Nextfest is our favorite time of year.
Marking the arrival of summer, Nextfest is the chance to revel in a sense of community truer than at any other festival in #yeg, truer than at any other time in the year; a moment when more than 400 artists come together in a raucous, rambunctious celebration of the voice of the next generation. It’s an explosive eleven-days of non-stop creative energy. It’s a party – and you’re invited.
This party’s got it ALL going on – film, theatre, dance, visual art, the CBC music series and more!
This year, Catch the Keys is proud to bring you 9 – count ’em! – 9 Nextfest events. We bring the kind of rowdy good times you can only find in Edmonton in the spring…
The Nextfest Niteclubs
Curated by Uber Mistress Beth Dart with Catch the Keys Productions, the Nextfest NiteClubs are a series of late-night, multi-disciplinary performance parties. Each NiteClub has a completely distinct flavour so you’ll never experience the same thing twice. This year the NiteClubs take place at Edmonton’s newest, sexiest location, The Old Cycle Building (9141 118 Avenue), where you’ll be entertained and entertaining as you mix, mingle and absorb the atmosphere and art. Join your chaperones, Ted Sloan and Caley Suliak, for three nights of wild fun.
Method of Madness
Friday, June 3
Doors at 9:00 pm
“A rock through a window never comes with a kiss. Rhyme and a reason never argue with a fist. There’s a time for discussion and a time for a fight. It’s the time in the season for a maniac at night. There’s a lot to be said for a blow to the head. So come on! Make a show! Turn it on! Let it go! Put some madness to the method! We need madness to the method! We want madness to the method! We need madness to the method! We don’t care as long as there’s some madness!” ~ Madness to the Method, Blue Oyster Cult
A night of pure madness featuring an Old Ugly showcase with Mikey Maybe, Bike Month and The Joe.
The Ol’ Smut Saloon
Saturday, June 4
Doors at 9:00 pm
Beat the devil ’round the stump, an’ bend an elbow with the big bugs, flannel mouths and deadbeats at the ol’ Smut Saloon. Get a wiggle on, give it a lick an’ a promise, and get full as a tick – no thing in this fine world will hold a candle to what you’re ’bout to witness. Send in the Girls will play out your wildest fantasies directly, while the crooning Prairie Nights will swing the swill till you’re right soaked. Cris Derksen‘ll have you swooning, while Sister Gray will bring home the moon with an ace-high performance of boot stomping good tunes. Dress to impress at the Smut Saloon!
Rise up!
Saturday, June 11
Doors at 9:00 pm
Your revolution – it’s the what-if, the could-be, the should-be, the will-be. Your revolution – it’s politics and semantics, artistics and music. So gather up the beatnicks, the critics, the cynics, the mystics, the mavericks, the convicts: blow up the gimmicks, pick-apart the slick-ricks, dismantle the predicate. Your revolution – it starts now. Your revolution – it’s a rocket-fuelled multi-disciplinary performance party. Featuring MitchMatic & KazMega and Politic Live.
NuMusic@Nextfest
Curated by Megan Dart with Catch the Keys Productions, NuMusic@Nextfest proudly presents brave new works by emerging composers, musicians, DJ’s, and experimental artists from Edmonton and beyond. A mash up of styles and genres, NuMusic is experimental music at its best. Play in our Found Object Orchestra, dance your feet off at Pop Goes Electro, learn what the #*&% NuMusic is anyway, and hear the Sound of Noise, all at the Old Cycle Building.
The Found Object Orchestra
The Old Cycle Building 9141 118 AVE | Tuesday, June 7 7:00pm
Ever want to play in an orchestra, but don’t know how to play an instrument? Fulfill your wildest dreams without learning to read music! Bring whatever you can drag, push, pull or carry to the Nextfest Found Object Orchestra, where we’ll make sweet music on anything and everything we can. Got keys in your pocket? Shake ‘em. Found a rogue garbage can lid on your walk over? Grab a stick and get drumming. Don’t have a thing to your name? Bring your voice and your body and shake what yo’ momma gave you. Let’s get together in an electric moment of spontaneous music. Led by Music as a Weapon drum circle.
Pop Goes Electro
The Old Cycle Building 9141 118 AVE | Tuesday, June 7 9:00pm
Catchy hooks, danceable beats, synth heavy rock step – your NuMusicians shake the floor with an impossible mashup of musical magic. From the sometimes funny and sometimes gross musical stylings of The Sunshines, to the smooth licks of Cam Boyce, to the psychedelic prog-rock of Peribothra, to the you-just-can’t-stop-the-dancebeats of Cymatic Phase, it’s a night of people-powered party. Dance your feet off!
What the #*&% is NuMusic Anyway?
The Old Cycle Building 9141 118 AVE | Thursday, June 9 5:30pm
Join local composers and new musicians from the music, theatre, video game and film industries for a heated debate about the role of new music in Nextfest, the Edmonton Arts Community and beyond. Moderated by Popular Music Instructor and Musicologist Michael MacDonald.
The Sound of Noise
The Old Cycle Building 9141 118 AVE | Thursday, June 9 9:00pm
Collaborating. Composing. Battling. Circuit bending. Noise making. Witness it all at The Sound of Noise – a night of investigational, off the wall, noise experimentation featuring a saxophone showcase by local composers, and performances by The Mind Hive Collective, Motherboy, MUGBAIT vs. wijit and more. Shake out the noise!
SNOUT
A play development reading, presented by The OCB Sessions at Nextfest
The Old Cycle Building
9141 118 AVE
June 10, 7:00 pm
By Megan Dart
In the dark, I hear the wolf. He is digging his snout into the belly of the sun. He tears through her rays and feasts on her kindness and generosity. He nibbles on her love and he eats her light. She doesn’t scream. She’s been waiting for this. In my dream, I know: she’s been waiting for this. The wolf, he tells her he protects his loved ones, but really, the wolf betrays her secrets, spills them out onto the street for everyone to see. Director: Beth Dart Cast: Nikolai Witschl, Richard Lee, Cole Humeny, Amber Bissonnette
Dot Dot Dot presents Subterranean
The Old Cycle Building
9141 118 AVE
June 7, 6:00pm
June 8, 8:00pm
June 9, 7:00pm
June 10, 8:00pm
A grandfather plans his own death. A girl experiences the worst birthday party ever. A first date ends in feline tragedy. Jessie Mcphee and Joleen Ballendine of Dot Dot Dot, whose unbridled improv-assault drummed up 4-star acclaim at the 2010 Winnipeg Fringe, proudly present their scripted debut Subterranean – a multi-character, infinite-laugh exploration of how love can blossom, bloom, and wither away before you even knew you had it. Dot Dot Dot are regulars in Rapid Fire Theatre’s long-form improv show Chimprov. Cast: Jessie McPhee, Joleen Ballendine