2 days Ago By Steve Ewen
The Grey Cup Festival announced Tuesday that Canadian rocker Bif Naked will be one of its musical guests and she showed off a little of her B.C. Lions fandom in the aftermath.
The Jonas Brothers were long ago unveiled as the halftime show for the CFL’s championship game, which goes Nov. 17 at B.C.
Place. The festival gets going Nov. 10 and on Tuesday organizers revealed the musical entertainment that will be a part of the lead-up to the game.
The Trews and the Sam Roberts Band are also among acts playing during the festival. Naked, who has lived in Vancouver for much of her life but currently resides in the Toronto area, is playing the block party, which runs from 10 a.m.
to 3 p.m. on game day just outside B.
C. Place. It’s a return of sorts for her, since she played the Lions Backyard Block Party ahead of their 2022 CFL season-opener.
“Last time we had such a lovely time that the whole band still reminisces about it. Plus we got to meet Daved Benefield in the green room, which was amazing,” Naked explained by text, pointing to the former Lions defensive end standout. “I’m over the moon about coming home to Vancouver to be with our friends in the B.
C. Lions organization and being a part of the celebration this year.” As for tickets for the game, Grey Cup 2024 Festival executive director Riley Wiwchar said Tuesday that “we’re not quite sold out — we’re getting close.
” “Lower bowl is sold out. We’ve still got upper bowl tickets. We’re seeing them pick up as teams are starting to decide who maybe is in the game,” Wiwchar continued.
“They’re still available but I don’t think they will be for long.” Here’s four other things to know about the festival: The Vancouver Convention Centre will be the primary host venue for the festival’s ticketed events, including the Team Party Headquarters (Nov. 14-16); CFL Awards (Nov.
14); Business Summit (Nov. 15); CFLAA Legends Luncheon (Nov. 15); Gala Dinner (Nov.
15); Spirit of Edmonton Breakfast (Nov. 16); Athletes in Action Grey Cup Breakfast (Nov. 16); Coors Light Saturday Night Concert (Nov.
16); and Indoor Tailgate (Nov. 17). The pre-game Block Party is the only other ticketed event outside of the game.
The Trews open for the Sam Roberts Band on Nov. 16 at the Saturday Night Concert at the Convention Centre. Tickets are $75 plus taxes and applicable fees.
Block Party tickets are also $75 plus applicable taxes and fees. CFL Awards tickets are $175 plus taxes and fees, while the Gala Dinner runs $375, plus applicable taxes and fees, and are sold as a table of 10. There’s free entertainment as well.
Vancouver’s Felix Cartal is expected to set the tone as the headliner of the kickoff party for the Street Festival that gets going Nov. 13 at 6 p.m.
Cartal will be the first of 22 artists to take to the stage for the four days of the street festival, which will take over Canada Place Way between Thurlow and Burrard streets starting with Cartal’s show through the finale on Nov. 16. There’s a variety of musical genres on display throughout the week, and Wiwchar credited Vancouver-based event production company Brandlive with helping put the musical card together.
“We had some names we really wanted to bring on-board. Some iconic Canadian bands. And we feel like we did a really good job of making sure we had that diversity,” Wiwchar said.
Wiwchar maintains that you don’t have to be a football fan to enjoy the festival. There’s the various entertainment offerings and there’s a multitude of cuisines in the team rooms. “Nobody’s done a festival this big before and to do it in downtown Vancouver is going to be incredible,” Wiwchar said.
“We have a lot of good stakeholders working on this with us. It’s different to transform downtown. When we get this done, it’s going to have two zip lines.
We’re going to have streets shut down. It’s going to change patterns for people for a bit but all in celebration and all part of why we want to host this.” Wiwchar is cognizant, as well, of the possibility of a Grey Cup getting lost in a city like Vancouver.
“The B.C. Lions, with all they’ve done with (owner) Amar Doman trying to make this B.
C.’s team ..
. we want to make sure people can be a part of this,” he said. “If you hadn’t heard about the festival yet, hopefully today’s your chance to hear about it, and by Nov.
10 everybody’s going to have heard about it.” The official tagline for the festival is All Roars Lead To This. “Fans across the country have been roaring in stadiums or at screens from their homes, bars or wherever they’re watching from all season long, so the tagline is meant to serve as an invitation to every fan, from every fanbase, to bring that energy here to Vancouver,” explained Caitlin Buckell, the Cup festival director of marketing and communications.
There’s also the obvious salute to the Lions too. Tickets for the festival events go on sale Sept. 24, starting at 10 a.
m., on ticketmaster.ca , with the exception of the Spirit of Edmonton Breakfast and Athletes in Action Grey Cup Breakfast that will be sold on separate platforms.
All can be accessed through the festival’s website at greycupfestival.ca . SEwen@postmedia.
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