Sled Island

Holy wow! Sled Island is working with 7 key hotel partners to provide artists, musicians, media and fans with amazing deals on accommodations while visiting Calgary during the fesitval. Click on the Accommodations page to get a full run down of hotel partners and rates during Sled Island for the ultimate festival experience. Act quick as these rooms won't last!

It's also the last week to purchase middle-bird prices on festival passes! The Discovery Pass is on sale for $179 and the Discovery Plus Pass is on sale for $299 till Saturday, March 31st. Starting April 1st festival passes go on sale for $199 for the Discovery Pass and $349 for the Discovery Plus Pass. Find out more about what each pass gets you at the Sled Island Shop. 

Stay tuned! We're announcing more headliners and the expanded compedy lineup next week on Monday, April 2nd.

We're thrilled to announce our fourth and final Leak Of The Week for this month! YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN are a psychedelic noh-wave opera group fusing noise, metal, pop and folk music into a multidisciplinary hyper-orientalist cesspool of 'eastern' culture in giant monochrome paper sets. Blending Noh, Peking Opera, Buddhist Ritual Punk, Taiko Shows, Tokusatsu, Performance Art, Rock Opera & their own mangaesque cardboard 'NEVERFLAT' style of 2.5D set design, their bizarre form of music//altheater have awaked and shawed audiences in Montreal for several years.

Get a glimpse of their dark and theatrical live performance in this teaser below! 

Attention all filmmakers! We are now accepting submissions for Sled Island Film 2012. Sled Island Film is entering it's fourth year as the official film program of the festival. Over the past four years Sled Island Film has been proud to present World, Canadian, and Alberta Premieres of music-related films including, Color Me Obsessed: A Documentary About the Replacements, Firewall of Sound, Everything Louder Than Everything Else, No Fun City, Strange Powers: Stephen Merritt and the Magnetic Fields, Skateland, American Grindhouse, The Parking Lot Movie and a ton of shorts.

Sled Island Film is seeking a broad range of unique and interesting, full feature and short films to present during the 2012 festival. Interested applicants should apply HERE before the deadline on April 6, 2012. 

To find out more information visit the Film Submissions page on the website.

Our third Leak of the Week is Calgary underground heroes Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet. The band existed originally between 1984 and 1994, and released three albums and twelve singles, appeared on numerous compilations (including the formative "It Came From Canada" series), toured extensively throughout North America and England, were one of the first Canadian bands to record a Peel Session for BBC D.J. John Peel, beat David Foster and Liona Boyd out of one of the two Junos they were nominated for, backed B-52's vocalist Fred Schneider on his "Just Fred" album, and scored a couple of feature films and the television series Kids in the Hall. I'm sure there's more but you can ask when you see them.

Dark, intricate and catchy. This week's leak is Trust from Toronto, a relatively new electronic act picking up steam in clubs across North America and Europe. Trust is Robert Alfons and Maya Postepski (Austra). The mysterious duo released its first singles, "Candy Walls" and "Bulbform" in 2011 before signing with Arts & Crafts for the 2012 release of their debut full length, TRST. In the last year they've performed with DFA1979, Crystal Castles, Balam Acab, Glass Candy, and Hercules and Love Affair. 

Check out their intoxicating club banger "Bulbform" below.

Sled Island and The Gateway are proud to present Anti Freeze on Friday, March 30th. Anti Freeze is a warm up event at The Gateway on SAIT's campus featuring a wide range of western rockers and popsmiths including: Murder By Death, Big John Bates, Rococode, In Media Res, Black Mastiff, Chron Goblin, Sons of Bears and more to come. 

Tickets are available for $12 through Ticketmaster and $15 at the door. The event is free for SAIT students with SAIT ID. 18+ ID required. RSVP for the Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/314666658583105/

Our first artist 'Leak of the Week' is Russian Circles, a three-peice instrumental post-rock/ post-metal band hailing from Chicago, IL.  The band plays epic, sprawling music which runs the gamut of heavy discordant metal to soft delicate passages.  Well known for their energetic live show, Russian Circles have toured with the likes of Boris, Isis, Red Sparowes, and have made appearances at SXSW from 2006 - 2008 and Bonnaroo in 2009. They were also the opening act for Tool on their first tour of the UK in 2007. And, in case you were wondering, their name is taken from a drill exercise used in hockey.

Check out their amazing performance from Austin's Fun Fun Fun Fest in 2011.

For anyone that was there last year you'll remember the incredible warm vibes, amazing performances, delicious food and sunshine we all shared at Olympic Plaza. Our 2012 events follow in that same tradition as a fully-licensed all-ages concert held in the center of downtown Calgary and enter a whole new realm with this year's world class entertainment! 

Performing on Friday, June 22nd at Olympic Plaza is Canadian chanteuse Feist making her triumphant return home, along with Timber Timbre plus more to be announced. Saturday, June 23rd features New York's anthemic rockers The Hold Steady as headliners of this all-day outdoor concert, along with indie rock icon Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks plus many more to be announced! Tickets are on sale at $45 for each event via www.ticketmaster.ca.

Reminder that Olympic Plaza events are open to all festival wristband holders. Festival wristbands are on sale now for mid-bird prices of $179 for the Festival Discovery Pass and $299 for the Festival Discovery Plus Pass until march 31. 

Order your Olympic Plaza tickets via ticketmaster.ca or festival passes via shop.sledisland.com today!