Under the Volcano Heats up Again

Music festivals with a focus on social change didn’t end with Woodstock. In fact, for the last 13 years, the Under the Volcano festival has been hosting an eclectic mix of music, art and social commentary, and come Sunday August 10, it’s happening again.

The festival is held each year at Cates Park in North Vancouver, east of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge (formerly known as the Second Narrows) along the Dollarton Highway on the way to Deep Cove.

Among the 50 scheduled performers and guests will be David Hilliard, a co-founder of the US Black Panther Party in the 1960s, on the festival’s main stage. He will be accompanied by the Black Panther Fugitives, a hip hop act from Oakland, California to address the legacy of the Panther movement.

Also on the main stage will be a Navajo punk band known as the Three Siblings, as well as the Infernal Noise Brigade, and 20-piece “drum, noise and agit-prop” group from San Francisco.

There are four other stages several workshops as well. In addition, there is the traditional artisan’s market, food court, information fair  and kids’ zone.

The festival opens at noon, with music starting at 1 pm. There are shuttles that leave the Broadway Safeway parking lot, at Commercial Drive, in Vancouver, to Cates Park every 45 minutes on the day of the festival.

 There is a sliding scale admission of $5 to $20. Call 604-682-3269 (box 7164) or e-mail www.resist.ca/~volcano for more information.