Got Time for a Good Time?

Embrace Production’s Time Festival has proven again and again that it’s a cost-effective summer escape for Torontonians looking to get away but maybe don’t have the time to travel too far away?

For a mere $45 in advance ticket prices, kids looking to catch up with the pulse of the Pitchforkers and Stereogummers of the world were treated to a widely diverse group of artists like gangsta rapper Freddie “fuck da police” Gibbs, DJ Ryan “RyRy Bad Boy” Hemsworth, jazzaholic wannabe hip hop backup banders BadBadNotGood, feel good slacker rocker Mac DeMarco, and the explosive rave rap insanity of pikapikapika Die Antwoord.

While I’d seen a handful of the acts already, bands like BadbadNotGood make for very high calibre background noise, and there were no complaints I could think of. The highlight for some was Mac DeMarco whom I finally got to see live, and attempt to grasp the appeal. He speaks to the “softboy” in all of us.

Die Antwoord’s set was epic with multiple costume changes, mostly from Yolandi, while Ninja kept the crowd entertained with some kind of banter, rap, hyping, and prancing. One of the highlights was their outrage over not having time for an encore. To be honest, they must have known all this before they got on stage but were probably fuming all day about it and let the festival know LOUD AND CLEAR. It was unfortunate and ironic that two songs earlier they had led the 8,000 person strong crowd in a rousing “FUCK THE RULES, FUCK FUCK YOUR RULES” chant. Sigh. Corporate festivals (sometimes) suck.

Also, Ariel Pink was mighty pissed too after his mic suffered from feedback three times. He stormed off stage at the end saying “we had a really fucking cool finale planned for you but fuck this. We’re done.” Tech difficulties were more noticeable to artists than anyone though.

I’d rate the fest, for the audience over all, at an 8/10.

Note: After posting some of this on FB I was corrected by a Time Festival Die Antwoord went on late which is why they didn’t have time for the encore. Their crew at least knew about Toronto’s strict 11pm curfew ahead of time but they had some sort of delays in changeover and went on 5 minutes late.

Fort York’s dusty all purpose field’s been put to good use as things were kept simple with a single stage of power flanked in the sides and rear with a slew of local festival favourite food trucks and one magical merch booth.

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