Quality Block Party – the festival that aimed to bring the independent music of New Brunswick to the forefront, as well as hold its own, during the chaos that was the East Coast Music Awards – is rolling back onto the streets of Uptown Saint John with version 1.2 from August 10th to 13th ! This iteration of Quality Block will have the city to itself, the ECMA’s having come and gone, allowing for the festival to have a bit of room to breathe and further develop its character.
While the general idea will remain the same, this version of Quality Block has its share of differences from its first iteration. Quality Block Party v1.2 will feature nineteen shows held primarily between eight venues over the course of four days – making for a much denser schedule than before, which held sixteen shows over a span of five days. It’s also broken up some of the shows to reduce the likelihood on noise complains.
While fifteen of the nineteen shows will be ticketed events, several events including the art and zine fair, workshops, and the Quality Hop with roughly a dozen pop up performances – will all be free to attend and open to all ages.
While there is sure to be many familiar faces from across New Brunswick at the festival, there will also be a number of acts from outside of the province coming to Saint John for Quality Block Party such as: Like a Motorcycle, Russell Louder, and Construction & Destruction, among others.
The venues during the first Quality Block Party were each unique in their own right and added depth to the performances they housed, many of which are returning venues during this version of the festival: Taco Pica, Five & Dime, Yuk Yuks, and Port City Royal; but new to Quality Block Party are: Callahan’s, Locavore, and Boyd Gallery.
The line-up includes Like a Motorcycle, Three Sheet, Monoxides, Construction & Destruction, S.H.R.I.M.P Ring. Julie Doiron, Bonnett House, Catriona Sturton, LAPS, Tortue, Oldie Junior, KILL DEVILS, Tooth & the Fang, Russell Louder, Reagan’s Rayguns, USSE, WROTE, Bad People, Little You Little Me, The Trick, The Hypochondriacs, Chips, Right Shitty, Young Satan in Love, Clinton Charlton, DenMother, T.Thomason, Womb to Tomb, That Hell Kite, Tasty Wangs, Janowskii, Jaguar Knight, Jerry-Faye, 1995 Zellers, Aftersurf, Aminal, Amy Stone & The Veneers, Brent Mason, Brookside Mall, Butcher, Cassette Tapes, Cauldron Project, Cellarghost, Counting on Downstairs, Crossed Wires, Dizzy & the Kittens, Fuzz Fiction, Gaudeamas, Graeme Kennedy, Jaimie Comeau, Jon Mckiel, Kylie Fox, Like a Motorcycle, Liken, Loveover, Motherhood, Ophylia, Owen Meany’s Batting Stance, Penny Blacks, Property//, Provincial Camps, Sadie, Sam Salmon, Sapsucker, Sebastian Fleet, Sheik, SHR, Ski Team, Subtle, The Morticia Project, The Trick, Thirsty Camel, Tortue, UDA, and Womb to Tomb.
A limited number of weekend & day passes will be sold at Backstreet Record’s Saint John location starting Wednesday, July 12th. $60 for weekend passes, $25 for day passes. All shows will have tickets available at the door.