Though there will be no Squamish Constellation Festival in 2021, the organizers behind the music and art event are tuning up — so to speak — to have a blast in 2022.
Former Squamish mayor Patricia Heintzman now joins partners behind the 2019 event Tamara Stanners and Kirsten Andrews for the next iteration of the event.
Heintzman said joining the pair came about organically.
"When I was mayor, and I got a call from Paul Runnals to say that the Squamish Valley Music Festival had decided to close shop [in 2016], I immediately started to think, what do we do in its place, that is a little more grounded in community," she said, adding she had previously organized mini-festivals at the Oceanfront Lands.
She and Stanners have known each other for 20 years, and Heintzman encouraged her to launch Constellation, she said.
"I was always passionate about it. I always had a vision for it, and so it just became a really intuitive thing for Kirsten, Tamara, and I to start talking about."
The Squamish Constellation Festival, which kicked off in 2019 and intended to be an annual event, is still being choreographed but will include music, art and maybe camping.
"With the three of us, we think we can deliver a phenomenal festival — just build on the great success that was 2019," said Heintzman.
"We are in full gear for 2022.
Stanners said the lineup for 2020 was all set to be "incredible," when the health orders came down cancelling all such events.
"We were just going to be announcing the lineup and then the world closed down," she said.
"We were so on the track to something that was going to unbelievable and had to pause. We literally thought we would be able to transfer it right to 2021; obviously, that didn't happen. Now we are dealing with a literally different world," Stanners said.
Though it will have been two years since the inaugural festival, by the time the next one comes around, Heintzman said many of that original event's elements will carry over into the next one.
It is meant to be a celebration of art, music, diversity and community, she said.
"The whole intention of this passion project that the three of us are really dedicated to is — it is grounded in community," she said, noting that the largest audience it will ever want to draw is between 12,000 to 15,000.
"That is, we think, the threshold for the town's system," she said. "We think that more grassroots type festival is what really fits here."
She said she is excited about bringing new musical acts to Squamish's ears, too.
"New musicians and being able to keep focused on predominantly Canadian artists, and really infuse a lot of creativity and art into the festival."
She said she isn't too concerned that people won't flock back to festivals after years of the pandemic, though she noted organizers will be hyper-vigilant to follow health orders and keep people safe, nonetheless.
"I think there is going to be quite a bit of support for those types of public artistic events through government and through other means, because this is what people are starved for," Heintzman said. "Human contact for one, but diversity of experiences and being able to connect with people in a really profound way, through art."
She said organizers are working on the idea of supplying camping, though the focus is on locals.
"We don't want to have people driving tired and we want to minimize road traffic. We want to be as green as possible, as a festival, so we are looking at those alternatives," she said.
Heintzman said she brings her experience being a mayor and a councillor to the table as an organizer.
"That is really the core of what I bring to the table. That ability to speak the government language and hash out all the plans and all the logistics," she said. "I have seen it from the other side, so I can understand the needs of the city, the needs of the different departments of the city and to get to the heart of what their intention is and come out with a positive solution."
Stanners said they considered going virtual for this year, but ultimately decided it wasn't going to work for this type of festival.
"There are so many things you can use streaming for and a lot of people are doing a great job with the music part of it, but for this festival, it just wasn't for us."
She added that it is a lot of time, money and effort on everyone's part to put on a streaming event, and to stream the whole festival would not get the draw to support it.
Stanners stressed the festival is a labour of love for all three organizers, who aren't getting paid.
"Not getting paid knowing that it is something that the community benefits from and that we will eventually benefit from, and we know that one day, we will get paid for the work that we do," she said.
"I think the entire music industry, even though we have been through such a hurt, is actually going to come back healing and stronger, working better together and getting rid of some of the systems that aren't working," she said.
"We can't wait for 2022," she said.
The organizers say they also plan to host micro-events as the year goes on and as restrictions on gathering loosen.
Go to the Squamish Constellation Festival site or social media for more information.
