Backyard Fest, Nanaimo’s underground music and arts festival, is moving out of the backyard behind Sound Heritage Music this year and into venues around Victoria Crescent on the weekend of May 16 to 18, 2025.
This change, in part, is because the previous location needs to have another exit built for fire safety but it’s also because the festival is expanding with over 50 bands — twice as many as in previous years.
“It’s definitely turning a new leaf this time,” said festival volunteer Brendan Holm. “I’m like, ‘OK, can we have people come and occupy all of downtown at once?’”
The festival also has a new name to go with the expansion this year: Sunk City. In fact, one of the venues is sunken in Lois Lane, which sits a full story beneath street level between Victoria Crescent and Terminal Avenue.
“There’s a lot of things that maybe have been left for a long time and that need to be used and it’s nice when artists are occupying it,” Holm said. “There’s a giant pit in the middle of downtown, that’s part of it.”
Backyard Fest venues to feature different types of music
Each venue will have bands that are somewhat similar in genre. For example, The Queen’s will host more danceable electronic-based acts such as Devors, Moonbean and 2girls1daw. The Vault Cafe will have a lineup of “Dreamy, psychedelic modular synth” while The Terminal will be where to find rock bands.
An outdoor main stage in Lois Lane will feature the more “bombastic” acts such as Ora Cogan and Behaviours as well as up and coming indie-pop artist Zoe the Strange. Other venues include Sound Heritage and Coal Town 1868.
Mellow Drama Studio will be where people can see dance performances and a variety show. There will also be a Kids Zone where kids can “explore, create and have fun” with early childhood educators and artist Willow Hills.
An all-day artisan market will take place on Victoria Crescent on Saturday and Sunday.
The full festival schedule is available on the Backyard Fest website.
Backyard Fest’s roots in the community
Backyard Fest started in 2017 as a memorial and celebration of life event for Anton Lemieux, who died of a fentanyl overdose.
His father John owned Sound Heritage at the time and it was supposed to be a one-time event.
“But because it worked well and felt good, it was a galvanizing experience for the community,” Holm said. “We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be awesome just to keep it going?’”
From that modest start, organizers are now looking at larger festivals such as Woodstove in Cumberland and Sled Island in Calgary as examples of directions the festival could go in the future.
However, they don’t think the event will ever become something that is geared towards the music industry the way North by Northeast is in Toronto.
“It is very focused on the things happening here in Nanaimo — the people that are connected to the community and involved in it,” Holm said.
Holm credits Nanaimo’s vibrant music scene with the existence of low-barrier venues in Nanaimo that don’t charge artists a large fee to play. This is unlike Vancouver or Victoria, where Holm said artists have to pay between $200 to $500 to play and the venue takes a large percentage of the money collected at the door.
“I think that really helps the scene develop and allows a lot of new people to play,” he said.
Holm said when he first moved to Nanaimo, he remembered his peers moving away to large cities such as Vancouver and Toronto to chase a bigger market but he doesn’t feel that as much anymore.
“If anything, amazing musicians from Toronto are moving here, which is cool to see,” adds Jac Proctor, who is working on the festival with Holm.
Nanaimo’s vibrant underground music scene
Proctor said she’s worried about how Vancouver Island University’s decision to cut the music program will impact Nanaimo’s music scene.
“One thing that I’m worried about is most of the awesome musicians I know that live here moved here to go to music school, and now that’s obviously been canceled,” she said. “So I hope going forward, there’s still a lot of people making music here.”
Holm is an alumni of the program and said the news of the program cut was “a really big bummer.”
“I feel sad that it’s not going to continue bringing young musicians into town,” he said.
Tips that Holm and Proctor have for festival-goers include catching the opening ceremony at The Vault Cafe on Friday evening with Leanor Hampton from Snuneymuxw, bringing sun protection and spending the weekend downtown to immerse yourself in Nanaimo’s underground arts and culture.
All of the venues except for The Terminal and The Queen’s are all ages and admission for children 12 and under is free.
Tickets cost $90 for a weekend pass that includes entry to all venues, or you can buy individual day passes for $30 to $60. You can buy tickets online or at The Vault Cafe, Sound Heritage, Lucky Cloud or Noise Agony Mayham.
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