End of the World Music Festival entertains idea of apocalypse
How would you spend your last day on earth? Would you spend it alone, with family or even with friends?
How about a music festival to ring in the world’s demise?
On Dec. 21, 2012 the End of the World Music Festival will kick off what some believe is the end-of-days. Being held at the No.1 Royal Canadian Legion on 6 Ave., The festival was created for Calgarians who want to spend their last day on Earth having a party and listening to local bands perform for the last time.
The idea of the festival came about when Kenna Burima, musician and organizer of the festival, noticed rising popularity of the idea that Dec. 21, 2012 is the end of the world. She reflected on what she would do if she knew the world were to end and that’s how the festival was born.
“This end date, regardless of what it represents to me, offers a really unique opportunity to celebrate what I do (and) to celebrate with my friends. We get to celebrate the Calgary art scene in a really unique way,” says Burima.
The event will feature more than 15 Calgary bands and musicians – each collaborating with visual artists to create their final sets.
The End of the World Music Festival will feature many Calgary musicians and artists on Dec. 21, 2012.
Photo Illustration courtesy of Johanna Schwartz
“The musicians really took up the idea of being able to play something more elaborate, more conceptual than the regular bar sets that Calgary bands play,” Burima said.
One of the bands, Scars and Scarves, will be starting the night with a recreation of Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable, featuring covers of The Velvet Underground and Nico.
The performance will feature a wide variety of visual art – ranging from projections, lighting, and dancers – in order to recreate Warhol’s 1960s event which was a series of multimedia presentations, including film, music and dance.
Garrett McClure of Scars and Scarves is a huge fan of The Velvet Underground and thinks the idea name Exploding Plastic Inevitable has a metaphoric meaning to the end of the world.
“If you look at the three words Exploding Plastic Inevitable, it doesn’t get more modern,” McClure says. “The concept of plastic and the whole exploding inevitability, it’s a very nice dove-tailing into the end of the world concept.”
McClure thinks recreating the event will be very exciting since details of the 1960s event are difficult to find.
“Its such a mystery there’s not a lot of in depth information about it other than from books, if you look for footage of it, it’s almost non-existent so it’s kind of intriguing to me,” he says.
“I’m not one that thinks the world is going to end immediately,” says Burima.
The event is funded by Calgary 2012, an arts and culture initiative in Calgary. The event is 18+ and tickets are available through the website, and at the door.