Rifflandia announces year-long hiatus for 2019

Victoria’s (B.C.) most popular music festival is taking a one year hiatus, much to the disappointment of local attendees. This will be the festival’s first hiatus in its 11 year run.

“I’ve said this before that obviously these are not easy decisions to make by any means, but they’re the right decisions to make,” said Nick Blasko, director of Atomique Productions, which puts on the event.

“For this one in particular, it’s difficult in so far as this is an event that we’ve produced for 11 years in Victoria and it’s been amazing. We’ve seen the event grow, we’ve seen the city grow, we’ve broken so much new ground.” (CTV 2019) The festival put out a post on their Facebook page this morning announcing the hiatus.

With past lineups featuring superstars like DJ Shadow, Moby, Z-Trip, Big Boi of Outkast fame, The Flaming Lips, and so many more, the event was much beloved by it’s local fanbase, and even had folks travel from all over to experience a little slice of the west coast, with some amazing music thrown in.

The festival itself didn’t even turn a profit until 2017, 10 years after its inaugural outing. The festival was a labour of love for Blasko and Atomique, bringing in some of the finest talent in North America, especially considering that 75% of the acts booked were from British Columbia. Not to mention the local exposure it gave to so many up and coming artists on a larger scale. It will sincerely be missed.

But there’s no shortage of amazing local music happening, with Atomique still presenting their annual Phillips Backyard Weekender, which DMNW had the pleasure of attending last year and had a blast! Not to mention in September there is a brand new music festival in Port Renfrew, BC, titled the Renfrew Move Festival! The west coast is always bursting with events, so never fear, Rifflandia will be back next year to delight us all again.

What was your favourite Rifflandia memory? Let us know in our comments section on Facebook, and Twitter!