Red Bird Brewing’s sixth birthday is coming up and everyone is invited to the party.
To celebrate, the team behind the brewery planned three full days of music in their courtyard, running from Aug. 4 to Aug. 6.
This year’s event begins with what booking manager Mitch Howanyk is calling “Local Love Thursday.”
“We call it local love day to support local artists and get everybody warmed up,” Howanyk said.
The festival’s lineup is jam-packed with headliners like Sonreal, Boy Golden, Bahamas, The Boom Booms, Teon Gibbs and many more.
What makes NestFest unique is it gives up-and-coming local talent the opportunity to open up for bigger names.
“They are totally intertwined. We can’t fill the day with all big headliners and they just fit together very well,” managing partner Adam Semeniuk said.
“It gives them the opportunity to say, ‘I can’t believe I just opened up for so-and-so.’ Performance-wise, it’s really special to see the look in their eye.”
One of the bands getting the opportunity to perform with artists with large followings is Kelowna’s own 538 st.
“It’s a big deal that we didn’t think we would get out of Kelowna at this time,” band member Jacob Cooke said.
“It’s something you can put on the resume to say you played this bill or festival, and a massive part of it is you often get to network with people or build relationships with them because you are sharing a green room.”
Since opening its doors six years ago, Red Bird Brewing has become a place to bring people together as a community. One of the many ways the team has accomplished that is with live music.
“It goes in line with what we are trying to do here which is bring the community together and make a place for everybody and it’s just grown and grown and grown and become synonymous with music,” Semeniuk said.
NestFest will take over Red Bird Brewing Aug. 4 to Aug. 6 and tickets are still available online. For more information visit www.redbirdbrewing.com