Spiral Stairs curates excellent new Sled Island fest line-up

The second annual Sled Island Festival in Calgary, Alberta will take place June 25-28. Doubtful if there will be sledding, per se, but attendees will likely be having so much fun they won’t notice otherwise.

Scott Kannberg, a.k.a. Spiral Stairs of Pavement, was selected to curate the incredible line-up, which takes a particular affinity to independent artists over the mainstream. “Sled Island is looking for a wide range of bands that stray outside the boundaries of commercial rock, whether you’ve been around for six months or six years,” says a press release on the festival’s MySpace.

This year's line-up includes Of Montreal, Wire, Langhorne Slim, Mogwai, Drive-by Truckers, the Dodos, Gutter Twins, Jonathan Richman, Yo La Tengo, Broken Social Scene, Dan Deacon, Grizzly Bear, Deerhunter, No Age, RZA as Bobby Digital, José González, Okkervil River and Kannberg himself, just to name a few. The festival will have a main stage located at Mewata Field, with other smaller venues scattered throughout downtown Calgary.

Attendees have the option to purchase a $120 pass via Ticketmaster for the main stage only and may buy their tickets for the smaller shows a la cart. For $190, their pass will get them into all those shows as well, so long as space allows. In addition to the music, there will also be art, comedy and film showcases to visit during the four-day event.

Finally, Sled Island will not be selling water bottles during the event. Instead, they will have prevalent tap water sources throughout for everyone who brings their own refillable container. How refreshing.

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.