There's a new festival coming to Vancouver. The first-ever Unreal City Music Festival begins in January.
Running January 10–11 at Russian Hall in the city's Strathcona neighbourhood, the stack lineup of local indie performers includes Dead Soft, la lune, worrywart, cherry pick, Super Krystal, Tall Mary, NMA, the Hausplants, Weak Knees, Aversions, Burnt Lung, cortico, water margin and Mental Health.
An announcement also promises a "knockout collection of local talent covering a broad range of the city's insanely eclectic rock music diaspora" taking place across two evenings and one day. There's also a downstairs lounge with vinyl DJs, picture booth, sandwiches from Rebel Rebel Barbecue, and more.
"A lot of the festival organizers are in local bands themselves," said Festival Director Sam Coll in a statement. "We really felt like there was a hole in the calendar this time of year, and where other Canadian cities are celebrating their indie bands in winter with festivals of their own, there wasn't much like that here. We think we're starting strong and we're hoping to grow this into an annual fixture."
Festival Coordinator Rose Morgan added, "People are feeling the pinch financially. Now more than ever, it's important to create fun, welcoming spaces for people to come together and support local artists."
Early bird tickets cost $30 and are available until December 2. Get more details in the Instagram post below.