Surrey's Fusion Fest

Surrey's annual Fusion Fest happen on the 17th, and 18th of June. It was a jam packed weekend filled with acts from cultures from all over the world. It was an awesome weekend, with lots of rad talent and awesome food from all these cultures. This festival can even re-unite bands together, such as the Grapes of Wrath (whom killed it by the way). This festival brought acts such as Arrested Development, Brasstronaut, Grapes of Wrath, Inez, Joey Stylez, Lee Harvey Osmond, Red Eye Empire, We Are the City, and many more! They all played well, and made for an enjoying event. Instead of writing up a bunch of boring text, I'll save you from that and just get straight to the photos!































Thanks for looking.

You can view the rest of the set here: www.ryanrose.ca

Ryan.

Canada Day; Surrey Style!

Every year now, Surrey celebrates Canada Day with a large one day festival that has more then 100,000 people pass through each year. The day starts off with children musical acts, to a parade with the Mayor in which leads up to the Mayor and council giving out cup cakes which formed the Canadian Flag. From then, it goes on into acts that appeal to more older audiences as the day goes on, usually ending with a band that appeals to the 30+ crowd.

I was there to cover it this year, for my school and the City of Surrey. It was a long 12 hour day, but it was filled with fun. Around 3:45pm, the first of the two country bands came onto stage. First up was Ridley Bent. While I'm not a country person, I actually enjoyed this guy. He makes some good music. Next up was Jessie Farrell. She wasn't all that bad either, and covered one of my favourite songs too. Van Halen's Jump!

After that, around 5:30pm, Dragonette came on. Now I've heard of her, but never actually listened to her music. One she got on stage, and started to play her music I was stoked. It was some great stuff. Different to my usual listening pleasure. I highly recommend checking her out. Next up was the ever so popular Stereos. They made it HUGE after being on MuchMusic's show DISBAND. Before this band went on stage, the pit in front of the stage got crazy! So many people filled it who were special guests/VIP's that security had to intervene and push them all to one side. You can see almost all of them in the photo below.

Stereos put on a pretty good show, despite me not being a big fan of them. I give them props. I give the nine year old kid props who called out the lead singer of the band, telling him he had a bad voice. If only more people had the same guts as that kid! I think the crowd was the most lively during Stereos set, it was nuts out there!

After them, came the Odds. Now it was my kind of music. These dudes killed it on set. I never actually heard of them until I saw them perform. Then I knew I have heard their music. That seems to be a joke for them, as it happens a lot! If you've ever seen the show Corner Gas (it's a Canadian show), then you've heard their music. They were on a long hiatus before this as well. If you ever get a chance to see them perform on stage, I recommend it. Their set is filled with energy, and they make great music.

Now was for the headliner, Honeymoon Suite. One for the older people, hahah. This band has been around for a long time, and it shows as they are great on stage. Full of energy, and they make good music as well which is always a plus.

Surrey's Canada Day Celebration is one of the biggest in Canada, and is the biggest in Western Canada. They put a TON of work into this event, and I recommend going to it. It's a blast.
Next up, Surrey's Fusion Fest. July 17-18.

Now onto the photos. Click for bigger as always!



















































You can view all my photos on my flickr.

Thanks for reading,
Ryan.