A rock ‘n’ roll garden party

Imagine a paradise of beautiful lush plants and a piercing blue sky paired with the sound of some of Canada’s most beloved musicians. Well, you don’t need to imagine any longer.

While a handful of summer music festivals have called it quits over the last few years, there is a new festival launching this weekend. It’s called the Royal Mountain Music Festival at Rasberry Farm.

“I’ve always loved going to music festivals,” said festival co-creator Menno Versteeg. “That’s one of the most fun things about being in the music business — going to a music festival and seeing all of your friends — so we always wanted to do one with our bands from our label.”

Versteeg is not only one of the owners of the indie label Royal Mountain Records but also the frontman for the band Hollerado, which has seen its share of music festival stages. He has tried to launch a festival before, but admits it wasn’t the right location.

“I tried to do one in the parking lot of our label,” he said, laughing. “It’s pretty small, so it was probably not the best site. But it was still a good time!”

On Sunday, artists from Versteeg’s label including, Mac DeMarco, Dizzy and Calpurnia, will perform at Rasberry Farm at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton.

“We are really excited,” he said. “They have never had a festival there before and when they said they would be down to do a festival, we knew it was the right time to launch our festival.”

Tickets for the show sold out almost as quickly as they were listed online.

“Knock on wood, if it goes well then we definitely would like to have the festival going for the next 50 years,” Versteeg said. “We are going to take it one step at a time though and see how this weekend goes.”