Big Winter Classic returning in 2017 with more beer and bands, including Tuns and Said the Whale

--taken from: Calgary Herald

Canadian pop supergroup Tuns are performing at the Big Winter Classic in 2017.

by Mike Bell

It’s bigger. And possibly, um, classic-ier? We could, though, do without the wintery-ier.

After a successful and rather mild-weathered 2016 event, the Big Winter Classic festival is set to return next January for four days of music, beer, beer and music at a time of the season when the city could use it most.

Organizers announced the first wave of acts participating in the event at a special, surprise concert held at the Wild Rose Taproom Thursday night featuring Big Classic alums The Wet Secrets along with The Velveteins, Ghost Factory, The Wells, and others.

Acts already booked for the Jan. 19 to 22 fest include: Canpop supergroup Tuns, featuring Sloan’s Chris Murphy, Matt Murphy of The Super Friendz and Mike O’Neill from the Inbreds; West Coast indie act Said the Whale; East Coast electronic crew Holy F—k; Northcote, the project of Vancouver Islander Matt Goud; and Edmontoner Lyle Bell’s two projects Whitey Houston as well as the returning Wet Secrets.

More big-name acts will be announced over the coming weeks.

“We just want to keep transforming it and obviously making it bigger, making people more aware of this celebration in winter — of Calgary and Alberta,” says talent director B.J. Downey, who watched it grow from a one-day, one-room event to this year’s three-days in two bars celebration.

“Calgary was very supportive (this year). Obviously the economy is dead in Alberta and we still pulled it off without a hitch, so time for another round.

“We’re going back at it and we have some bigger bands from all of the place.”

As a result, not only will the event be held this year, inside and outside of 11th Avenue neighbours Last Best Brewery and Broken City, but some of the bigger shows will also head several blocks north to the larger capacity Dickens Pub, which has come on as another venue.

Downey, though, notes that while bigger there also remains a certain intimacy to the fest.

“The good thing about Winter Classic is that you can see some of these bands still on the top patio of Broken City or the patio of Last Best where only 120 people can fit, when normally some of these bands are playing in front of 6-800 to 1,000 people. It’s going to be nice and intimate interactions with these performers.”

They also dipped back heavily into the local music well, with such homegrown talent as Miesha and the Spanks, The Wisers, Bad Animal, The Torchettes, Napoleon Skywalker, and KJ Jansen from Chixdiggit infamy among the “ridiculous amount” of acts.

“I think it’s the locals that really make this festival,” says Downey. “It’s a small festival, on the grand scheme of things, so to have a lot of Alberta bands, that’s like the muscle behind the machine.”

Of course, the other local muscle that drives the Big Winter Classic is the beer — and not of the Molson variety.

It is also a showcase of this region’s thriving craft brewery scene, with last year featuring band and special cask pairings from such area crafters and keggers as Wild Rose, Big Rock, Village, Tool Shed and Dandy Brewing Company.

This year’s participants have yet to be finalized, but with the growth that’s gone on in the industry, expect some more names, new names and new tastes to be added to the festival.

So, yes, expect it also to be beery-ier.

--taken from: Calgary Herald