Uptown Live 2019 will be a little bit country, a little bit rock n’ roll – and a variety of musical genres in between.
The annual street party and music festival returns to uptown New West on Saturday, July 20 from noon to 9 p.m. Along with music on four stages that will showcase some of the top emerging talent in B.C., Uptown Live will have a “beverage service area” featuring a variety of craft beers, food trucks, interactive exhibits and artisans.
The Chris Buck Band, which has been nominated for multiple B.C. Country Music Association Awards and won Album of the Year in 2017, is headlining this year’s lineup. Buck’s self-titled debut album and hit That’s When You Know had four million streams and was added onto to more than 75,000 playlists on Spotify, along with being nominated for the Canadian Country Music Association’s Video of the Year.
“I’ve been waiting for this show for a long time! I moved out here from Ontario and went to F.W. Howay Elementary School and New Westminster Secondary School and have never done a major hometown show. It’s been such a journey, and now we get to play in my backyard,” Buck said in a press release. “I hope to see all of New West out for this one.”
Other acts taking to the stages at Uptown Live include Kadooh, Ludic, Redwoods, Robert Connely and the Dirty Dirty, and Antoinette and the Latest.
“Uptown Live has become a premiere event on the summer music calendar. We have built a reputation for showcasing the best emerging talent in B.C.,” said festival director Douglas Smith, who produces Uptown Live on behalf of the Uptown Business Association of New Westminster. “It’s amazing how artists’ careers have taken off since debuting at Uptown Live. We are delighted to provide a platform to showcase their talents.”
Smith believes organizers have done a great job of curating artists for Uptown Live’s four stages with the support of Live Acts Canada and The Live Agency. He said the performers have a range of sounds, with some being rocky and others more folky.
“It’s a little more eclectic in terms of the musical sounds, maybe,” he said of this year’s lineup. “We like to mix it up. We don’t like to have everything have a certain sameness to it. In our lineups we do tend to try and balance things out with a little bit of everything. We have definitely got some bands that are doing sort of the electronica kind of thing. Some are more rock. Some are more melodic in terms of the singer-song writing. Most everything we do is trying to get bands playing original music. That’s really the key."
Details about all the entertainment on the four stages can be found at www.uptownlive.ca.
