Newfoundland is an isolated place, an island tucked all the way out at the eastern end of the country; it’s also a rare live music destination for the bigger acts that regularly tour Canada, but the new Lawnya Vawnya Festival aims to bridge the distance between music of the province—and country’s—mainland with St. John’s.

Now in its second year, the festival was started by Burning Hell band members Ariel Sharratt and Mathias Kom, as well as their friend David Lander, and this year will include panels on small-press publishing and independent music production and distribution, a record and small-press fair, readings, and an all-ages, daytime music crawl, setting musicians up in unconventional performance locations throughout the Saturday afternoon.

And for the festival’s main attraction—the live performances taking place at venues throughout the city—The Inbreds, Sheezer, Julie Doiron, Marine Dreams, The Weather Station, and Cadence Weapon are just some of the artists that will make the trek out, while locals like Hear/Say, Das Fucking Tops, and East of Empire will help hold the hometown fort. Get the full lineup and schedule here.

Sharratt answered a couple of our questions about the festival over email; her excitement for St. John’s and for Lawnya Vawnya no doubt indicative of a long run for the festival.

AUX: Tell us a bit about the festival’s origins.

Co-founder Ariel Sharratt: Myself and Mathias Kom moved here because our band, the Burning Hell, had played so many wonderful shows in St. John’s and fell in love with it here. We wanted other bands to experience this place, and get the phenomenal local music scene out to play for some new people. The geography makes relationships between bands here and on the mainland difficult and we wanted to close that gap as much as possible. We teamed up with our friend/roommate David Lander and had an epic 8-hour long planning session and then dove right into it.

St. John’s is the kind of place where you can make things happen, people are pretty responsive to crazy ideas—there are so many young people starting businesses and doing exciting art work here—so the response was enthusiastic and supportive and that buoyed us through the tough times.

What did you most take away from the festival’s first year, and how have things changed this second time around?

Our first year we were teaching ourselves how to do everything as we went along: we guessed how to do it based on other festivals we had been to and played at, and what we thought worked and what hadn’t worked as well. This year we feel more confident. We’re not guessing about things as much!

Also, last year our battle to get people to know there even was a festival was all uphill. This year, people know about it, and are excited for it. We’ve had a lot of local businesses come on board as sponsors, and it feels like a greater community effort. I think we’re all less panicked that everything could go terribly wrong!

We also got our friends Jud Haynes and Krista Power of [Newfoundland promoters] Mightypop to help us out this year and their experience, enthusiasm and kindness is unparalleled!

Dan Mangan covers Elliot Smith’s “Waltz #2” at The Ship, Lawnya Vawnya 2011

Do you get a lot of people from out of town to the festival?

Well, we’re bringing in about 50 people from out of town to play, but we’ve also had a lot of tickets purchased by out-of-towners this year, which is new. Mostly from the rest of the Island, or Nova Scotia, but we also have one guy who’s flying in from Whitehorse to take in the festival! It’s great to see Lawnya Vawnya in St. John’s become a special, destination festival, and I’m glad that those people will get to see great St. John’s bands who have a geographic disadvantage when it comes to touring.

Why is Newfoundland a good place to hold a festival like Lawnya Vawnya?

Because the weather is so miserable throughout the winter, that by the time spring rolls around people are dying for a big party. Because St. John’s is filled with great musicians with great bands and excited, supportive audiences who love seeing new music. And because the downtown is beautiful and small enough that, if something’s going on, everyone’s a part of it.

Lawyna Vawnya will kick off tomorrow, April 18, and will run through till the 22. AUX will present the Laura Barrett showcase; stay tuned in the coming days for performance video.