When you are young, you can get set in phases where you like what is deemed as cool, and not much else outside of those boundaries you set for yourself. For the older festival-goers, it was a trip back in time to when they were young. For the young attendees, it was more than just an excuse to let loose and party. It gave the opportunity to experience music that you may love, but mainly to experience music that you may not see otherwise, or may not want to pay to see when the artist does their regular stretch of tour dates. The Pemberton Festival opens your eyes to the power of music, to experiencing music outside of your comfort zone. Pemberton is the kind of festival that makes you want to pick up those CDs from your shelf that you have not really listened to and give them a fair chance.

Between the concerts, there was not much else to entertain. You could line up to play one song on Guitar Hero each day, walk around the little vendors selling clothes, or go back to camp. The Bacardi live tent always had such a huge line, that there really was no point waiting for a couple hours or so to try to get in.

Despite the traffic madness, and other festival start-up problems, the inaugural Pemberton Festival was a success. Already talking about the festival next year, Shane Bourbonnais assured all media that the organizers “have identified those issues and we have been taking notes and figuring out how we can improve.” The Pemberton Festival is now considered the largest in Canada, and brought in around 40,000 people, which surprised organizers who would have been satisfied with 25,000.

Festival organizers were completely satisfied with the line-up choices. According to Shane Bourbonnais, “We got Coldplay, one of the biggest bands in the world. We started calling other agencies and management companies and the next thing you know I had more bands interested than we could possibly fit. It was a nice problem to have. It is an incredible line-up. You’ve got Coldplay, Nine Inch Nails, Tom Patty, Jay-Z, The Tragically Hip; you really have to hit all corners of the music. We have the who’s who of what’s happening right now.”

When discussing the B-Live tent, Shane said the idea behind the B-Live tent was to have people go in, experience the beats and lights, and feel like they are “somewhere other than Pemberton, and walk out when it is closed, look up at the stars and the mountain, and go 'Wow. That was awesome!'”

The musical highlights of Pemberton:

Wolfmother: Not just a favourite in Australia anymore. The track “Woman” received an incredible response, and had fans wishing they were playing along with their plastic guitar hero guitars. Some fans even wore afro wigs, to pay tribute to the lead singer Andrew Stockdale. Wolfmother are influenced by 70's hard rock acts, such as Led Zeppelin, but belt out a mix between modern and old school style rock. They show that rock music has not disappeared, and that working hard and playing harder leads to success.

Nine Inch Nails: NIN definitely had the best light show of the entire festival during their set. The light seemed to follow Trent Reznor around the stage. The crowd was completely hypnotized by the band’s mix of old well-known songs such as “F**k You Like An Animal,” “March Of The Pigs,” and less known tracks such as “Eerie.” NIN had the craziest moshing and body surfing crowd, next to Jay-Z. Very impressive.

Tom Petty: The well-oiled Tom Petty machine moved from strength to strength throughout the set. It was a great feeling to witness the crowd singing along to all the classic songs. A Petty fan or not, the crowd happily ate up all of classics: "Free Fallin’", "I Won’t Back Down," and “Don’t Come Around Here No More.”

Kathleen Edwards: Brilliant. She definitely did not have the size of crowd that I had expected she would have, but she did not seem to mind. Edwards provided a much needed change of pace from the heavier music that day. What dedication too, playing with a concussion from a fall a few days earlier.

The Tragically Hip: You can’t have a festival in Canada without some great Canadian talent. The Hip had the crowd very involved, relaxed, and dancing around having a great time. The Hip provided a set that was full of great tracks, such as “New Orleans is Sinking,” “Courage,” and “Ahead by a Century,” to what looked like almost all of the 40,000 festival attendees. Why The Hip played before The Flaming Lips, is beyond us.

The Flaming Lips: As always, The Lips live performance brought many surprises that included: Teletubbies, Confetti, Balloons, and streamers. They stand out because of their antics on stage, and wacky lyrics. For example, the track “She Don’t Use Jelly,” is centered around a girl spreading Vaseline on her toast instead of jam or cheese. Many festival-goers were left confused, wondering how much talent they actually possess. The Flaming Lips seemed to be there more for the entertainer aspect, but it could have also been that the sound for their set was not great.

Black Mountain: Just off tour with Coldplay, Black Mountain is definitely a diamond in the rough, as they have the potential to become high quality jewels of the music industry, and were our favorite discovery of the festival. The set was based on their album “In The Future,” starting with “Stormy High.” It was obvious watching their performance that Vancouver’s Black Mountain deserved to be on the main stage.

Sam Roberts: Sam Roberts has been around for a while, and his popularity shows. New material and fan favorites were played, both with a positive response. Fan favorites included “"Brother Down,"” and “"Bridge To Nowhere."” It began to rain during the track "Mind Flood," which was happily received, as it helped settle the dust that was flying everywhere the day before. Luckily the rain seized and only continued lightly during performances, more off than on.

N.E.R.D: Only two members made it to the festival to perform; the others were stuck on the highway. Declaring that the show must go on, the show did. Many female fans were brought onstage to dance, and making their set a big party worked for them. Only having two members perform did not seem to disappoint attendees at all.

Jay-Z: Pleasantly surprised, Jay-Z’s performance was indeed a highlight. His ability to hype the crowd was amazing, and it showed through how crazy the crowd got, through how much love they were showing Jay-Z for showing up. Jay-Z stuck to a set packed with his greatest hits, such as “99 Problems,” and did his part on “Umbrella,” and “Crazy In Love,” without Rihanna or Beyonce in tow. The very appreciative and thankful artist even declared: “To come up and here and get this much love, don't think I don't appreciate it,” and picked random people out of the crowd, complimented each of them, whether it was on their body paint, for dancing through his entire set, or their clothes, saying "I appreciate each and every one of y'all out there."

Matisyahu: There really is not much more to say than WOW. We had been waiting to experience Matisyahu since we were first introduced to his music a while back. The Lillooet stage was flooded with people; more people than for any other artist on that stage. Fans referring to the rapper as the “Rapping Rabbi” happily danced around, and exclaimed to their buddies how amazing Matisyahu is. So, in short: WOW.

Coldplay: Coldplay closed the festival with a bang. Playing tracks off their new album “Viva La Vida,” as well as old favourites, Coldplay show that they have developed quite the live show. Coldplay did a good job of mixing fan favourites, such as “Yellow” and “Clocks,” with instilling their new album’s material in the listeners. “Yellow” was an amazing track to hear in a setting such as Pemberton, with the sky above, even if the stars were not completely visible. It was amazing when Martin let the tens of thousands of concert-goers sing the opening verse.

Overall, festival goers did not completely mind striding through the kinks that need to be worked on. Attendees were there to have a good time, and gain the festival experience, which they happily did. Festivals like Pemberton show what an important part music can play in your life and renew your faith in music itself.

+Debbie Gebert & Darcy Fettback

+July 28, 2008
Photos: Pemberton Official, Rebecca Blissett