Strumbellas, Matt Andersen among Supercrawl 2016 headliners

In front of a small crowd at a coffee shop on James Street, Supercrawl organizers officially announced the musical lineup to this year's festival on Monday morning.

Headliners include:

• The Strumbellas – A six-piece rock band from Lindsay, Ont., playing the airport stage on the Saturday night.
• The Trews – Toronto-based rock group taking the airport Stage on the Friday night.
• Matt Andersen & The Bona Fide – Multiple award-winning solo artist from New Brunswick.
• Sharon and Bram – This folksy duo has been performing since 1978 and has won countless awards.
• F---ed Up – A Toronto-based band spanning genres of punk, rock and hardcore.
• Junior Boys – Hamilton-based techno, electro-pop group, taking the stage on Sunday.

It was a quick presentation (see the 15 minute mark on the Facebook live video on CBC Hamilton's Facebook page).

Tim Potocic, the festival director, said a few words welcoming the crowd, and then pressed play on the announcement video, which ran for a little less than a minute. This was the first of around a dozen announcements organizers said they will make in the run up to the festival in September.

After the video was finished playing, Potocic took a few questions while attendees sipped and snacked on complimentary coffee and treats.

Using side streets and going green

"We're trying to activate side streets more," he said, adding this will help expand the festival and help deal with the light rail transit (LRT) eventually built on James Street North.

"LRT on James is going to cause havoc for Supercrawl for a few years, but we're working with the city to try to make a way to be able to continue to do the festival, do it on James, do it in a different way for a couple of years while they're doing construction."

Potocic also said Supercrawl is looking to make the festival a little more environmentally friendly.

"We're not letting you put your garbage in garbage cans this year," he said. Instead, there will be waste stations where volunteers will sort the waste to help cut down what goes to the landfill.

"Right now our diversion rate is zero. So we can only get better because we're the worst we could possibly be."

Here's the lineup

Friday September 9 - Sunday September 11 |   James St. N., Hamilton

Headliners at Supercrawl 2016, the festival's eighth annual edition, will include The Strumbellas, Matt Andersen & the Bona Fide, The Trews, F---ed Up, Four Tet, Junior Boys and Sharon and Bram.

Other acts announced today include (in alphabetical order): The Art Pop Ensemble, The Bandicoots, Bathing, Billy Moon, Born Ruffians, Bravestation, Jennifer Budd, Choir! Choir! Choir!, Laura Cole, Coszmos Quartette, Dear Rouge, Defining Movement Dance, The Dirty Nil, Discography DJs, Egyptrixx, Emay, Fast Romantics, Pete Fowler, Guilty Pleasure, Hamilton Children's Choir, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Hamilton Youth Poets, The Darcy Hepner Jazz Orchestra, David Hickey, Illitry, Jon and Roy, Kestrels, Taylor Knox, Mother Tareka, Pandaléon, Neeraj Prem, The Reason, Repartee, Amanda Rheaume, Royal Canoe, Sianspheric, To Our Divide, Tuns, Turkey Rhubarb, Thompson Wilson, and WTCHS.

Leading up to the festival

Supercrawl also plans to collaborate with partner venues This Ain't Hollywood, Baltimore House and Club Absinthe to program more music leading up to the festival.

There are also two ticketed events outside the main festival days:

Wednesday, July 6 – Mills Hardware, 95 King St. E., Hamilton

The Rural Alberta Advantage featuring Robin Hatch (Our Lady Peace) standing in for Amy Cole.

Friday, August 12 – Collective Arts Brewing, 207 Burlington St. E., Hamilton

Hollerado, featuring TBA guests.