Toronto’s Field Trip music festival doesn’t yet have the notoriety of the city’s more established summer music festivals like North by Northeast (NXNE), or even the Toronto Urban Roots Festival. It’s only in its second year, after all, created in 2013 as a one-day event to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Canadian indie label Arts & Crafts (A&C). Last year the day featured performances from some of the label’s biggest acts, including Broken Social Scene, Feist, and Stars. It also brought together some of the best independent food vendors the city has to offer, shining a spotlight on Toronto culture.
The smash success of last year’s Field Trip prompted the label to expand the event to a two-day music and food extravaganza at the historic Fort York and Garrison Common. While the original event featured only musicians from the A&C label, this year’s festival involved a wide range of international artists.
A&C staples, like the label’s co-founder, Kevin Drew, and the somewhat ubiquitous Broken Social Scene, were a strong presence at the festival, along with artists more recently signed to the label, The Darcys and Reuben and the Dark. Other up-and-coming Canadian artists of different genres made appearances to round out the sound of the festival — pop singer Maylee Todd and rapper Shad brought diversity to the primarily indie-rock offerings. Another standout was A Tribe Called Red, an Ottawa-based group who brought their self-titled “powwow-step” to the Field Trip stage. Their mix of hip-hop, reggae, and dubstep, combined with elements of First Nations music, generated a massive dance mob at the otherwise laid-back festival.
International performers included New York-based indie rockers Interpol and Scottish electronic group Chvrches. The weekend proved to be not only a showcase of what A&C has to offer, but also a display of how Toronto is growing as an international music hub.
Launched in 2003 by Jeffrey Remedios, former Virgin Records executive, and Kevin Drew, co-founder of Broken Social Scene, A&C has long been acknowledged as a powerhouse music label at the centre of progressive Canadian music. The massive success of Field Trip so early on in its history speaks both to the strength of the label and the growth of the Toronto music scene.
In addition to the many musical offerings, festival-goers also had a chance to consume the best of Toronto food and culture at various booths spread across the Fort York grounds.
A&C promoted the festival as “a world-class, two-day boutique music and arts festival situated in the heart of downtown Toronto.” The strength of the A&C label has always stemmed from a fierce belief in Canadian music and culture, and the success of Field Trip can also be tied to its support of Toronto culture. There is little doubt that Field Trip will be returning to Toronto next summer with an even more impressive lineup; it won’t be long before it will have established itself as a fixture of the Toronto festival scene.
