Music

NXNE is going to be unrecognizable in 2016

by Richard Howard

There’s been a lot of head scratching going on with regards to the 2016 edition of Toronto’s NXNE festival. With information about the summer music event’s 22nd instalment being unusually scare by this time of the year, many began to wonder whether it would be taking place at all. Well it is – but when it does, we may not recognize it at all.

The first hint that big changes were afoot appeared in a March 2nd NOW Magazine article. There, NXNE president/managing director Michael Hollett spoke excitedly about the Economic Development Committee’s decision to support NXNE and its plans to transform 155 Cherry St. in the Port Lands (in the vicinity of Sound Academy) into a concert facility.

Hollett added the public could expect an expanded focus on hip-hop given “this incredible moment in time” for the genre in Toronto as well as “the largest video gaming event in Canada” at Yonge and Dundas Square. 

The article had a feel more akin to a press release; an oddity that might be explained by the fact Hollett also co-founded NOW Magazine. Still, it was assured that club shows would continue take place, some manner of musical entertainment would occur at Yonge and Dundas (“we won’t be running Iggy and the Stooges, but the top club bands will be there”) and that they would be “amping up” the festival’s conference portion. He proudly claimed that NXNE would be “the most inexpensive festival pass in the city this summer.”

On March 9th, however, an Exclaim! interview with Hollett revealed the changes to NXNE would be more far-reaching than that first article suggested. It seems the Port Lands venue will not simply be an addition to the festival – rather, it will become the main venue and host the majority of the acts on its two stages. If this sounds more like another outdoor summer festival, that’s by design, as Hollett made clear:

“One of the things I’m going for is a different experience for people. As part of their festival experience, they need an immersive element… Things like WayHome — you go to a festival like that and you get cool war stories, in a good way. You wake up in somebody’s tent wondering what happened. And you don’t get that from running club to club to club. Coachella, you know — everywhere I go, the music is really important of course. But there’s also just other pieces of that experience.”

NXNE will now require the Port Lands trek familiar to patrons of Sound Academy.

Hollett went on to explain that the entire purpose of the festival has changed, largely due to the new realities of the music industry. With bands needing NXNE-type festivals to get in front of label reps and the public at large being less of a factor due to the changing roles of record labels and the internet, the change seemed to be a wise one.

He also opined that people “have moved away from the wristband festival-hopping experience” and said NXNE is trying to centralize to make things easier on concertgoers. “It’s not much good if you’re seeing one band at nine and the next band you want to see is a 40-minute travel time away. You’re not going to get there.”

Hollett once again reiterated his plan to highlight the strength of Toronto’s current hip-hop scene with the festival’s lineup, comparing The 6 to “Liverpool in the ’60s, Detroit in the ’70s, Manchester in the ’80s [and] Seattle in the ’90s.”

As for the club shows, they will not only be less plentiful but confined to larger clubs as ticketed events in venues such as Lee’s Palace, The Mod Club, The Phoenix Concert Theatre, The Opera House, Danforth Music Hall, and others. This was made possible by an unlikely partnership – NXNE has teamed with Collective Concerts for this year’s festival.

In a Chart Attack feature, Collective’s owner Jeff Cohen said his company won a bid for the partnership, likely due to a vision “symbiotic with where [Hollett] wants to go himself.”

In news that may not sit well with fans of the festival, Cohen said he did not anticipate a pass system: 

The Yonge and Dundas Square picture will also be a completely different one. The video gaming aspect will actually be the focus at the open-air venue that has previously hosted free concerts by some of the world’s biggest acts during the festival. In 2016, rising bands will serve as the side entertainment to gamers and celebrities battling it out on consoles and PCs.

The initial response from the music community has ranged from trepidation to, in a few cases, actual outrage. Some accuse the NXNE organizers of abandoning a long-standing tradition and scene-building format in favour of a potential money grab due to the success of Toronto’s other outdoor festivals. Hollett and his team have also been accused of unceremoniously dumping their extensive booking and programming staff.

This may not be the case, but whether due to personal decisions or non-disclosure agreements, NXNE’s former employees are currently rolling like Johnny Tightlips and “ain’t sayin’ nothin’.”

The success or failure of this new format will likely be dependent on NXNE 2016’s lineup and whether the logistics can be effectively worked out at a point which seems to be relatively late in the game. One thing’s for certain though – NXNE as we’ve known it is no more.