Sled Island Lemonade Stand serving up refreshing new music and art

Sled Island is launching a Lemonade Stand instead of its usual festival this year.

Calgary — Like all other large summer music festivals, Sled Island was forced to cancel its plans to host the 2020 lineup of bands, film, comedy and art.

Since 2007 the festival has attracted more than 40,000 attendees to its 30 venues each June. In an effort to show support for the various venues and the live music community, and as tip of the hat to the festival that would have been, organizers have unveiled the Sled Island Lemonade Stand.

Festival manager Shawn Petsche said when they made the hard decision to cancel this year's five-day-festival they had no idea what would even be possible come June.

“We knew we didn’t want to just take the festival that would have been and put online, it’s not really what the experience of Sled Island is," he said.

The lemonade Stand is an effort to “squeeze every last ounce of goodness from the bag of lemons we were given,” according to the website.

Petsche says the new format features both online and in-person activities that signify the Sled Island experience of community building, catching up with old friends and discovering music and art in a way that’s safe and accessible.

“It would have been easy for us just to call it a day on this year and try to come back next year but the truth is without our venues surviving this, without our community surviving this, there is no Sled Island," said Petsche.

“We knew that we owed it to them to do what we could, we’re doing what we can.”

The change in plans has given Petsche's team a chance to reconnect with community members and leaders. As a show of support for the recent Black Lives Matter and anti-racism movements, Sled Island is using their platform to promote Black and Indigenous artists.

“We have an exhibition here by Simone Saunders, it’s hand-tufted textiles and it showcases in a really colourful and powerful way some questions around identity and black identity in particular," said Petsche.

Organizers have also recently released a compilation of previously unheard songs from Calgary bands.

“We have decided that all proceeds from that goto two charities, one indigenous led and one black led," said Petsche.

"In normal Sled Island times is an overwhelming thing, it can seem pretty alienating to a lot of people because it’s a lot of music and a lot of art. This lemonade stand is a really nice easy way to dip your toe into seeing what sled island is all about.

"You don’t have to leave your house too much you can listen to some good new music, you can check out some art, you can check out some film screenings and even if you don’t want to do any of that you can support some of our community partners by buying takeout food or some beer from local breweries."

Details on the Sled Island Lemonade Stand can be found online.