It’s time to face the music.
Local ears are perking up as the West Coast’s beloved weekend music festival is coming up.
The Otalith Music Festival is getting set to fill Ucluelet’s Seaplane Base Field with good times and good tunes this weekend.
The now-annual festival made its first appearance in 2013 after being launched by the Pacific Rim Music Festival Society in an effort to put the West Coast on the music festival map and lure world-class musicians to its somewhat remote doorstep.
“We started it because we love Ucluelet, and we want other people to love Ucluelet as much as we do, and there’s no better way to celebrate how incredible Ucluelet is than by bringing world renowned, critically acclaimed, musicians to the most beautiful spot in the world to play awesome music for beautiful people,” society director Jessie Fletcher told the Westerly.
“The West Coast is the ideal place for a music festival...Everybody living here will agree that we have the best people; we’re the perfect hosts.”
Last year’s event welcomed about 1,000 music lovers but Fletcher cited better-than-ever early ticket sales as evidence to expect an increase to 1,500 this year.
After trying out a two-town system that shared bands between Ucluelet and Tofino last year, this year’s event will focus on Ucluelet to ensure festivalers can see every performance.
Fletcher said Ucluelet's Seaplane Base Field has been a consistently terrific setting for the festival’s fairgrounds.
“The field is really beautiful. It’s a great location. It gets all the sun. It’s protected from the wind. It’s right by the campground. We love it,” she said.
Fletcher is stoked on this year’s lineup and said a second stage has been added to the mix to allow DJ’s to fill the space in between live-music sets.
She said the society is proud of the reputation the young festival has earned.
“We’re always astounded that we’re successful and every time we have the most amazing people show up to our festival, we’re astounded and we just feel so lucky...We have the best music festival community on the face of the planet,” she said.
The society runs the festival in partnership with non-profit organizations: Pacific Wild, The Ucluelet Aquarium and the Jamie Collins Legend and Legacy Fund.
“The goal of Otalith is not only to have a stinking good time, but to also raise money for organizations that do a lot of good in our communities...Any profits go to other non-profits,” Fletcher said.
“This is a feel-good venture...You’re supporting people who are really committed to your community and are really just doing this for you to have a good time.”
Fletcher is confident the festival’s good times, and success, will continue.
“It’s so laid back, we’re so surrounded by incredible wilderness, and we try to curate the music so that it’s not like any other festival ,” she said.
“It’s just your cool-kid best friends throwing you a really cool festival in their amazing back yard.”
She added the event offers families a solid vibe to bask in.
“I think the best part about Otalith is that people do bring their kids and it’s a festival that families feel comfortable bringing their kids to,” she said.
Tickets are on sale now and will be available at the event. Anyone looking for more information is encouraged to visit www.otalithfestival.com.
Andrew.bailey@westerlynews.ca