Guys. I can’t even handle my excitement.

SappyFest 9 is just around the corner. On August 1st everyone will gather on Bridge Street in Sackville for another full weekend of your favourite music.

The Constantines, Rae Spoon, Cousins, Mike Feuerstack, Julie Doiron … It’s old home week.

I interviewed Lucas Hicks, the new Creative Director at SappyFest. Check it out!

Hey Lucas! Tell me about yourself and what you do

I’m an original Sackville local. I’ve been here for my whole 20 years.
I help co-founders and ex-festival directors, Paul Henderson and Jon Claytor, run a pub in town called Thunder & Lightning.
I’m also organizing myself to start a booking agency here on the East Coast.

This past year was rough, tell me about it.

It was rough, but we pulled through thanks to our dear supporters.
After last year’s festival there was a deficit of about 15k. Paul and Jon came up with the idea to create a coffee table book highlighting the last eight years of the festival. They both had decided it was going to be their last festival before it happened but stuck around to raise the money and create the book, SappyForever. It’s a tremendous piece of work. We pre-sold over 250 copies and set out on a tour from Halifax to Toronto to throw shows and deliver the books. It was a huge success and meant a lot to all of us. It helped strengthen the organization. Paul and Jon both still play a really important role and there’s a bigger and better board of directors.

What is your relationship with SappyFest?

What are some of your favourite memories of the festival?

I found out about the festival 6 years ago when I was in middle school. Shotgun Jimmie came to play a few songs for my class and told us all about the festival. I emailed Paul, the director at the time, and insisted that I get involved somehow. It’s always primarily been a 19+ event due to liquor laws in New Brunswick, but they created a great youth volunteer position that allowed me to help out and still get cultured. I stuck pretty close to him after that, he’s taught me a lot.

The SappyFest lineup this year is like a family reunion.

What should I be looking forward to?

I’m really excited to have all the classic Sappy artists together: Michael Feuerstack (ex-Snailhouse), Julie Doiron, Shotgun & Jaybird. It’s going to be really special.
There’s also some amazing bands that are pretty fresh and haven’t played the festival yet like Ought, Freelove Fenner, and Dusted. It’s a great mix.

If someone is new to SappyFest

What should they know going in? How can you ever really prepare?

Don’t prepare too much. It’s an amazing environment and an even better community.

What is a typical day like for you?

I’m in the office by 9 responding to emails and making sure all the day to day stuff is running smoothly. I take care of the programming, production, and artist relations so there’s always something to do.

and what’s your dream day like?

Listening to all the Pavement records in order and strolling downtown for ice cream, which basically happens weekly. I’m pretty lucky.

What’s next?

Things have been really busy with the festival just a month away. Planning for next year pretty much starts immediately after So it stays busy but is much less stressful. I’ll hopefully be able to focus my time into starting the booking agency up.

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Thanks, Lucas!

Weekend passes for SappyFest are on sale here. They’re still looking for volunteers and billets – find more info on that by clicking either word.

Here’s the SappyFest schedule: