Sudbury's Up Here festival to return this summer with flexible plans

After a year away due to COVID-19, the Up Here urban art and music festival will return this summer in Sudbury.

"We really wanted to do something," said Christian Pelletier, festival co-founder.

"This has been a really difficult year for a lot of people and for us it was important to come back softly," he said.

The launch of the festival was announced on Thursday, with a list of some of the muralists and artists set to be involved. Organizers will announce musicians at a later date.

The main festival for Up Here will run from August 20 to 22, at what is being called Up Here Square. Pelletier says that's the main festival site, where the ten metre high geodesic dome will be set up for some pop-up concerts and a gathering space. 

"We wanted to do this soft launch to get people accustomed to coming back together," he said.

There will be six new murals painted around the city. Pelletier says three of those artists had previously painted utility boxes for the festival's Power Up project.

There will also be musical performances, most likely in the pop-up concert format the festival has done in the past. Notification is given just 20 minutes before the concernt through the festival app and social media.

"We really try to utilize these interesting spaces that we don't normally have access to as just regular citizens, but that we can get access to as a festival," he said.

The festival had to be scaled back and modified last summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pelletier says they recorded videos of musical performances at venues around Sudbury and presented those online. Muralists were also able to safely do new art pieces.

"We had to re-imagine everything last year at the last minute, which wasn't easy, but it worked out. We still did something"

In previous years, the Up Here festival included new mural additions, public art on utility boxes and a three day music festival held at various venues across the city, including pop-up concerts.

"There's always been an experimental nature to Up Here. People never quite know what to expect, so we're using that as an asset as a way to move forward," Pelletier said.

Pelletier says Public Health Sudbury and Districts has validated the festival plans.

"Even if [COVID-19] cases do flare up, we can still paint murals, we can still set up these [art] installations," he said, adding that there is flexibility within their festival plans.

"If this pandemic has taught us anything it's that flexibility really is key to do anything." 

"What we have announced today are the things we 100 per cent feel comfortable with moving forward with the current climate, but we do have a few tricks up our sleeves — if we can, and if we feel comfortable doing it."