Friday

The first thing I noticed after getting through the lax security was the reorientation of the festival grounds. Last year, Palomosa’s premier, the smaller Jardin stage was under the Tois Disques sculpture by blahblah. Instead of dancing under this creative brutalist concrete being, we were in a muddy pit of AstroTurf surrounded by festival bars all selling the same expensive drinks ($10 for a blue PBR is crazy).

On Tuesday, September 30, hundreds gathered to march for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, an annual event meant to honor the victims and survivors of Canada's residential school systems.

Speakers and protesters voiced their stories and called out the continued violence against Indigenous women, as well as Canada's disrespect of Indigenous sovereignty. 

All Photo Credit: Ashley Bellam

It’s hard to put into words what the TUKAN experience really is, but I’ll try. Let me set the scene. A year and a half ago, during Montreal’s Jazz Fest on July 5, 2024, my friend went to see Berlioz at MTELUS. After the show, she asked the band the classic question: “Where’s the afters?” In what felt like fate, they replied, “We’re going upstairs.” Upstairs was where TUKAN was performing.

It was a gloomy Monday when a line wrapped around the Beanfield Theatre, waiting for Ellie  Rowsell, Joel Amey, Theo Ellis, and Joff Oddie, also known as Wolf Alice, to light up the stage.