Rifflandia Music Festival


Rifflandia Music Festival is a four-day multi-venue music festival held in Victoria, British Columbia. With no fixed date, the festival has occurred in the month-long span between the last weekend of August and the last weekend of September. Rifflandia was first launched on August 29, 2008.
Rifflandia also includes Artlandia, the War Child Lounge, and publishes an annual magazine. Local brewery and sponsor Phillips Brewery also produces a Rifflandia beer, Rifflandabrau, sold around the festival's time. The festival is staged by a local production company, Atomique Productions, and is sponsored by local businesses and various members of the media.

History

2016

Line-up

Thursday, September 15
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Rifftop Tent:
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Sunday, September 18
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Line-up

Thursday, September 17
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Line-up

Thursday, September 11
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Night Stages:
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Line-up

Friday, September 13
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For its fifth year, Rifflandia built on the success of the Royal Athletic Park as a flagship venue, while also using night stage venues, including the return of the Market Square stage. Rifflandia V occurred on September 13–16. Headlining the festival was the Flaming Lips, Sloan, Cake, and Mother Mother.

Line-up

Thursday, September 13
Night Stages:
Main Stage:
Side Stage:
Night Stages:
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In 2011, the fourth-annual Rifflandia restructured its venues and the festival-going experience by including the Royal Athletic Park as the flagship venue, with eight additional evening venues. The new location allowed for a main stage and side stage, as well as a partnership with local food and drink vendors, and the introduction of Rifflandia Cinema. Rifflandia IV occurred from September 22–25. The night venues included Alix Goolden Hall, Phillips Brewery, Club 9One9, the Victoria Events Centre, Lucky Bar, Metro Theatre, Wood Hall and Sugar Nightclub. The line up included City and Colour, Broken Social Scene, Cold War Kids and Mother Mother.

Line-up

Thursday, September 22
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The third Rifflandia Festival featured a record 165 artists over four days at 11 festival stages with approximately 3,500 attendees from September 23–26. Rifflandia III also introduced "Win!landia," a treasure hunt city-wide across Victoria, and Artlandia, an art showing in partnership with White Hot Magazine.

Line-up

Thursday, September 23
Rifflandia II grew with 2,500 people in attendance, with over 80 artists and more venues. Rifflandia Magazine was first published for Rifflandia II. The festival was held from September 24–27. The venues included Sugar Nightclub, Element Nightclub, Alix Goolden Hall, Metro Theatre, Market Square, the University of Victoria’s Vertigo, Lucky Bar, and the Strathcona Rooftop.

Line-up

Thursday, September 24
The inaugural Rifflandia started as a three-day festival from August 29–31, with seven stages, 65 artists and approximately 1,500 people in attendance. The venues were organized in a showcase style and included Alix Goolden Hall, Element Nightclub, Logan’s Pub, Lucky Bar, McPherson Playhouse, Royal Theatre, Smith’s Pub, Sugar Nightclub and the Strathcona Rooftop.

Line-up

Friday, August 29
Artlandia is the art component of Rifflandia. It was launched in 2010 with Rifflandia III in partnership with White Hot Magazine, featuring a variety of artists in different galleries near and during the time of the festival. For 2012, Artlandia included the Live!Stock poster show and Headspace.

War Child Lounge

The War Child Lounge was first launched during Rifflandia III in 2010. It features intimate acoustic performances from artists performing that year. All donations from the sets go directly to War Child Canada. Past performers include Hey Rosetta!, USS, Mother Mother, Jets Overhead and Melissa Auf der Maur In 2012, War Child Lounge featured Luluc, Current Swell, Rich Aucoin, Family of the Year, Hey Ocean!, Mother Mother and Frazey Ford.

''Rifflandia Magazine''

The first edition of Rifflandia Magazine was published for the 2009 festival. It is a free publication published annually since 2009 that features profiles on the artists playing, a festival schedule and map. It also includes details on other Rifflandia events, like Win!landia, Artlandia, War Child Lounge, and Wristband Connect. In 2012, the magazine also included a Rifflandia passport and fortuneteller.