The yearly pilgrimage to Lake Cowichan for three days of live music is upon us.
It’s time for Laketown Shakedown 2024.
Last year I left downtown Victoria around 1:30pm and proceeded to crawl to the start of the Malahat for two hours and didn’t arrive at Laketown Ranch until just before 5pm missing the first performances of the day.
This year, the music for Day 1 didn’t kick off until 6pm so I wasn’t in a rush to get to the venue. Traffic to the Malahat was actually not terrible Friday. Cars were lined up around the Mcallum Road exit and things were moving relatively smoothly. It only took 20 minutes to get to the start of the Malahat.
After checking in to the hotel room that I decided to book this year, I arrived at the venue a little after 4:30pm.
The first artist of the day was Duncan rapper/producer The Wiseguy at The Flats stage that’s outside the main festival grounds. The Wiseguy is the one artist performing all three days of the festival as he’s also part of the Rabbit Hole Records Crew who are scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday.
Opening the Lake Night Stage which served as Friday’s main stage was Victoria rock band Trophy Dad. In past years, the opening act at the festival had the tough job of performing to not a lot of people in a very large area. This year there were definitely more people on hand which is a testament to how much people on the south island support Nevil Meyer. Trophy Dad close out their set with their new single, a cover of Cher’s ‘Believe’.
The one down side of wanting to cover almost every performer of day 1 was the distance between the two stages and having to walk up and down a hill while carrying 15 pounds of camera gear. Thankfully the weather was cooler Friday than in past years.
Nokturnal Funk was back behind the decks DJing the festival for his third straight year playing an hour and half set at The Flats stage. Early on it looked like there might be at technical problem, but things seemed to be resolved. Nokturnal Funk performed longer than expected. When I arrived at 8:30pm for Jonas Robinson’s set, he wasn’t on stage yet.
With two days left of her stint at The Zone’s Band of The Month, Darrian Gerard was next on the Lake Night Stage. I was looking forward to covering her debut set last year on the main stage after she won the Play Laketown contest, but traffic ruined those plans. A year later I finally got to see her perform. It was an impressive show. Gerard definitely has the stage presence for a potential star on the rise making hair flips, posing with her microphone and playing guitar. She also had a great band that included Sleepshake’s Nate Prevedoros and former Shale members Breanna Montague and Rowan Hensley.
After a failed attempt to catch the start of the next set at The Flats stage, I hiked back up to the Lake Night Stage for The Bankes Brothers. They were the perfect penultimate band for the day with the festival crowd growing at the top of the hill considering who would take the stage after them. They performed music from their latest EP as well some new music that doesn’t even have a title yet.
Back down at The Flats stage, Club Loading co-founder Jonas Robinson DJ’d a set that I caught the tail end of. Club Loading are known for their electronic shows in downtown Victoria at a small building that used to house a Tomley Market. Those parties always had people a crowd of people outside having a smoke while bass pumped out the door. Unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of people at The Flats stage, and that was an issue for most of the night there. The lighting on stage was also very dark.
After Robinson, DJ Sport Mode took over the decks. Sport Mode is the DJ name for Claire Butterfield. She’s one third of alt-folk trio Fox Glove. Friends of Butterfield who were there in support could be heard yelling “Sport Mode!” in the opening minutes of her set.
“The Metchosin One” Jesse Roper headlined Day 1 of the festival to the largest crowd of the night. It also started to drizzle some rain just before his set began. It didn’t dampen spirits though as Roper performed crowd pleasing set despite a few hiccups with his guitar patch cable.
Early on, Roper notice a little girl and her parents holding up a big sign saying “Goofy face champion Lillian.” He proceeded to give her a goofy face of his own. Late in the set he tried to dedicate a song to the girl, but she had already left due to it being passed her bed time.
Jurassic 5’s DJ Nu-Mark kept the party rolling passed midnight. Mt. Eliah also performed closing out the night from 1am to 2:15am, but I was unable to stay for his set.
Burchill DJ’d the closing set at The Flats stage till 1am. Strangly, some festival goers near that stage’s entrance were completely unaware there was still music going on at the top of the hill.
Laketown Shakedown continues Saturday and Sunday with the big headliners Busta Rhymes and Gwen Stefani respectively. Passes are available at laketownshakedown.com
