POP Okanagan | Two packed nights of Indie music

by Malcolm Petch

Coming out of the success of the BreakOut West Festival last fall, POP Okanagan hits Kelowna this October 13th  through 16th  with performances at the Streaming Cafe October 14th and 15th.

BreakOut West was the music festival portion of the Western Canadian Music Awards held in Kelowna last year. It featured multiple artists in multiple venues, and was such a hit that local organizers realized they’d be smart to capitalize on the experience and host an Okanagan-specific festival with the same general format.

POP Okanagan (www.popokanagan.com) builds on the triumph of  BreakOut West and gives it a distinctly Valley feel, with as many of the artists as possible coming from right here in the Okanagan (with a few stragglers from that little V-town down in the Fraser Valley). Venues such as the Habitat, Doc Willoughby’s, and, of course, the Streaming Café will play host to these artists, squeezing several performers into each venue during each night of the festival.

While the wrist-bands for access to the whole festival are only $35, if you manage to pick one up before October 1 you can get it for only $20. The wristbands are available at Leo’s Videos and a couple of other locations, or online at the POP Okanagan website. One-evening single-venue passes will be available for $10 at the different venues.

Streaming Café will be presenting shows on Friday and Saturday evenings and will be streamed live online from 8pm to 12am (PST)– catch us online, or on your iPad/iPhone or BlackBerry.

At Streaming Café we will be pleased to play host on Friday to Maurice, Portage & Main, RedBird, Jayson Bendera and on Saturday to Sidney York, Steph Macpherson, Zaac Pick and Kate Morgan.

Needless to say, this will be a mad-cap scramble of an event! We’re anticipating swift changeovers between artists and a high-energy flow of talent through each evening’s festivities. If this is anything like BreakOut West, seating will be at a premium at Streaming Café, and the ability to walk between different venues to catch favourite acts will make the whole weekend a marvelous hub of activity in Downtown Kelowna. Looking forward to seeing you there!