Gearing up for Shazamfest 17

Shazamfest promotes itself as Québec’s only Néo-vaudeville Festival, and is coming back strong with its 17 edition, running on the Przytyk organic farm!

The four-day-long festival starts on July 2, is open to everyone, and is even conveyed as a family-friendly event, unlike many of its contemporaries.

“We have so many different things going on from circus stuff to freak shows, to poetry, to wrestling, to kids activities, it just goes on and on,” said founder and director Ziv Przytyk.

After trying to join Cirque du Soleil at a young age but not making the cut, Przytyk shifted his focus to the making of a festival “where the misfits fit in,” which is also the show’s tagline.

Pryzytyk said when the show first started up it had around 400 people with a handful of performances, but over the years the show has grown to attract people from all over with its 2019 version boasting over 2,000 visitors!

“What differentiates us is we have people from all walks of life, not one style of person. People from doctors to lawyers, to everyday dudes.”

But the inclusivity isn’t reserved for just adults, Przytyk added, “We have a small family aspect that most festivals don’t have at all, I would say a third to a quarter of the population is under 18 at Shazam fest.”

The site includes camping, food and amenities for the whole four days, “and not only that,” he said, “for $25 you can feed your kid all weekend, three meals a day, so if you’re a family who comes to the show it’s cheaper to pay us to feed your kid then to feed your kid yourself!”

As for how many people end up camping, they usually have around 1,000 people who camp out on the site, with most people from afar preferring to stay there rather than in a hotel room.

With all those people, one would expect a lot of waste, but the numbers are quite surprising.

“In 2019, with close to 2,000 people in four days, it produced 11 bags of garbage,” stated Przytyk, who then went on to explain how it’s all possible.

“I don’t sell any bottled water on site, we give water away for free, we built a well there with fresh spring water.”

On top of that, “Everything is served on regular plates, people have to wash their own dishes or they’re served in compostable things, but we try to produce the least amount of garbage possible.”

The team works hard to ensure the event is extremely eco-friendly, with some die-hard environmentalists even being surprised to hear the numbers, according to him.

“We’re a small gang, about five to ten people, but we have over 100 volunteers for the festival.”

As for why he does it, he said, “Creating art and putting it all together is like my passion, I don’t know what else I’d be doing with my life if I wasn’t doing this.”

“My biggest inspiration in life artistically is probably The Muppet Show. If you can think of the backroom shenanigans and the stage performances of The Muppet Show, that’s pretty much Shazamfest.”

He and his team work for months organizing concerts, vendors, performances, and accommodations for their crowd, and this year they are planning to include a colour-coded theme to shake things up.

He explained that each person gets a colour at the door, with camp games like tug of war, races and more giving people a chance to have fun and meet new people.

“I’ve seen whole networks of friends that got made through Shazam,” said Przytyk, and has even had some of the artists who met at the event go on to collaborate on creative projects.

He says his favourite thing about the festival is getting to see all the smiling faces, blowing peoples’ minds, and just bringing a bit of joy to the world.

“I think we should move away from a society that consumes goods and move towards one that consumes art and culture. As an environmentalist, I think the best thing you can do is to have experiences and not things, and I think Shazamfest gives people that opportunity.”