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Khatsahlano music festival outdoes itself

Good things have a gravitational pull. As such, the Khatsahlano festival, much like its home hood Kitsilano, could never stay quaint and small with the quality of programming drawing in heavier talent each year.
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Good things have a gravitational pull. As such, the Khatsahlano festival, much like its home hood Kitsilano, could never stay quaint and small with the quality of programming drawing in heavier talent each year.

Grant McDonagh, owner and founder of Zulu Records, has watched West 4th Ave. slowly develop from its laid-back 70s vibe (a Saturday traffic jam would run a mere city block) to a major retail and tourist destination since he opened the store in 81.

Khatsahlano grew much faster. In only its third year, McDonagh, Russ Davies, executive director of the Kitsilano 4th Ave BIA, and brand.LIVE have recruited more hands on deck to share the load of planning the July 13 festival.

Khatsahlano was born in 2011 out of the idea of keeping a street festival like Kits short-lived Hippie Days festival going, but in a more contemporary direction.

West 4th does have a history, but at the same time its continuing on. Theres still a lot of very creative people here and businesses that support the arts, to say the least. And there are a lot of good bands. Thats where [Zulu] stepped in, recommending the bands, says McDonagh.

The new formula worked. Last year, 80,000 people took to the streets to enjoy the one-day party and everybody wanted more art, more music, more fun.

So one month after their time at the Waldorf Hotel ended, the Khatsahlano organizers reached out to Arrival (the new agency made up of the bulk of the team who had been behind the event programming at the landmark hotel), to join forces to make Khatsahlano bigger than ever.

Id been to Khatsahlano before and got the feeling that you get every once in a while in Vancouver that this is a great thing says Arrivals Danny Fazio. We sat down with Russ and Grant and really felt a kinship with them. We think we can make this the best day of the summer if we all work together.

The guys are pretty tight-lipped about what they have planned for this year (trust us, it's going to be good), but one thing they have green-lighted for print is a show called This Happened Here all work related in some way to Vancouver. Its to take place in a village of moving containers and participants include Paul Wong and On Main Gallery, The Vancouver Museum, photographer Bev Davies, animator Marv Newland and poster artist Bob Massey.

On May 15 at 6:30pm, the festival lineup, which includes 20 bands from the Peak Performance Project, will be announced at a free party at Zulu Records (1972 W. 4th), followed by performances by Gal Gracen and No Sinner.