Pemberton Festival 2008

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Related Links
• Pemberton Festival Official Site
• Pemberton Festival @ MySpace
• Directions from Seattle
• Tickets info and store
• Festival forum: tips, ride-shares, info and more.

Preview
Our Northwest summer has arrived late, but the music is always on time. With the addition of several new festivals this year, there might be too many festivals to choose from, if you wanted to enjoy them all. With your summer schedule packed with concerts, festivals, holidays and lots of sun to catch, you'll have to choose wisely.

If you need an excuse to cross the border (beyond the marvels of Vancouver) and rock-out with your favorite bands, this is your big chance. Check out the first ever Pemberton Festival. In our opinion missing this huge festival organized by Live Nation and featuring 50+ artists would be a sin.

The three-day festival's line up of living legends in all colors and flavors includes big names like: Coldplay, Tom Petty and the heartbreakers, Nine Inch Nails, Interpol, Jay-Z, Serj Tankian, The Flaming Lips, and local favorite Death Cab fur Cutie.

Review
A Rocking weekend, eh!
By Camilo Cadena

The first ever Pemberton Music festival has given everyone a lot to talk about. Contradictory versions of what happened are circulating across the web and print media. The official release  said something quite different than a variety of independent local press. I guess one would have had actually had to of been there to experience and relay the truth.

Here is my story.

First of all the crowd at Pemberton knew how to rock. And that's a good thing; there was a lot of rock to be had. Names like N.I.N., Tom Petty, Coldplay, Jay-Z, N.E.R.D., Death Cab for Cutie, Vampire Weekend, Mates of State, and many others were worth "the sacrifice". Not to mention the disco pit with world class DJ's and even a show featuring a small group of native Canadians, owners of the land, dancing and singing their folklore.

The real story was getting there and dealing with the logistics of the first ever festival.

Past Vancouver and Whistler lies the beginning of the Canadian wilderness and Pemberton. When you hold a 40,000 + ticket concert in a town with a population of 2,200 problems are sure to arise. We left Seattle at 1 pm and didn't arrive in the tiny town until 9pm. The border was clogged and the city of Vancouver, although beautiful, is an unpleasant obstacle to navigate south-to-north. What should have been a four and a half hour drive was almost doubled. By the time we got to the festival; it was dark and too late to set up camp. All-but-one of Friday's shows were finished, we ended up sleeping under the stars somewhere on the roadside until 4 am when sprinklers turned on, bringing in Saturday morning.

But in the name of good music, much can be bared. More things were to be roughed, like the crowd stifling dust storms forcing everyone to fashion facemasks with an assortment of bandanas like western gun-slingers. Or at the showers and bathrooms, where it became increasingly apparent what the future will be like when we’re all suffering from a shortage of water (do you really need a 15 min. shower?). As for the toilets... well I guess it is not hard to imagine the onslaught. 

So mark your calendars for this time next year(they’re already planning it) when I am sure an improved version of this party will arrive, with another hard to beat line up, the same great landscape and a chance to revel in the only gift that keeps giving: music.