Electric Island – Civic Holiday 2016

August long weekend marks a turning point of the season. The hints of summers’ end begin to creep into our minds, but every year we manage to dismiss them for another few weeks.

The civic holiday is always a big thing in Toronto. Two other music festivals as well as Carribana make it a banger of a weekend in the city. A lot of people take the chance to get out of town, – wether to Montreal or Muskoka – many crews were short staffed. This had little effect on the experience of the island.

We arrived towards the end of Andhim‘s set. The sun and heat of the day were harsh, we were appreciative of the green canopy that covers a fair bit of the grounds at Hanlan’s point. The tunes were up-beat and appropriate for the weather. One of the two brothers of Andhim broke his leg the week before so just Tobias was spinning. He ended the set with their own classic track Reeves, and left the decks to a surprising but familiar face.

We knew something was up when we saw Kenny Glasgow starting to set his gear up. The assumption was that some one had bailed, we later found out that it was Guy Gerber. The contrast in vibe was noticeable; The sound took a darker, clubbier turn. I didn’t see anyone complaining.

Gui Buratto was up next and played a melodic set. It was a bit slow but worked out perfectly as an opener for Paul K. He finished with his own remix of beautiful life. Kalkbrenner followed and was obviously the star of the day. He played a kick-ass live set, expertly mixed in with a slew of his canonical tracks. It was with out a doubt the most interesting sets of the event series this summer. If you didn’t get the chance to see PK on the island, you can always go watch Berlin Calling.

Check out some of the photos from the event on our facebook and stay tuned for labour day.

-HOL