Canada will soon have its own version of Tennessee’s Bonnaroo.
Knoxville-based AC Entertainment, which co-founded and co-promotes Bonnaroo, has partnered with Canadian company Republic Live to create a three-day camping festival called WayHome Music and Arts. The festival, which takes place July 24-26, at Burl’s Creek, will feature Sam Smith, Kendrick Lamar, Alt-J, Hozier and Modest Mouse as headliners.
AC Entertainment President Ashley Capps said the idea for the festival originated when Republic Live executive director Shannon McNevan visited Bonnaroo four years ago and was so impressed that he wanted AC Entertainment to help create a similar event. At the time, AC Entertainment had too many projects to take on another. Instead, Republic Live created the country music-based Boots and Hearts festival in 2012.
“Late last the summer they approached us again about doing a rock fest and at this point they were purchasing a site, an event space called Burl’s Creek,” said Capps.
Burl’s Creek is located approximately an hour’s drive north of Toronto in Barrie, Ontario.
Capps said AC Entertainment then became involved in the planning and especially the booking of the event. Like Bonnaroo, the festival features a wide variety of acts from St. Vincent to Danny Brown to Cold War Kids and several different stages.
“Their vision is very compatible with our visions about insuring that a festival is an unforgettable experience for everybody who attends,” said Capps. “They’re very zoned in about the presentation of all of their events and they’re fantastic partners.”
The Boots and Hearts festival will also move to the site and Capps said he expects the WayHome festival to have longevity of Bonnaroo, now entering its second decade:
“The Burl’s Creek site is an amazing site and offers tremendous opportunities for creating a world class site. It has all of the elements necessary to create one of the great destination events and that’s what we look forward to doing.”
Capps said AC Entertainment, which also manages the Bijou and the Tennessee theaters, would be releasing details of some other events in the United States soon.
More information on the WayHome festival can be found at www.wayhome.com.