Shambhala Music Festival 2017 x HipHopVancouver
Words: John Zee
Photography: Ronan Considine – @soundflashphotography
Shambhala celebrated its 20th year in festival operations this summer and the milestone was met with plenty of eagerness and heavy anticipation. Both Squamish Valley Music Festival and Pemberton Fest, 2 of BC’s other prominent music festivals, canceled their events this year leaving Shambhala the crown for being Western Canada’s most sought after party event of the summer. HipHopVancouver was on location for what was surely a momentous party chalk full of some of the world’s most prominent headlining DJ’s and producers, as well as some of the best local BC talent and live performance acts that Canada has to offer.
The weekend started off in rough shape weather wise as festival-goers and event staff were met with clouds of deep, thick smoke that was being caused by a series of nearby forest fires. Daily reports were being posted by festival staff warning of a possible evacuation, but nothing of the sort manifested until late Saturday afternoon. Prior to the eventually evacuation notices, the crowd of just over roughly 17,000 attendees, staff and volunteers were blessed with mind melting audio and bass presented by the revolutionizing technicians PK Sound, along with state of the art technicolour laser and visual art displays at each of the 6+ stages to visit.
Fire evacuation notices caused attendees to believe Shambhala would be cut a day/night early and that Saturday, Aug. 12th was to be their last day at this landmark party. However it wasn’t until a few thousand people left the farm grounds that the evacuation notices were revoked and that the festival would carry on as per normal. In the midst of the wildfire melay, several notable acts such as LTJ Bukem were unfortunately canceled. However that didn’t stop the spirits of Shambhala to be roaring high as people geared up for another night of incredible fun and thudding, bass riddled craziness.
HHV highlights included meeting and interviewing Rick and Sue Bundschuh, the friendly and hospitable owners of the farmland that hosts Shambhala each and every year for the past 20 summers, as well as watching Saskatchewan/Vancouver rapper Def3 crowd surf on a homemade surfboard, before interviewing him in the infamous Shambhala tree fort. Filming a feature video with the legendary, 3-time consecutive DMC World champion DJ Craze, then watching Craze skratch and warm up with Brighton UK’s, DJ JFB in The Turntemple was a Turntabalist nerds wet dream come true. We then shifted our focus throughout the weekend and caught up with the OG himself, Z-Trip who helped to provide a truly unreal festival experience that those who were lucky enough to be in attendance would never forget. Not only did HHV get the opportunity to once again interview DJ Z-Trip, but we were also witness to both of his remarkably unique and exceptionally memorable, animal themed Elephant and Wolf sets. A set so magically special that it absolutely rocked the place to the point that Z-Trip’s chants and praise for Mother Nature literally caused heavy rains to come pouring out of the Kootney night skies. Be sure to stay tuned for feature videos with all of the artists/contributors mentioned above.
All in all, this was a trip we at HipHopVancouver were fortunate and blessed to be a part of. Shambhala is a lot of hard work, both with the preparations leading into the festival as well as following through and recording the video pieces we set out to capture. However the work is quickly well rewarded once onsite and being so closely involved in one of the best gatherings one could participate in. Without a doubt, our entire crew walked away having experienced one of the best weekends of our lives.
Although at times the constant smoke would interfere with the ability to capture the “perfect picture”, we still managed to pull in plenty of visual content. This photo set along with our upcoming video releases are good representations of that and we are excited to share it with everyone in the coming weeks/months. Keep it locked to HHV for exclusive Shambhala 2017 recap videos and interviews coming soon.
Shouts out to the HHV crew; Ronan Considine, Kiet Le, Jonathan Robinson, John Zee, Josh “Yoshi” Tisch and honorable mentions, Dave Dalley, Matt “Sirreal” Dunae, Alle Marie, Chelsea “CNugz” Gibbons, Peter Pool aka DJ All Good and The Turntemple, Todd Parr, Stacey Vandermeer, Sasha Young, Krysten Loiselle and Hannah Mockett. Also many thanks to Britz Robbins and the entire Shambhala media staff for their assistance leading into the festival, including all of the ease and support once up at Shambhala as well. Big Ups!
