Fredericton’s interdisciplinary arts and music festival will return again this spring with its most ambitious and varied lineup to date. Spread across a wide mix of venues throughout the city’s downtown core, Flourish 2017 will bring over 50 musical acts together with more than a dozen visual artists and independent filmmakers for a weekend celebration of all things creative.
This year’s musical lineup includes performers from Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario and Maine, with many making their first trek to the capital city.
“We have an amazing amount of artists playing for Flourish 2017,” said festival organizer Jane Blanchard. “We tried to ensure, to the best of our abilities, a variance in genres so our lineup includes folk, post-rock, electronic, experimental, country, pop, and everything in between. Over 50% of our artists include a female member, which is something we are proud of. We hope to increase this percentage even more in years to come, and are striving to be more inclusive in all aspects.”
Some of the artists confirmed for the festival’s third edition include Torero, Pony Girl, Jon McKiel, Look Vibrant, Motherhood, Nennen, Little You Little Me and Gianna Lauren to name just a few.
“Welcoming new artists is always so exciting for the community,” said Blanchard. “We also have a lot of friendly faces returning from past editions of FLOURISH with new projects, ideas or iterations. Old and new partnerships are bringing artists from labels like Pretty Purgatory from Portland, Maine and Heavy Trip from Montreal. We’re really excited for this lineup of amazing artists, interesting collaborators, and wonderful humans.”
A big part of the festival’s identity is shaped by participating visual artists. Work can be found on display at various venues throughout the weekend, helping to define the unique character of each new edition.
“This year we’ve seen a big jump in new artists, or artist’s whose work I haven’t seen before, reaching out to us to submit work and installation ideas,” said organizer Stefan Westner. “I’ve been blown away by the scope and ambition of the proposed projects. We always wanted Flourish to showcase the great community we have here, and hoped that it could become a way for new people to jump into the middle of things. I think we’ve really seen that this year, both from Fredericton and beyond.”
Flourish Festival takes place April 20-23, 2017. Check out the festival’s brand new website for complete 2017 festival.
