TURF 2014

Toronto Urban Roots Festival 2014

Epic, Amazing, Amazingly Epic, Epically Amazing... These are the first things that came to mind when we were asked to write about our experience this past weekend at The Toronto Urban Roots Festival. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the festival, it was a three-day concert event featuring over 44 artists, three jumbo stages, food trucks and free giveaways in the heart of downtown Toronto. It is really difficult to put into words the good vibes, happy faces and fun that everyone who attended experienced but we will try our best.

The Fort York is located in the heart of Downtown TO!

         To start the Fort York was an incredible place to have an outdoor festival. The stages were positioned so that there was no sound interference between the three acts who usually played simultaneously. The CN Tower stood proud in the background of the stages adding its coloured lights to the light show the bands provided. The south stage was set up almost directly below the Gardiner Expressway, at the bottom of a hill which allowed attendees to sit on a hill and look down at the act creating a natural amphitheatre.

          The patrons who attended the event were diverse and the ages and style choices varied extensively. This was the first music festival I attended where there were families with small children, pop-punk teenagers, hipsters and young professionals. But the weirdest part was how everyone got along and would converse amongst each other. As you walked around the grounds patrons would say hi to each other, ask who they're most excited to see and recommend bands that they enjoy who are about to play.

Cristina was super excited for a Beaver Tail!

Part of what made TURF so great was the vendors and food trucks that the festival chose for the weekend. The food truck line up included Big Fat Burrito, Beaver Tails, PortoBello Burgers, The Flying Chestnut Kitchen, Two Bite Saloon, An Ice Cream Drunk, Kettle Corn, Roasted Corn, Homemade Lemonade and Ice Tea stands, Ontario grown fruits and veggies and the list just goes on and on. Personally we enjoyed yummy Burritos and freshly made poutine. The truck that really stuck out in our minds was the ice cream truck. As I approached the truck, the Ice Cream man called out that he only sells ice cream to 'happy and excited' customers and wanted us to approach him cheering (which we did). Not only was the ice cream great but having such a joyful vendor encourage us to have even more fun than we were already having, put us in the best possible mood!

Walking around, there were some great vendor and promotional booths set up, however we would like to draw attention to one vendor in particular. Florida's To Write Love On Her Arms had a tent set up to raise awareness and sell merchandise to promote their cause. Hearing the story of how TWLOHA started and the people the organization's helped was incredible. The organization started as a few friends who wanted to raise money for a friend who was suffering from addiction and self-injury but grew to help people world-wide and to this day has raised over 1,000,000 dollars to help those suffering from depression, addiction, self-injury and suicidal thoughts. What really stood out to us is the organization's focus of hope and starting new and focusing on the bigger issue of self-esteem and self-loathing that many who are suffering deal with. They were really cool guys manning the booth and offered free help-resources (location specific) for anyone who wants it or knows someone who might. Visit their website here to learn more.

Beirut; Closing the Show on Friday

Local Natives' musicianship was phenominal

The line-up for the weekend included 44 local and international artists; Sam Roberts Band, The Gaslight Anthem, Hollerado, Beirut, Gary Clark Jr., Local Natives, Hey Rosetta, Hollerado, Neutral Milk Hotel, July Talk among others. 

 On friday night we saw Beirut perform. The band had a trumpet, a trombone, accordion and it sounded and worked so great! The lead singer's vocals were mesmerizing. Someone who had never heard this band's music would be able to graciously sign and dance along. Local Natives were crazy to see live, one member of their band was playing a drum, symbol, keyboards and singing simultaneously. We can honestly say that we have never seen anything like that before (knew it was even possible).

Hollerado's set was incredible!

         Hollerado was the final act on sunday and caused an uproar when they finished their set. Hollerado had an amazing stage presence, got the crowd to sing along, jumped and threw guitars, and even let a fan come on stage to play guitar with them! Their sound was incredible, the in-between-songs jokes and stories they told were hilarious and the crowd loved them. Once the band finished the crowd demanded that the band came back for an encore, unfortunately when they came back the microphones were already off so the band started singing the Canadian National Anthem Acapella. The entire crowd joined in the lighting guys made the stage go red and it was the most perfect ending to a perfect music festival (especially one who's focus was to showcase Toronto).

In sum TURF was an organic and chill music festival and we truly had ever had the pleasure of attending this year. We want to thank everyone who attended and shared their good vibes and love of live music. We want to thank the food trucks who supplied a diverse and delicious food selection, the Smirnoff promo reps for giving us free samples, Indie 88 for their promotional swag, The Fort York for being such an incredible outdoor venue, the TURF staff and volunteers, the artists and their crews for performing, To Write Love On Her Arms, and everyone who had a part in making TURF 2014 happen. If you didn't get a chance to come out this year you definitely need to add TURF 2015 to your festival list for next summer. Visit TURF's website here.

I MOST DEFINITELY LOVE TURF!

#ExperienceYourCity #TURF2014 #VenueToronto

- THE VENUE TEAM

Review written by Katryna Klepacki