Ticket-buyers can enjoy live music from a private hotel balcony in Vancouver during a two-day festival late this summer.
Langley-based country musician Dallas Smith will headline the Lifted Hotel Festival on an outdoor stage at the Westin Bayshore.
The all-Canadian lineup Sept. 17-18 will also feature Surrey-based JoJo Mason along with Andrew Hyatt, Danielle Ryan, Kelly Prescott and Shawn Austin, in a pair of benefit concerts for Smith’s Lifted charitable organization, focused on mental health services for “anyone and everyone in need.”
Lifted Hotel Festival is billed as “an exclusive safe concert experience,” in partnership with The Festival Company, SiriusXM Canada and 93.7 JR Country radio station.
“The party’s in your room,” an event poster promises.
A yacht docked at the hotel seawall will serve as the concert stage, and the event runs two separate nights.
Tickets are sold from $699 to $999 per night, with a maximum of four people per hotel room, on showpass.com starting Tuesday, July 13 at 10 a.m. Prices include the concert and hotel room for the night.
More event details are posted to liftedorganization.com.
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PICTURED ABOVE: A view of Vancouver’s Westin Bayshore Hotel in a photo posted to booking.com.
“The festival welcomes the return of live performances in Vancouver and brings music and fans back together to lift the human spirit while experiencing live music from the comfort of their own private balcony,” an event advisory says.
Over the past year in Alberta, similar concerts in hotel atriums have been produced by Calgary-based Hotels Live company, with ticket-buyers booked into rooms overlooking the stage.
For fans at Lifted Hotel Festival, the 499-room Bayshore can offer views of the North Shore mountains and Burrard Inlet from the hotel’s location next to Stanley Park.
• RELATED STORY, from 2019: In Surrey, Dallas Smith helped raise $155K for Variety charity at country-themed gala.
At Cloverdale Agriplex back in 2019, Smith headlined a “One Night in the Valley” benefit concert for Variety – the Children’s Charity. More than 300 guests each paid up to $249 to attend the fundraiser.
JoJo Mason, who recently moved from the Clayton area to South Surrey/White Rock, embraces the Lifted cause and appreciates Smith’s work to get the charity off the ground over the past couple of years.
“One of the things I love about Dallas is he’s so open with his mental health and struggles, and I’ve gone through some things too,” Mason revealed. “He’s a real role model, as a friend and manager.
“These (Lifted) concerts,” he continued, “it’s so fitting for me and who I am, and I could not be more proud and excited to be able to support such an incredible cause at such an incredible place, that venue.”
With no concerts to play for more than a year, the pandemic has been very tough on musicians, including Mason and the others involved in the Lifted shows, he said.
“We’ve all leaned on each other and have called each other during the pandemic, if we’re down or going through things,” Mason noted. “It was tough at times, but having that support system was incredible.”
In August Mason is set to release a new single, Broken Umbrella, and plans to shoot a video.
But before that he’ll be in Calgary for a Stampede-week performance on July 15, on the Nashville North stage.
“I’m really so excited to get back playing shows,” Mason said. “It’s been one of those things, you know, ‘Is this really happening?!’ I’m trying not to get my hopes up too high but I definitely missed it, playing live. It’s something I’m never going to take for granted again.”
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