Hundreds descending on Townships for ShazamFest
By Jack Wilson
ShazamFest will be back from July 13 to 16 for its 18th year. The festival, just outside of Ayer’s Cliff, will feature a plethora of musical performances, alongside circus acts, wrestling and a beard and mustache contest. Attendees will be invited to camp on the festival grounds, with the option of paying their way out of pitching a tent by signing up for the “glamping” option.
Ziv Przytyk, who runs the festival, said he was looking forward to this edition’s performances. “We have some really cool bands coming this year.” Among them is Juno-winning Kobo Town, which performs calypso with flavours of reggae, funk and ska. Over half of the artists gracing the festival’s three stages will be from the Townships, Przytyk added. Alongside the musical, circus and burlesque performances, “there will be an epic foam sword battle,” he said.
“I wanted to run away and join the circus when I was a kid,” Przytyk said. But when it came time to try out for the Cirque de Soleil school, he couldn’t quite make the cut. So, “instead of running away to join the circus, I made the circus run away and join me,” he joked.
The festival welcomes all ages, although Przytyk is of the view that everyone in attendance will be kids for the weekend. The participants “are all kids, from 0 to 80,” he said. “This is a playground for all ages, everybody becomes a kid.”
