“The stage was so perfectly lit you could see the drummer.”
That’s what I tell my friends and family whenever they ask me about the 2019 East Coast Music Awards.
It was loud and there were too many people to easily find familiar faces. There were many rooms labeled with the ECMA logo on the door but many of them were empty; designated for future or past events.
I can only wonder how many empty beer cans and wine glasses the hotel management must have cleaned up during those five days….
The community
I saw the festival through a camera lens for the most part. But I wish I had gone undercover as a musician.
During the car ride there, one of my soon-to-be roommates, a musician herself, was reaching out to managers and record labels. My other roommate, another musician, was making plans to catch up with old friends. The conference would be the first time they would chat in months.
That’s kind of the ECMAs in a nutshell. It’s more than just a time to give out rewards to musicians and the champions of the industry. It’s also a time to catch up with friends and bond over musical inside jokes. It’s time to carpool with strangers and friends and listen to people randomly play music in the street or in a hotel room just because they know they are among their people.
The location
Located in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island this year, one of the cutest capital cities in Canada, it was a great place to host the festival.
The Island is the homeland of Cows, famous Canadian ice cream dispensary, cute candy stores, a pretty cool museum and lots of oyster bars. It’s a perfect place to explore in the cool mornings before the music showcases begin.
It’s impossible to see all the shows during the ECMAs. The stages were spread across the city, and even with the help of the app festival organizers created to help people schedule their days, it requires an impossible state of omnipresence to attend everything. I was assigned to the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre for Friday and Saturday.
Within the first few minutes in the hotel, I needed to ask where the stairs were and where the showcases could be found. I was lost in the flurry of musicians, music producers and record labels and festival representatives, and excited fans.
The Delta lobby and bar was packed with people from 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. Prime festival hours. Musicians played for the ECMA radio live in that same room. Every couch and seat was filled. More people were standing than sitting, sipping their drinks and making new connections.
The huge ballrooms were host to dozens, if not hundreds, of acts that weekend. When the musicians took the stage, it was overwhelming. The lights made it difficult to look away from the performers on stage and the music made it impossible.
The music
The Indigenous Showcase was one of the most impressive. Or maybe it was so impressive because of its diverse content, from traditional Indigenous chants to urban rap battles. Alan Syliboy and his band projected their pictures of wildlife on the ceiling and the tv screens beside the stage. It encouraged your imagination to wander.
On the Export Buyers Showcase stage, I loved Kubasonics. They’re one of those bands that you need to see live or you miss out on half of the experience. Brian Cherwick stared into the audience with wide eyes as he sang a crazed Ukrainian tune about farm animals and lovers.
The Burning Hell also deserves a shoutout for their creative songwriting and attempts to engage the crowd. One-quarter stand-up show and three-quarters music, Mathias Kom’s cheeky lyrics make you laugh but also stomp your feet.
The catchy tunes of the Barra MacNeils and other favourites like Mo Kenney and Jimmy Rankin had cheering crowds that could be heard anywhere in the hotel.
But I didn’t get to see everyone.
I still need an explanation as to why Serge from Les Hôtesses d’Hilaire was galloping around shirtless at the ECMA Thursday night award show.
Closing time
Sometime around 8 a.m. in the morning of my last day at the ECMAs, I crawled down to breakfast. In my pitch-black hotel room (I didn’t want to wake anyone), I stretched out my arms before me and stumbled to the hallway where the sunlight hurt my eyes.
In the breakfast room, there were only two other people. And I’m pretty sure the bottle of whiskey on the table across the room belonged to them, considering one of the lumberjack-looking fellows was giggling.
It was a fitting end to the weekend.
The ECMAs still provided a reunion for musicians and festival-hoppers alike.
You can see it in the bars, where musicians laugh out loud and take selfies at tables. You can see it in the casual, yet valuable, advice seasoned ECMA-goers give to up-and-coming musicians.
And you can see it in the groups of people passing around joints or smoking cigarettes, a barrier of warmth and friends against the cool spring nights.
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