What has become the largest outdoor music festival in Western Canada, in just a short time, FVDED in the Park returned to Holland Park to celebrate its fifth anniversary. Featuring headlining performances from Zedd and Grammy-nominated R&B superstar Khalid, this year’s FVDED played host to some of the hottest names in electronic dance, hip hop, and R&B- with a few surprises to boot! Dare we say this year’s edition is our favorite yet? Let’s rewind:
Location
FVDED in the Park takes place at Holland Park, in Surrey, British Columbia. It’s easily accessible via the Sky Train from downtown Vancouver.
Setup
FVDED features three outdoor stages: The small, intimate, FVDED lab, the Northwest stage, and the Pacific Mainstage. Neither stage saw huge makeovers from last year’s festival.
Ekali made his triumphant Vancouver hometown return (Photo: Cavin An/DMNW)
Centrally located was the FVDED marketplace, a rather large collection of food trucks and vendors from across British Columbia. There were no shortages of bars, as they could be found literally everywhere! The merch tent was huge, as usual- we just wish there were more artist specific items for sale. We REALLY wanted an RL Grime shirt (sad face).
Notable changes
The biggest, and probably most, impactful change to this year’s festival the box office, and will call, being relocated offsite. Lines have always been an issue at FVDEDs past, things really coming to a head last year. This year, we had no issues getting in both days. The lines were moving nice, and smoothly, whereas it was a common site to see them wrapped around the block- historically.
This year’s box office was situated across the street from the Surrey Central Skytrain station, and it couldn’t be missed as a big banner was strewed across the building. From there, attendees could either hop back on the Skytrain and take a five-minute ride to the King George station, located right outside the festival grounds, or walk ten minutes to the gate.
Trap king RL Grime closed the Northwest stage on Day 2 (Photo: Cavin An/DMNW)
We opted to walk, following signs, and festival volunteers, directing foot traffic to the entrance. It was impossible to get lost!
Who knew relocating a ticket box office could remedy line issues. Here’s to this being a permanent move by the FVDED crew.
We also noticed a heavier presence of roaming festival volunteers, easily identifiable by their neon shirts, as well as police and first aid officials. We didn’t see any serious incidents, but it’s always nice to know help is nearby if you need it- especially at a festival this size.
Chris Lake made his second consecutive FVDED appearance, filing in for Green Velvet to close the FVDED lab (Photo: Cavin An/DMNW)
Other changes included larger LED displays at the Northwest tent stage, more vendors, most with pretty fun set ups, and house music superstar Chris Lake replacing techno legend Green Velvet on the lineup on a short days.
The music
On the EDM side of things, FVDED 2019 featured a few festival alumni- to include Chris Lake, Louis the Child, RL Grime, and Vancouver’s favorite son: Ekali. While we like each of these artists, and the sets they performed (oh, did they throw down!), we would love to see new faces added to the dance music side of FVDEDs going forward; to keep things fresh!
Before he kicks off his fall Orbit Tour in the Northwest, Zedd came by to close the FVDED mainstage on Day 1 (Photo: Cavin An/DMNW)
We saw a few fun cameos this year. Ekali brought his parents on stage for a family photo, his dad getting the crowd hype! Even a bit of Hollywood joined the fun as Riverdale star Drew Ray Tanner joined Canada’s own Loud Luxury on stage for a song. Kayzo would bring fellow binch Yultron out to perform their latest collab. It seemed all the artists were having just as much fun as the fans this year- overcast skies, and random rain showers, be damned!
The final verdict
While we can do without the constant mosh pits, FVDED In The Park always keeps us coming back for more! No line issues, this year, was a huge relief, and the performers didn’t disappoint! There was plenty to see, and do! We played cornhole, chilled in tropical Bacardi tents, ate foods from cultures across the globe, and more! Like we mentioned earlier, we would love to see new EDM acts on FVDED lineups going forward. Unless next year’s lineup is full of recycled names, we’ll see you at the park next summer!
What did you think about FVDED in the Park 2019? Let us know in our comments section on Facebook, and Twitter!
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