It's always exciting when a new annual music festival begins to draw enough notice that suddenly there is some prestige in being on the bill, but the sudden growth and interest that Montreal's Pouzza Fest has experienced now, after just one year on the books, is shocking. Begun last year as the pet project of Sainte Catherines singer (and Dare To Care Records founder) Hugo Mudie, Pouzza Fest was initially envisioned to be a sort of gift to the city of Montreal and reward to the staff at Dare To Care for having put in such hard work to put on and promote so many shows but, now, the Fest has since quickly taken on a life and presence all its own. “It sounds so easy and simple now,” marvels Mudie at how Pouzza Fest started. “We really just wanted to have a cool, fun festival for people in Canada like they have in Florida and a few other places = to be honest. Last year, we just started slow and tried to make the best we could out of what we had, but the bands and the people who came were so stoked about it that it ended up being a great success.
“People really liked it,” Mudie continues, “so when we got a lot of offers from bands we really like and respect, we just went for it and took them all. We had always hoped to make our festival a big deal eventually – like maybe over five or six years, it could get big if we worked really hard at it – but everything happened and came together just right so here we are in the fest's second year and it's everything we could have dreamed. At first, we had 175 bands right away [chuckling]!”
While the list of potential performers did get pared down a bit before Pouzza Fest 2012 was set and scheduled, the line-up is still pretty astounding as 156 bands including Poison Idea, Maximum RNR, Menzingers, Blacklist Royals, Lagwagon, Hot Water Music, Less Than Jake, Jeff Rowe, Mike Park, Naked Raygun, Saint Alvia, The Bouncing Souls, The Flatliners, The Snips and Tim Barry are all now set to play at least one show under the Pouzza banner between May 18 and May 20, 2012. Such a disparate line-up promises to offer an experience unlike any other and, according to Mudie, that was exactly the point; with so many different permutations on punk thinking currently in circulation, the object of Pouzza this year was to make sure something was included for everyone. “We wanted to make sure everyone would be able to find something on Pouzza Fest which would really get them excited about the festival, and then show people how much it had to offer above that too,” explains Mudie of the guiding principle behind the scheduling and booking for Pouzza Fest this year. “We wanted to pay tribute to the old scene and also the new bands. We wanted to just make sure we had the whole spectrum; we have some of the crustier bands like Poison Idea – who are the kings of the crust scene – and we have Less Than Jake for some ska and Maximum RNR for a more street punk sound, we really tried to get something for everyone this year, and I think it really worked out well. We have everything; on one night alone on just one stage, you've got Blacklist Royals, Hot Water Music, Bouncing Souls, Menzingers and Flatliners. I think that's pretty awesome, and there are other stages like that which are just as exciting!”
Even if that isn't enough, Mudie is also quick to point out some of the other installations present for the first time in the festival's makeup this year including the Pouzza Bambino performance – a concert stage for kids – as well as motion picture series called Pouzza Popcorn. Only two years into its history, and Pouzza Fest is already beginning to become its own community and looking like a destination event – a fact that is very exciting to the festival's founder, even if the organization of the weekend is beginning to run him a bit ragged. “The initial announcements have been well-received for the festival, and we've sold out of weekend passes already and the excitement is continuing to build – so it's looking like everything is going even better than we hoped again this year.” beams Mudie, listing off Pouzza's successes, before the doors even open. “People are really thrilled and thanking us that we're doing something like this in Montreal; I think it's really something we needed.
“We're excited to see it all go off this year certainly,” Mudie continues, “but we've already started to look at next year as well. Next year, we'd also like to try and include a sporting event like a hockey game or a baseball game between the bands. We just want to keep it growing so that it becomes a big party weekend for people our age who are into punk rock. For us, it's not exactly the most profitable thing you could imagine monetarily but it is incredibly satisfying. Like, we put on and promote shows all year long and we release records all year long. All of those businesses feed and fund the others, but Pouzza Fest is beginning to feel like the reward for us; we do all these other projects all year long and work really hard at them and, while Pouzza Fest is also very hard work, it's possible to see everything we've been working toward come together and that's really cool.”
Festival:
www.pouzzafest.com
