Get your funk on when two of the Komasket Music Festival’s favourite artists come to Vernon to wipe out the old year and welcome the new.
Revellers can expect some world groove, drum and bass, and a few horns when legendary global beats DJ Adham Shaikh joins Vancouver’s Five Alarm Funk at the Vernon Recreation Centre for the second annual Komasket dance party on New Year’s Eve Saturday.
Vernon’s own funksters, Sound-Splash!, is also on the roster for the family-friendly event, which will also feature a silent auction, art and food vendors, a champagne and refresh bar, and the dance-happy atmosphere Komasket is known for.
“The Rec Centre auditorium is a huge venue –– a giant circle that can hold 700-plus people. Artistic decor, lighting will help transform the space,” said Devaki Thomas, artistic director and co-founder of the Komasket Music Festival.
The dance is one of Komasket’s main fundraisers, and will help in booking artists from around the world to play at the 2012 festival, which will be held on the B.C. long weekend in August in Komasket Park on the westside of Okanagan Lake.
“We’ve already sold over 200 tickets to the New Year’s Eve dance,” said local coordinator Carla Fox as of press time last week. “This is an all-ages show. We encourage people to come with their families in the same way families are welcome at the festival every year.”
Vancouver’s 12-piece funk- party orchestra Five Alarm Funk will start things off with a horn-powered, percussion-fuelled sonic and visual assault.
On stage, Five Alarm is an unstoppable orgy of energy.
The musicians perform intricate and airtight arrangements with delirious dance moves and full-on head banging, while the four percussionists create a spectacle with choreographed arm movements.
The band has brought their relentless and unforgettable live show to clubs and major festivals across Canada and the U.S. for the last six or so years, and have no plans of slowing down.
Last year was a big year for the band, with a number of performances at the Vancouver/Whistler 2010 Winter Olympic games.
Minutes after Canada was awarded the gold medal in hockey, Five Alarm Funk took the stage at the Hockey House and performed to a delirious crowd.
The band’s third studio album, Anything is Possible, was also released that year.
The genre-spanning, groove-straddling opus revealed 14 tunes of unbridled energy, with influences as diverse as Frank Zappa, Yes, J.S. Bach and Antibalas.
The album was on the national college radio charts, and Chartattack called it “a potent mind altering substance” and gave it a rating of 4.5 out of five.
For those who didn’t catch Shaikh’s set at the Komasket Music Festival this past summer, the Nelson-based artist is not just a DJ, but a composer and producer of world music heard around the globe.
Music labels from around the world have released Shaikh’s skillfully woven organic and electronic sounds and his global music tapestries are said to take listeners on sonic journeys that transcend time and place.
Shaikh has released 12 albums and many individual compositions, among them the 2004 release, Fusion, which was nominated for a Juno Award in the World Music category.
More recently, Shaikh co-produced and mixed the award-winning debut CD for global fusion group Delhi 2 Dublin, and has just completed re-mixes for internationally renowned world fusion artists Nickodemus, Deya Dova, Kaya Project, Tripswitch and David Starfire. He also completed remixes for Stephen Kent, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Issa Bagayogo, Ganga Giri, and the Footsteps in Africa Project (Turag remix).
Doors to the Vernon Recreation Centre auditorium will open Saturday at 8 p.m., with live music going into the wee hours of the morning.
Tickets are $40 (children 12 and under are free and must be accompanied by an adult) and are available at the Bean Scene in Vernon, Leo’s Video in Kelowna, Art We Are in Kamloops as well as at the Ticket Seller box office in the Vernon Performing Arts Centre, 549-7469, www.ticketseller.ca.
