City and Sister Ray from Edmonton at one end of the spectrum and Backxwash’s horrorcore metal-inspired performance at the other end. Pop lovers will rejoice in Jane Inc.’s off-kilter, futuristic synth tunes and Wolf Saga’s dreamlike electropop. There truly is something for everyone.
It’s worth getting psyched for Hippie Hourrah from Montreal, a daydreamy throwback to the late ’60s; Toronto’s Absolutely Free, hypnotic avant-rock shapeshifters; and Jasmyn, the front-person of Weaves, now out on her own, ruminating on the patterns in our lives.
Back by popular demand is Status/Non-Status — Adam Sturgeon (Nme’) and his longtime collaborators (fka Whoop-Szo), whose previous work confronted Sturgeon’s complex family history and identity and was long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize among numerous other accolades, have emerged with new music and new stories to share.
Come from Quebec are two Montrealers: Ellemetue, with an intriguing blend of electro-experimental rock music and poetry, and Seulement, a singular combination of melodic voices and electronic sounds at times aerial, organic, and erratic.
Dancers will delight in Toronto’s Lee Paradise, who moves to the beat of nowhere, and Quintron and Miss Pussycat all the way from New Orleans, renowned for their bayou house party puppetry chaos.
Lest you think there’s nothing local, don’t worry, the not-just-Sudbury-famous Tommy and the Commies, fresh from a tour in Europe, will be tearing it up with their signature power-pop, hooligan tunes. Other locals hitting the stage include garage rockers The Ape-ettes, ambient spaceman Emilio Portal, the echoing beauty of Casper Skulls’ front-woman Melanie St-Pierre’s new project l’loop, the intimate sensibilities of Aurel, the eclectic jams of Bendero & Mars, and the reverb-drenched contemplative rock of Will Powers.
Public Art
On the visual side of things, this year’s murals were curated by Anong Beam, a painter, mother, paintmaker, and curator, living and working in her home community of M'Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island. In 2017, Beam launched her own line of plastic-free, watercolour and oil paints known as Beam Paints, inspired by her culture and pigment gathering of her youth. Aside from curating this year’s muralists, she will also be creating her own mural using a new outdoor paint she developed.
For murals, Beam is bringing Christian Chapman from Fort William First Nation, Ontario, who creates two dimensional mixed-media artwork that fuse elements of computer-manipulated images, painting, drawing, and printmaking, and whose approach is informed by storytelling and serendipity.
Joining Chapman is Born in the North, a creative studio owned and operated by twin brothers, Chris and Greg Mitchell, whose work — inspired by their Mi’kmaq heritage, music exploration, and Canadian upbringing — is focused on examining the relationship between humans and nature.
You’ll also see Alex Bierk, whose painting practice focuses on his experience with addiction and loss, being a new father, and archiving his experience in small-town Ontario.
The mural locations, and the artists participating in the Power Up Project—the initiative that invites local artists to paint hydro boxes around Greater Sudbury—will be revealed in July.
Passports Available Now
With so much to see and hear, a passport will help you make sure you get the most out of the trip that is Up Here festival. Passports are now available in limited quantities for $90. Passport holders get priority access to all concerts, can hop freely from venue to venue, and can skip the lines at the pop-up bar on the main festival site. Individual tickets go on sale July 7 at noon, when the complete schedule will be revealed.
Who wants to wait in an airport for three beautiful August days when you could spend those 72 precious hours of warm weather soaking up art and music on Durham Street in Downtown Sudbury with friends, family, and a cold drink?
Community Support
Up Here has been able to thrive with the support of countless allies. A special thanks to Canadian Heritage, Barrydowne Paint, Equipment World, Greater Sudbury Utilities, the Ontario Arts Council, the Government of Ontario, Sudbury Tourism, Downtown Sudbury, Duplicators, Exclaim!, Studio123, and many more. To partner up with Up Here, visit uphere.com/partnerup.