YK performers excited for ‘buzzing downtown’ as Still Dark begins

From Miranda Currie to Crook the Kid, the lineup for the inaugural Still Dark Festival is packed with NWT artists and out-of-territory performers.

The festival takes place for the first time this weekend across a range of Yellowknife venues, starting on Friday evening. Get the full schedule here.

Brie O’Keefe is the lead singer and songwriter of Flora and the Fireweeds, who will perform at the city’s Elks Lodge on Saturday night. She said attendees can expect material from the band’s album Green Wood alongside covers of folk rock songs and early 90s grunge rock classics with a Flora-and-the-Fireweeds spin.

“We’re really excited to play such an intimate venue,” she said.

O’Keefe said the Still Dark Festival is an “innovative approach” that reminds her of BreakOut West, a music festival and conference held annually in Winnipeg.

“This idea that over a whole weekend you can just hop around different venues downtown seeing great bands has never really been done before, so we’re super excited to be part of it,” she said.

“[I’m] just super stoked and really love that they’ve brought this to Yellowknife … I think there’s a real kind of performing arts and music venue renaissance going on in town and this celebrates that in a great way.”

O’Keefe said she’s especially looking forward to the outfit she will wear on stage, as well as watching other acts perform.

“I get to kind-of dress up and put on a show and really inhabit another part of myself when I’m on stage that I don’t get to do when I’m in my day-to-day life,” she said.

“I also get to see all kinds of artists, both from in town and out of town, that I respect or want to admire and just get that energy of live music. Because really, nothing can replace it, and you can have really emotional and intimate moments, you can have euphoric moments, and I think this weekend will be a culmination of all of those things.”

Justin Scherer, who makes electronic music under the name waivestate, is set to perform at The Top Knight on Friday night. He hopes it will be “a sweaty dance party.”

As waivestate, Scherer plays improvised techno music with modular synths and other electronic music hardware.

“Every performance is a little bit different,” he said.

Scherer said he’s looking forward to performing for both familiar and new faces, and he’s expecting an intimate atmosphere “like a small kitchen party” but in a proper venue.

“I think what the folks at Still Dark are doing is really amazing. There’s definitely a need, in my opinion, in the community for more opportunities for live music performance, especially in the winter,” he said, adding that people in Yellowknife “get excited about new opportunities to experience art and culture.”

“The community, I think, is going to really enjoy it and there’s an interesting mix of music that they’re bringing out, so I’m really excited for it.”

Yellowknife artist Bryce Styan will perform at The Underground on Friday night and Elks Lodge on Saturday night.

Save for the Tiny Tent Concert that raised funds for Aaron “Godson” Hernandez as he battled cancer in March 2024, Styan said about nine years have gone by since he played “a real set.” (Hernandez is now in remission).

“It seemed like it was an appropriate time to go and start playing live a bit again,” Styan said, adding he has recently released new music.

“People who are familiar with my stuff will probably recognize some of the older tunes but there’ll be a couple of new ones in there, and then a couple that are quite a bit older that people may remember.”

Styan believes the Still Dark Festival is “a great idea” that fills a gap in Yellowknife wintertime events since the demise of the former Cabin Fever Music Festival, which once served a similar purpose.

“I think it’ll just be nice that there’s a whole downtown core event going on where there’s multiple venues involved,” he said. “Seems like it’ll be a really good turnout since these guys have been doing such a good job promoting it, so it’ll be nice to see a whole slew of people getting together.”

Shea Alain will perform his first solo show as Maazes at the Top Knight on Friday night.

Alain originally formed Maazes as a duo with his friend Nick Sowsun, who has since moved away from Yellowknife. He said festivalgoers can expect Friday’s show to be “a little more experimental.”

“There’ll be some heavy-hitting drum machine beats and rhythms,” he said. “I’ve been playing around with some live vocal looping, so layering a bunch of harmonies, singing over that, and then some spaced out, guitar-driven fuzzy overdrives and a lot of reverb.”

Alain said he hopes to see “a buzzing downtown” over the weekend.

“Being from Yellowknife it’s always been feast or famine in terms of music events,” he said, adding that growing up, southern bands usually only visited the city during Folk on the Rocks, the city’s main summertime festival

“I think this time of the winter is a perfect time for something for all of us to look forward to.”

Alain also likes that the festival will take place within the city, providing support to venues and allowing visiting musicians to get a sense of what Yellowknife and its music scene is like.

“I really like the format of this kind of multi-venue, everything’s happening at once, choose your own adventure evening,” he said. “I’m excited to play it but I’m also excited just to go explore.”

Alain said local artists he is looking forward to watching include Johnny Vu, Bryce Styan and waivestate as well as out-of-town acts ASKO, Lauren Dillen and Shane Ghostkeeper. He’s also excited to take his kids to some of the festival’s daytime events.

Other northern musical acts set to perform at the festival include R.A.S.K.L., Sunaïra, Hughes, Taylor Saracuse and Some Other Dead People, PARTS, Gnarwhal, The Co-op, Gianna Deborgorski and Miranda Currie.

Acts from elsewhere in Canada include Mouraine and Wait//Less.

The festival is the brainchild of Taylor Shephard and Brian Weadick, who previously worked together at the Snowkings’ Winter Festival and Folk on the Rocks.

They have said they hope the festival will “activate the downtown during a challenging time of year.”

Tickets are available on the Still Dark Festival website.