Thousands of local residents and long-distance travelers are expected to be in attendance for the two-day 2024 CrewFest at Lion’s Park on Friday, July 19, and Saturday, July 20, 2024.
Friday’s lineup will include Big Wreck, Buckcherry, Sumo Cyco, and the Headstones as the evening’s headlining act while Saturday’s lineup will feature The Trews, Sloan, Junkhouse, Otherwives and headliner, the Goo Goo Dolls.
Jamie Stephens, organizer of CrewFest 2024, said that he and his team are looking forward to the big event.
“We’ve got two good days of rock lined up for this year’s event; Friday is definitely a bit of a heavier rock show than Saturday but we’re so stoked to bring the Goo Goo Dolls, who are international recording artists that play all over the world, to Brantford on Saturday night,” he said. “I think people can really expect a world class festival right in their own hometown, which is so exciting. A lot of people would have to travel to Toronto to see a show like this so it’s awesome to have this in our own backyard.”
Stephens said that guests can expect a variety of amenities throughout the two-day event.
“This year, we have about 12 food vendors this year, we have a side stage for some local regional bands to perform, our mainstage is much bigger and we’ve also added two video screens this year,” he said. “As always, it’s a 19-plus event so we’ll have different alcoholic beverages available throughout the festival, including our CrewFest lager with Farm League Brewing out of Cambridge. As well, because we want to be as inclusive as possible and we want people to feel welcome to the festival, we will also have the mini Shack Bar serving up some mocktails for those who don’t drink.”
Stephens said that over the years he and his CrewFest partner, Lance Calbeck, have strived to improve the annual event.
“This year we’ve decided to actually split the park in the middle. On one side we’ll have VIP and on the other we’ll have general admission. This allows people in the VIP and the GA both equal access to get to the front of the stage,” he said. “No matter what ticket level you are, in our minds, everyone’s a VIP and we treat everybody the same; But this year, we’ve just added some perks for the VIP side, like a souvenir water bag, a CrewFest souvenir t-shirt, some additional options in the bar on that side, and some more bathrooms as well.”
While tickets to the big event are selling fast, the organizer said that they will be selling tickets up until the day of.
“We have a capacity of 8,000 people and while we know we sell a lot of tickets the week of the festival, we’ve never sold as many tickets this far out as we have this year. With that being said, tickets are on sale all the way up until the day of the show as long as we don’t sell out before then,” he said. “I do encourage everyone who is thinking of coming to go to www.crewfest.ca to get all the info and for those who already know they’re coming, they should definitely download our app for either iOS or Android for all the festival info as well as a chance to win lifetime passes.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
