Hillside is once again offering complimentary passes to recently-arrived Ukrainians and their hosts for the summer festival, July 28-30, 2023. DakhaBrakha and Balaklava Blues, bands from Ukraine, will be performing at the festival. Both promise to deliver powerful multimedia performances.
- Complimentary entry can be obtained by writing to Isabella Asheber at <[email protected]>. Hillside will need a name and an email address and/or cell number from each Ukrainian visitor/helper.
- The recently-arrived Ukrainians and hosts/helpers will just need to check in at the Hillside Main Gate. Ask any volunteer for directions to gate check in and they will find your name on the guest list and wristband you.
- There is a free shuttle bus from downtown Guelph at the Guelph Central Station, Platform 14. It leaves every half hour, 10am to midnight Friday. There is information about the schedule here on our website. It also leaves the Hillside Festival site on the grounds of Guelph Lake Island every half hour or so to return to downtown Guelph.
- People should know that Guelph Lake Island is 10km outside the city of Guelph. They should also know that it takes time to get into the festival, and so everyone should leave themselves lots of time to get to Hillside so they don’t miss the show.
DakhaBrakha will perform on the Main Stage Saturday, July 29th at 9:50pm. They will have a video presentation to accompany their performance. They will also perform on Sunday, July 30th on the Sun Stage at which Hillside will serve borscht, at DakhaBrakha’s behest. DakhaBrakha, who are from Kyiv, base their music on Ukrainian folk music and folk tales. They have performed before at both the Hillside summer festival and Hillside Inside, the winter festival.
Balaklava Blues will perform on the Island Stage Sunday, July 30th at 4:20pm. They will also perform in a session with Namgar on the Sun Stage on Sunday at 6:15pm. Bio: Balaklava Blues are folk-noir trench-fighters on the cultural front of Ukraine’s battle for democracy and freedom. They mix thousand year-old polyphonic traditions with personal stories and sounds of revolution and war and stunning visuals that blend folk motifs with contemporary expressions of power, vulnerability and trauma. Think Dakha Brakha remixed by A Tribe Called Red and then played live by Thom Yorke fronting Portishead.