Early Lineup Details For This Year's Northern Vibe Festival's Forest Stage!!

The initial band lineup is now out for the ninth annual Northern Vibe Festival at the old Hempfest grounds on Poplardale Road in Ophir, so what should you know there? The festival returns on the last full weekend of August once again from Friday the 23rd through Sunday the 25th, and for a fourth straight year, Spades GT frontman J.D. Pearce will return to his old local concert promoter guise to curate this year's band-centric Forest Stage (the DJ-centric River Stage lineup is also out). If past years are anything to go by, the Friday band lineup will be the shorter of the two, followed by a longer Saturday progam on the 24th, while that Sunday will be the camping/wrap-up day with no scheduled bands. As has been custom for Northern Vibe post-pandemic, the daily schedules/timeslots are not out yet, hence why we're not calling this a formal local concert alert, but organizers did announce them publically last year, if on late notice.

While the above poster implies that "more (is) TBA", the currently advertised list of eleven acts equals who played last year on the Forest Stage, including six returning bands, but they do appear to be leaning on touring acts more this year, as three of the five Northern Vibe newbies are from out of town. This year's advertised headliners (presumably the 9:00 PM Saturday act if that holds) are Montreal ska punk band K-Man & The 45s, who were last year's closing band at Northern Vibe, and famously played seven local concerts from 2013-2019. Clearly, K-Man's return to our area was a hit last year, so it'll be good to see their horn-laden punk attack back at the Forest Stage in four months! The other returning touring band is Cornwall speed metal group Hellrager, who still feature part-time Spades GT guitarist Jay Sarrazin. Counting his bass fill-in with Spades in 2022, this will be Jay's third straight trip to Ophir.

It'll be good to see him and Hellrager tear it up again! While Spades GT proper are not playing this year, bassist James Roy Daley will be making his first trip to the festival with an apparent solo set. I don't know if they mean his psychobilly band Killroy A.D. (which he drums in) or if this is purely a solo gig, but we'll let you know if we get confirmation! Also making the trip to Ophir for Northern Vibe IX are two more bands making their local debuts, including Cornwall hard rock band Don't Tell Sarah, a raw & high energy quartet with an old school flair and strong talents that will serve them well with local festivalgoers! The other touring band is Medussah, a female-fronted electronic rock duo from North Bay whose name was misspelled in much of the early festival promotion (omitting the H at the end). Definitely a stylistic jump from other bands playing the festival, but they are talented and will give some zest to the proceedings!

For the six announced local acts playing this year, four are returnees from last year's Northern Vibe Festival, including alt-hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich, local/Barrie solo standout Mike Haggith (in his first announced full-band show of 2024 and since Matt Fronzi replaced Jacob Quarrell on bass), sporadically seen punk trio A Dire Setback, and funk/hard rock cover sextet The Wyld Stallyns (who headlined the Friday lineup last year). All but Mike are playing Northern Vibe for the fourth straight year, so if you've liked the local aspect so far, you'll be right at home in 2024! The two newcomers from the Soo are new local folk/bluegrass band The Golden Scoundrels (featuring Shit Liver's Josh Penno and Handsome Sandwich bandmates Brandon Ruch & Johnny Belanger) and local rap collective Fvksxvad, who we've primarily covered members of individually on the SMS in the past.

The Golden Scoundrels have gotten positive reviews since debuting earlier this year (Dirtfight fans should like them), while Fvksxvad have talented MCs and they'll add a unique dimension to this year's Forest Stage lineup! Crank Sound Distribution will be on hand once again to keep everyone sounding their best at this year's festival. Once again, Northern Vibe is a 19+ festival, and you can get all the ground rules for attending, camping, and directions to Poplardale Road via their official website. The first wave of early bird tickets completely came and went before the Forest Stage lineup reveal, but weekend passes for wave 2 of the early bird availability are now on sale for $110 ($200 for VIP passes) at this link, and official festival shirts/hoodies are available when buying tickets. At this juncture, Saturday-only tickets are not out yet, but for reference, admission closer to the opening date was $150 for the weekend and $85 for Saturday alone.

It's great to see Northern Vibe back for a ninth year (and tenth anniversary of the original installment), and hopefully things go smoothly for organizers in terms of performers, attendance, weather, and attendee conduct this August! If you're up for the music and/or camping off the grid, definitely visit the above links for more details, and in all likelihood, look for this month's CD review on the site next! Thanks everyone!