It’s worth a mention right off the top that the Halifax Pop Explosion app (available where you buy your apps) is pretty handy for prioritizing your fest. Although if you’re anything like me all you’ve managed to do is created a bunch of scheduling conflicts for yourself. Varied musical interests! Great in every instance but festivals, as it turns out.
Thursday:
Hag Face (3:30pm) and Negative Rage (4:15pm) wake up your eardrums gently at Gus’ Pub in the early afternoon, jk both bands are very loud and awesome. Nigel Chapman (5:30pm) and Charlotte Day Wilson (6:15pm) calm things down a bit in the CKDU lobby. Eating is important so make sure you get something in before you go to the Company House (7pm) for a night full of comedy with Nick Thune, Andrew Bush, David Heti, Heidi Brander and Cher Hann. Dyscontrol settle their pie with a set at the Olympic Community Hall (8pm), stick around and watch Weekend Dads, Like A Motorcycle and Against Me! or move on for some Raekwon & Ghostface (9pm) at the Forum. It’s early on the in the weekend and you feel like jumping so end the night with some electronic dance fun at Reflections with KDZ and The Wayo (12am). Sleep, sweet princess.
Friday:
Do you have to go to work? That’s too bad! Take a late lunch and catch the Fixture Records showcase at Gus’ Pub at 2pm, Nicole Ariana and Old and Weird play for free in the CKDU lobby at 5:30pm and 6:15pm, respectively. Look at how much you’ve done already! Jen Kirkman will make you love life at the Company House (7pm). Hand Cream, Brave Radar, Swearin’ and Cousins make a perfect night even more perfect starting at 8pm Reflections. If everything goes according to schedule—and it should, they have very stressed out stage managers for that—you can run to the Carleton to see the secret guest at 12:30am. Hint: HE’S ALL AROUND YOU.
Saturday:
Browsing zines with a rapidly cooling coffee is practically an HPX tradition. Don’t miss out: 12pm at the Bus Stop Theatre. Have you been eating though? Like enough? And some vegetables? Take a health break, everyone who has to look at you will thank you. You can pretend a smoothie is a gin and tonic to help it go down easier. Newly energized, the Danny Brown show (with Tennyson, Weirdo Click and Ryan Hemsworth) at the Forum will pump you up, or Whitehorse at the Cohn with the Symphony will make you cry with beauty. Pick one! No matter what route you take, Ill.Gates and Smalltown DJs at Reflections will keep the good times going until the wee hours at Reflections, technically, you’ve squeezed a few hours out of Sunday, you clever time-thief.
Sunday:
ZZZZ
