Summertime in Victoria, Let It Rain Music Festivals

We’re don’t get a whole lot of rain during our summer in Victoria, but we’re pretty consistently raining music festivals. From Jazzfest to Rock the Shores and music in every little park, summer is the time to fill your ears with live music in Victoria.

This weekend, Phillips Brewery hosted their Phillips Backyard Weekender. Bands came from near and far to play to crowds up to 7,000 in the brewery’s backyard — filling up a corner of downtown Victoria with happy festival vibes and music bouncing off the warehouses just off Wharf Street.

The Phillips Backyard was a cozy place on Sunday evening with a sold out festival underway and thousands of music lovers packed into the area. It’s a standing room only set-up, so avoiding a cup of beer spilled on you was an athletic sport. A great evening line-up with Bahamas and German band, Milky Chance on the bill, the mood was pretty chill since both of these bands are pretty laid-back. Well except when Milky Chance first came out….

With much love and support in Victoria for the LGBTQ community after the Victoria Pride Parade, organizers welcomed LOVE onto the stage and asked the crowd to give out some hugs to celebrate Pride Week in Victoria for a warm start to the evening.

As usual, there were some interesting little festival goers…

These bands weren’t local, but they sure fit in here. Bahamas, a Toronto musician who has worked with Fiest and Jack Johnson gave a solid performance that provided perfect tunes and a mellow vibe for a happy swaying festival crowd. Milky Chance fired up the crowd and closed out the weekend festival with some serious dancing.

This was my Happy Place at Phillips Backyard Weekender. Shout out to these dancers…can’t see Milky Chance from here, but the dancing rocked @phillipsbeer @backyardwkndr @milkychance_official #victoriabc #yyjrocktographer #yyjfestivals #yyj #rocktographer #chillfest #summerfestivals #festivalvideo #pbw2016

A video posted by Mel Z (@melzsnaps) on Jul 10, 2016 at 9:50pm PDT

Milky Chance are from Germany and have the most interesting tour schedule this summer. After their performance in Victoria they’re headed to Calgary, Anchorage, Alaska — to play Moose’s Loose Tooth Pub and Pizzeria — Then down to Columbus, Ohio and back to Europe with Nice, France scheduled before they get back home to Germany. I think we’re pretty lucky they fit us in. Here’s some photos from pit of Milky Chance and Bahamas.

Festival bonus! Dropping little parachute guys with prizes from a crane!

Oh, yeah we won! See you at the next festival!

Mel Z – Middays on Ocean 98.5