Thank you for your interest in Sled Island! We will do our best to explain ourselves in the following document.
Sled Island is an event with many parts. The bulk of the festival happens in Calgary June 25, 26, 27 and 28. There are music shows in many venues around town and we have a main outdoor site at Mewata Field operating on June 27 and 28. There are art shows happening in various galleries including the Glenbow, as well as movies and comedy shows. We will be posting a full schedule of all events -and where and when they are happening- in the weeks leading up to the festival.
The main site at Mewata Field is located at 1220 9th ave SW Calgary. The main entrance is in the SE corner of the park (by the Armory parking lot on 9th ave and 11st SW).
The Sled Island main site at Mewata Field is a general admission, all ages event. This means there is no assigned seating and people of all ages are welcome. Food and beverages are available for purchase and there is a licensed Beer Garden for festival goers over 18, with a valid photo ID. Kids 5 and under get in for free. You can bring a festival style chair (chairs with legs no higher than 6 inches), and an empty light weight bottle. We will have plenty of free water on site (There is more information below about our thoughts on bottled water).
The Main site features the following bands-
Friday June 27th Main Site at Mewata Field3pm- 10:45pm:
Yo La Tengo,Tegan and Sara,Broken Social Scene,Broken
West,Portastatic,Wet Secrets, Ramblin' Ambassadors,Spreepark,Elliot
Brood,Chixdiggit, Beans
Saturday June 28th, Main Site at Mewata Field11am- 10:45pm:
Of Montreal,Wire,Jose Gonzales,Secret
Machines,Mogwai,Drive By Truckers, Dodos, Gutter Twins,Jonathan
Richman, Still Flyin', Jain Vain and the Dark Matter, Hot Little
Rocket
Tickets for JUST the main site are on sale exclusively through Ticketmaster . It costs $120 for the weekend Main Site pass (plus Ticketmaster charges). Single tickets for Friday Main Site and Saturday Main Site will be on sale exclusively through Ticketmaster on June 1st.
Aside from the main site there are also over 100 bands playing in churches, clubs, pubs, theaters and even the Science Center. Tickets for these shows will be sold both at the door, and in advance on June 1st.
You can also get access to the various shows around town by buying a Full Festival Pass for $190. The Full Festival Pass guarantees you entry to the main site, and will get you in for free to all festival shows based on capacity. Based on capacity means that if the club only holds 100 people we can't guarantee that everyone will a pass will get in. We will hold back at least %10 of every show for pass holders though, and there are many shows happening in larger venues where there will be plenty of room for pass holders. That said- it's always a good to get to the venue a little early for shows you really want to see.
If you would like to buy a full festival pass please do so here.
We are working on a Frequently Asked Questions page so if you have questions send them to: boxoffice@sledisland.com.
And now for our thoughts on water....
Here at Sled Island we are not big fans of bottled water. We think its
a scam. The health requirements on bottled water are less stringent
than the requirements on tap water. Bottled water often is simply tap
water from locations with lower quality tap water than Calgary. The
shipping involved is wasteful and the bottles themselves are not only
potentially toxic, but also create a lot of waste. Not only that- but
you have to pay for it, where tap water is free. So we are forgoing
any possible revenue we would have made selling bottles of water on our
main site and will make sure that there is free water for everyone.
Please bring an empty refillable cup or bottle with you when you come
to the main site, and check out the following links.
http://www.bowriverkeeper.org/node/181
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/World/2008/03/11/4973006.html
http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/bwinx.asp