From September 30 to October 3, 2020, Lawnya Vawnya: An Exposition of Independent Art & Culture will be returning with its 10th annual festival programming, albeit with a few changes. This year, for reasons that need not be mentioned, they’ll be switching it up to including a combination of live performance and online events including film screenings, readings, artist talks, workshops, podcasts, music crawls and more, but most excitingly, it is actually happening.
Dividing the festival into exclusive online shows and live performances has resulted in an interesting development: both sets of performances comes with its own list of headliners.
Lawnya Vawnya’s list of exclusive online performances includes headliners Canadian Inuk singer Elisapie, whose most recent album, The Ballad of the Runaway Girl, is a poetic gesture driven by urgency, doubt, gentleness, sensitivity, grace and motherly love and Calgary-based hip–hop duo Cartel Madras, and Montreal-based Priors, a garage punk band playing rock ‘n’ roll fueled by jangly nerves and a primal tone. The online portion of the festival will always include performances by Alpen Glow (QC), Regina Gently (ON), Kat McLevey (ON) and Meg Warren (ON).
As you might expect, Lawnya Vawnya’s live events are loaded with talents from within (or former residents of) the Newfoundland and Labrador. These include a headlining performance by Ariel Sharratt and Mathias Kom of The Burning Hell (formerly of St. John’s), whose songs combine loquacious lyricism, wry humour, and formidable mile-a-minute storytelling about the human condition and the occasional avenging ska fan or priest. There will also be performances from local acts Birch Beer (NL), Isolation Kills (NL), Conditioner (NL), Sooks (NL), Soap Opera (NL), Hullo (NL), Nico Paulo (NL), Valmy (NL), Kyle Gryphon (NL) and LB Power (NL), all subject to limited capacity.
Lawnya Vawnya will also feature panel discussions, artist talks, a film screening, readings, a record and press fair, pop-up shows, a new music crawl that will guide you on a personal, interactive music crawl through the heart of downtown St. John’s.
All Lawnya Vawnya 10th edition events are free but will require pre-registration in order to attend. All in-person venues and events will be operating at reduced capacities and in compliance with public health regulations. More information will be available soon at www.lawnyavawnya.com.
