Since 2012, Contact Winter Music Festival has established itself as Vancouver’s largest annual celebration of blockbuster dance music, rounding up some of the electronic world’s biggest stars for a late-December extravaganza at BC Place. According to Alvaro Prol, co-founder of local promotion company Blueprint Events, he and his fellow organizers conceived the festival as a way to take advantage of the technical capabilities of the stadium after its refurbishment in 2011.
“The venue’s such a special space,” Prol tells Westender during a phone conversation. “Whenever you do a festival, you want a space that’s beautiful, so most festivals are outside. This particular building has such a unique characteristic with all the LED capabilities and being able to animate the building from the outside inside.” BC Place, he says, has an otherworldly sci-fi aesthetic. He explains, “The name Contact came from space, and the concept of being in a spaceship when you’re there and having an immersive feeling.”
High-energy dance music proved to be the perfect way for the folks at Blueprint and their co-organizers at Live Nation to channel the futuristic atmosphere they were looking for. Although Prol hesitates to align Contact with the American EDM craze of the last few years, he promises that the two-day event is designed to please the masses.
“Contact has always been about not going over people’s heads,” he says. “It’s about good vibe music. Good energy. Solid acts that are going to go out there and [give the audience] a good time. We’re not trying to do stuff that’s overly critically acclaimed. It’s not really what we want there. We want it to be a fun party from the minute you walk in until the end.”
To this end, English trance trio Above & Beyond and Steve Angello (of Swedish House Mafia) will headline the first night on Dec. 26, while Dutch house star Hardwell and French rapper-producer DJ Snake are on the bill for Dec. 27. In total, there are 18 acts across over the two evenings, some of whom will perform at the side FVDED Stage on the concourse.
Contact always takes place during the dead zone between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and Prol says that these dates were chosen as optimal party days. “Doing events for as long as we have, I’ve always found really good success in that period,” he observes. “People are out of school and there’s a good vibe. The tough stuff’s behind them, they’ve had a great time with their families, they’ve got new gifts and sweaters and whatever Christmas gifts they got and they’re ready to go out and have some fun.”
Although the festival is designed as a way for Vancouverites to celebrate and unwind, the same cannot be said for the organizers. Prol spends 11 months of each year planning Contact, and he describes it as “a humungous amount of work for many, many people.” Come February, he’s going to turn his focus to the 2016 edition. He laughs wearily when describing the behind-the-scenes efforts that go into Contact, and he admits that booking artists is the most challenging part. On top of that, he places a special emphasis on safety, ensuring that the event is always overstaffed with medical support workers and security.
Thankfully, all of this hard work seems to paying off: tickets are selling well, and Prol believes that the event will continue to thrive for years to come. “We’re going to continue to grow this thing to be bigger and more badass every year,” he enthuses. “It will become, hopefully, something that will continue to drive a lot of traffic into the city. People will come for Contact and maybe they’ll ski or snowboard, and enjoy other offerings within Vancouver.”
• Contact runs Dec. 26 and 27 at BC Place. Contact-festival.com
