THUNDER BAY – Electro house musician Steve Aoki will headline a star studded third edition of the popular Wake the Giant Music Festival.
Also on the bill are ‘90s throwbacks Aqua and Our Lady Peace, Neon Dreams, Crown Lands, Digging Roots, Aysanabee and the Young Spirit Dancers.
Organizer Greg Chomut said the festival is a perfect fit for an act like Aoki, who has been in DJ Magazine’s top 10 DJs for eight of the past nine years and has 16.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify, easily making him the most popular act on this year’s lineup.
It’s a big get, Chomut said on Friday.
“I think Steve Aoki is a guy who is really interested in social events, social ideas, and when you’re trying to book artists there’s two things. You ask about artists you want and agents also give you options. Steve Aoki was the agent actually asking us if we were interested in booking him,” Chomut said.
“There was an obvious bit of excitement in (our) group and we just went for it right away. And it worked out.”
They also passed Aoki’s name by students at Dennis Franklin Cromarty, whose presence in Thunder Bay inspired the inclusive Wake the Giant movement, ultimately leading to the creation of the music festival itself.
Aqua, who hail from Denmark, burst onto the scene in the late 1990s with Barbie Girl, a pop cultural phenomena that sold more than eight million copies world-wide and reached No. 4 on the Canadian music charts.
Our Lady Peace, led by the unmistakable vocals of Raine Maida, are staples of classic rock radio in Canada and around the world, known for signature songs like Star Seed and Clumsy that brought them to the top of the rock charts in the late 1990s.
Chomut said when all is said and done, he thinks they’ve put together a lineup that will appeal to people of all age groups, including the students.
“It was a bit scary putting the lineup together, because everybody is coming back and there are a lot of festivals that were postponed, so a lot of people are booked. It was real cut throat trying to book acts – and then it all kind of fell into place,” Chomut said.
“Obviously the non-Indigenous acts we have are really exciting. I know a lot of people in Thunder Bay really love those bands. The Indigenous acts are acts that we wanted for years and it all came together that we got them booked this year. I think every single act on the list is going to be a great show and cater to people who like all different kinds of music.”
Tickets for the one-day festival, scheduled for Sept. 17 at Marina Park, are on sale at www.wakethegiant.ca. They start at $120, but the price will increase as various ticket tiers sell out. VIP tickets are also available.
The event will also include a live art installation, cultural performances and an Indigenous craft market, welcoming hundreds of Indigenous youth to the city from Northern remote communities.
“I think it brings us all together and it’s really inclusive,” said Harmony Fiddler, who spray-painted an on-the-fly concert poster as the lineup was unveiled.
