Black Ice Festival celebrates Calgary music in the winter
By Ansharah Shakil, December 14 2024—
For its second year, music festival Black Ice Festival will be taking place in Calgary at Loophole Coffee Bar from Dec. 8-14. Black Ice Festival celebrates facets of Calgary’s music scene that can often be overlooked, with attendees able to see numerous Alberta music acts through one festival pass alongside DJ sets and film screenings. In an interview with the Gauntlet, the festival’s creator Kaiden Jackman described it as a variety festival and discussed its origins.
“I sort of had this drive to create a music festival that focused on a lot of the projects that don’t normally get covered in the big festivals in Calgary,” Jackman said. “Last year was sort of just a proof of concept that I threw together in a couple months but I figured I’d give it another shot this time as a fully planned-out, fully-orchestrated festival that showcases a good variety of performers from Alberta.”
Jackman said that he started the festival last year because of getting denied for Big Winter Classic, a festival now saying goodbye after 10 years.
“I found especially with a festival like Big Winter Classic basically shutting down, there’s been an opening for people to express themselves on a bigger stage like a festival during winter, and I also find that there’s not a lot of festivals in Calgary that focus on the experimental side of things so I wanted to showcase a lot of that stuff that doesn’t normally get covered,” he explained. “I found that putting something on during the winter […] provides audiences with some sort of larger musical outlet during […] a slower time of the year.”
This year, a few of the changes made to the festival include focusing on Alberta musicians rather than just Calgary musicians and taking place in a single venue.
“Loophole is a really great, intimate venue,” Jackman said. “It’s pretty small capacity but it also has put on some of the best shows that I’ve seen [and is] also really supportive of the Alberta music scene so I felt like it would be the best venue for something like this.”
Among the many artists featured in the festival, Jackman mentioned Red 40, headlining the closing night of the festival, and DJ SILKROAD. Each day of the festival is separated into specific genres, for example screamo on Dec. 11 and punk on Dec. 14. He encouraged students to attend to view the multifaceted musicians on display.
“I think it’s good for students to see not just the mainstream side of the music culture in our city,” Jackman said. “There is a burgeoning music scene underneath the surface level. I want to provide a platform for people to check stuff out like that at an affordable price.”
The festival has been put together without grant funding or support from outside sources, besides CJSW, helping with live sessions and advertising.
“It’s been very rewarding to be able to put something together on my own through just sheer force of will,” Jackman said. “I think it’s just a really good cross-section of what our music scene has to offer, especially at a pretty affordable price.”
More information about Black Ice Festival can be found here.