Area 506: Take Two

area 506 3

Dear Readers,

As I mentioned in my birthday post, I spent my birthday weekend at Area 506! Area 506 is a musical festival on the New Brunswick Day long weekend in Saint John, New Brunswick.

This year was year four for the festival which takes places right in the heart of uptown Saint John. This year the festival was right on the waterfront!! Previously, it had been set up on longwarf. However, the location this year was WAY better, it was right in the uptown area close to restaurants and bars (the boardwalk even stayed open until 3am all weekend!!) Plus if you were sitting out on a patio you would have definitely been able to hear the music.

Area 506 1

The last summer I was home I went to Area 506 for the first time and had a blast. There is honestly nothing like going to a great musical festival fifteen minutes away. The first year I went Teagan & Sara and The Strumbellas headlined the weekend. Last year were the Arkells (slightly sad I missed my favourite band HOWEVER I did see them in Glasgow last year). This year the festival went ALL three nights, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The headliner for Friday was the legendary Joel Plaskett, Saturday SLOAN and Interpole played and Sunday City and Colour and Tokyo Police Club played. It was an incredible line up alllll weekend long.

area 506 4 area 506 5 area 506 6 area 506 15

The festival is set up in a village of shipping containers. Throughout the day, the shipping village is open to the public to walk around and different vendors and organizations were set up inside the shipping containers. There were even a few art exhibits up early for THIRD SHIFT (the public contemporary art festival which will be happening Friday August 16th!!).

area 506 7 area 506 8

area 506 12

The music started early each day, however, I went in early each evening to catch the main acts of the show! My friends and I definitely had a great time each night. Everything was organized really well, and despite the first night (we had to wait to get our bracelets) it only took a few moments to get through the line to head into the concert.

area 506 14 area 506 13

It so awesome that Saint John has been able to pull together such a great music festival here over the last four years. It really shows how New Brunswickers are really starting to appreciate how great our province is. I love you Saint John, keep being the great little city that you are!