BeatRoute Magazine Alberta print e-edition - July 2017

BOOK OF BRIDGE
WIDE SKIES MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL
intimate venue hosting mid-week summer festival
By day Mike Spencer is the man in charge at
Mike Spencer Geometrics Ltd., a surveying
company based in Lethbridge, but when
the office doors close, he turns his focus onto
something a little more musical.
From humble beginnings to becoming a staple
in the Lethbridge music scene, the Geomatic
Attic is gearing up for its biggest venture yet.
Acts like Dave McCann, Fred Eaglesmith and
Po’Girl are the foundation for the Geomatic Attic,
and still make regular appearances in Lethbridge
today. These high-caliber talents lay the
groundwork for bigger and more diverse shows
as time went on, including performances from
JUNO-award winning acts like The Strumbellas,
Whitehorse, and MonkeyJunk.
“Those performers are performers that really
gave us credibility. I think when people look at
a venue they often want to look at the history
and see who has played there, and say, ‘Well if
it’s good enough for Fred Eaglesmith and Dave
McCann, it’s good enough for me,’” says Spencer.
“We did a show with Fred Eaglesmith, it was in
early August [2008]. It was absolutely roasting in
the space, we had no air conditioning, and it was
like 40 degrees Celsius. I brought my trailer and I
parked it in the parking lot and he used that for
the green room and he set up his merchandise
outside, and we had a burger stand. It was mostly
friends but it absolutely tons of fun.”
Come July, the Geomatic Attic is taking
on something entirely new, in the form of an
outdoor festival, dubbed the Wide Skies Music
Alex Cuba headlines Lethbridge’s first Wide Skies Music and Arts Festival.
and Arts Festival. Partnering with the City of
Lethbridge, Spencer received a grant from the
Heart of Our City fund, which invests in events to
revitalize the city’s downtown core.
“We’ve applied for a closure of 11th street
south right beside Southminster [United]
Church. We’re going to set up a stage there and
have an art market, food trucks and a beer garden.
So we’ll have an outdoor show on Wednesday,
July 26, and we’ll have an indoor show on
Thursday, July 27, in the church. It’s kind of like a
mini, mid-week festival. We’re trying not to compete
with other festivals,” says Spencer.
This event squeezes itself between South
Country Fair and the Calgary Folk Festival. Spencer
says he wanted his festival to be in the middle
to “take advantage of some of the performers
who may play at the other festivals.”
The festival will host singer-songwriter Lindi
Ortega, Alex Cuba, Dave and Phil Alvin with
the Guilty Ones, the Juno nominates known as
the 24th Street Wailers, Mariel Buckley, Saskatoon-based
The Deep Dark Woods, and Lethbridge
locals Shaela Miller and Ryland Moranz.
by Monica Lockett
“The Wide Skies idea is that it’s supposed to be
inclusive, all-welcoming. The outdoor show is a
free event and there’s going to be a ticketed event
the next night,” says Spencer.
“We’re really trying to key in on it being an environmentally
friendly festival, so the food trucks
will have compostable plates and areas to dispose
of your waste. There will be little incentives for
people to ride their bikes to the event or keep
parking to a minimum.”
What makes this festival unique can be traced
back to the core ideology behind Spencer’s
formation of the Geomatic Attic – one with the
community in mind.
“I knew it could never be a moneymaker, but
I knew it could possibly be something like a notfor-profit
organization. Make sure we break even,
and any money we made we would put it back
into improvements and things like that,” he says.
Previous shows have been fundraisers for local
organizations such as the YWCA Harbour House,
the Lethbridge Food Bank, Woman Space and the
Lethbridge Public Library.
“I’ve lived in Lethbridge for 36 years and I feel
like this city has been really good to me and my
company. So if we could, through the Geomatic
Attic, we could do a fundraiser or we could
support another organization that’s doing really
great things, we’d like to do that.”
Go to www.geomaticattic.ca for more information
about upcoming shows. Wide Skies Music and Arts
Festival takes place July 26 and July 27 (Lethbridge).
ROCKPILE
BEATROUTE • JULY 2017 | 23