Initial Details On The Northern Vibe Festival's Forest Stage Lineup For 2023!!

Single topic post today, as the band lineup for the Forest Stage at this year's Northern Vibe Festival at the old Hempfest grounds in Ophir has been announced via the event's Facebook page yesterday, so who can you expect over the last weekend of August? Just as a primer beforehand, the performance times were not stated yesterday, keeping in line with the last two years since J.D. Pearce began curating the Forest Stage, which never saw a full schedule reveal from organizers. Unless protocols have changed this year, stay tuned to the bands' social media pages for any details on when they are specifically playing. Eleven acts are currently scheduled for the eighth annual Northern Vibe, which is down one from last year (three if you count withdrawn bands), but there will be more touring bands than in 2022. The advertised headliners are Montreal ska punk band K-Man & The 45s, making their first local appearance in over four years!

Fans will recall seeing K-Man & crew on a local stage seven times in six years from 2013-2019, and it will be great to see them back with their horn section and fun energy in tow! The other two touring acts both feature Spades GT guitarist Jay Sarrazin returning to Ophir, albeit not with Spades GT. Rather, his Waterloo hard rock quartet Sierra Pilot and his Cornwall speed metal trio Hellrager will both make their regional debuts at Northern Vibe VIII. Both deliver the genre goods, so don't bypass either in late August, and do check the out to see what they bring to the table! With that said, Spades GT are surprisingly not playing this year's festival.... but Frightlight are! Yes, the inactive local horror punk quintet will rise from the grave for a one-off reunion, in their first gig since this event in 2021! No public word yet on who will take over on drums for the late Chris Thompson, but the drummer was revealed in personal Facebook postings.

Three other acts are all returning from the past two Northern Vibe installments, namely alternative quintet Handsome Sandwich (don't miss their CD release party at The Loft TONIGHT!), punk trio A Dire Setback, and funk/hard rock cover band The Wyld Stallyns. All will be riding some good momentum after high profile 2023 shows, so they're fine picks to return for a third year! No word on why The Soo Fighters and Dynowaves aren't pulling the triple themselves, however. The newbies to Northern Vibe include local/Barrie alt-hard rock solo artist Mike Haggith (no word on if his new album will be done in time or not), online page-less alternative/punk supergroup Bookclub (sharing the stage with The Wyld Stallyns once again), and new local hard rock quartet Far From Fine (née Ravencore) in their first announced show of the year. The other advertised band are The Castletons, who are new to the SMS, but who are they?

As it turns out, they're a revival of a rock duo that was active locally from 2017-2018, featuring Frightlight bassist Mike "Eddie Fright" Gingras in their ranks, However, they were always cagey in their initial run about their full identities and sound, but based on the intimate venues that they frequented at the time, I'd assume that they're an acoustic act. We'll let you know if anything extra goes public! Northern VIIIbe (see what I did there?) takes place from Friday, August 25th-Sunday, August 27th, but if past years are any indication, bands will only play on Friday and Saturday, with the Friday lineup being shorter (last year had five bands on Friday and seven on Saturday). Like in past years, camping is more than welcomed in Ophir (east of Bruce Mines), and decorations are welcomed, but not glass bottles. Tickets for this year run for $100 minimum, which is down from last year, and packages also exist with bundled t-shirts and/or hoodies!

As is normal for Northern Vibe, there are no single-day ticket options, perhaps justifying why they don't release daily schedules if everyone's paying for the whole weekend anyway, but that's just conjecture on my part. Buy your tickets and/or clothing items at this link, and the implication is that these are early bird prices that will go up in June, so act fast! Sounds like another fun time is ahead for concert-goers, partiers, and campers alike, especially with the River Stage full of talented DJs also on site once again, so visit the above links for complete current details on Northern Vibe VIII later this summer! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news on the site next week! Thanks everyone!