Indie Music Festival Music Waste Turns 30 This Year

What happens when musicians get fed up with festival gatekeeping? We get Music Waste.

If live music in Vancouver is dead, nobody told the organizers of Music Waste. Over the past 30 years, the volunteer-run fest has platformed hundreds upon hundreds of local bands—and this June, they’re back to turn up the volume.

What started as a rebellious retort to a pay-to-play festival model has transformed over the years into a cherished community institution, all without losing its DIY spirit… or its penchant for turning parking lots into party central. (We all remember the Empanadas Ilegales show behind Kingsgate Mall in 2022, right?)

“Music Waste originally started as a one-night-only protest show against the industry-affiliated New Music West festival,” explains Natalie Corbo, a veteran member of the alternative festival’s organizing committee. A few bands were frustrated over having to pay to apply to the festival only to be rejected, so they held their own show on the same night. “The next year they put out a call for submissions—with no entry fee!—and 80 bands applied. And it kind of just snowballed from there.”

Riun Garner at Green Auto (2023)
Riun Garner at Green Auto (2023)

Each summer offers a chance for the music community to come together and do what they do best: put on a show. Though performances span from solo folk to screamo, “everybody who comes in to do it does it purely out of the love in their hearts for the music scene in Vancouver,” says Nicole McDonal, Music Waste’s administrative coordinator.

From these defiant stick-it-to-the-man beginnings, Music Waste has become a testament to what can happen when a festival chooses to march to the beat of its own drum—or moody synth chord, as the case may be. Three decades in, that same ethos remains the backbone of the little rascal music fest that could, with all profits going directly to the bands, thanks to an all-volunteer operation that works as a holacracy. “Nobody’s the leader. We all make these decisions together, 100 percent of the time,” says McDonal. It’s a festival of the people, by the people, for the people, and while that might not have been Abraham Lincoln’s intent when he uttered those words, we think it’s fair to say he’d dig Music Waste—there’s something for everyone, after all, from electronica acts to tween girl bands.

Khillah Khills, at Green Auto (2023).
Khillah Khills, at Green Auto (2023).

But what’s a good festival story without its share of trials and tribulations? “Some of the biggest challenges in the 1990s and now still in 2024 have been the lack of venues,” says McDonal. Vancouver’s real estate crunch may be a hurdle, but Music Waste’s response has been a masterclass in creative problem-solving, with shows appearing at locations like that aforementioned Kingsgate Mall parking lot—or at an autobody shop, or “a pretty rickety house in Mount Pleasant.”

Over the years, the festival has been a launching pad for some serious indie talent. “It’s not uncommon for bands to play their first show at Music Waste,” Corbo says. Acts like psych-rock star Black Mountain, homegrown slacker-rock poster child Mac DeMarco and dude duo Japandroids graced its makeshift stages before making it big.

This year, another 70-plus bands and musicians will prove live music is alive and well in Vancouver over the course of four very loud days. Is Vancouver’s next big thing among them? Don’t waste your opportunity to find out.

Empanadas Ilegales at Kingsgate Mall (2022)
Empanadas Ilegales at Kingsgate Mall (2022)