Andrew Patterson

Our 11th annual festival is just around the corner. We’re so excited to celebrate the Sonic Spring once more with artists from across the globe. Here’s some important info you may need to enjoy the shows :::

~ The full line-up

~ The full schedule

~ A map of the venues

~ Passes can be picked up at Lost & Found (2383 Agricola St) or at the door of any ticketed show

~ Tickets can be purchased online from Ticket Halifax. A select number of cash-only tickets are available at Lost & Found (2383 Agricola St) until Sunday at 6pm.

~ Tickets sold at the door are CASH ONLY

~ The bar at our Nídia show is CASH ONLY

~ All OBEY Convention events are Pay What You Can. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. We don’t want you to skip a show due to perceived financial barriers/obligations, please come!

~ Accessibility notes: With the exception of the Mi’kmaq Friendship Centre, all venues offer wheelchair accessibility. With the exception of Common Roots Farm, all venues offer gender neutral washrooms. Full accessibility notes available in our program guide and in Facebook events. Please contact our hospitality manager, Gianna, with any questions: [email protected]

The Sonic Spring is nearly here! We just picked up our beautiful guides (designed by the amazing Meg Yoshida). We’ll be dishing these out all around town over the next week, so keep your eyes peeled. These pocket-friendly fest guides provide you with all the juicy details you’ll need to wander deep into the wilding. Individual tickets are moving fast and a scant 10 fest passes remain!

Here comes spring y’all! Today we announce the full festival schedule for OBEY XI: We’ve got 20 unique events across four days featuring music, film, live interviews, performance art, community workshops and more! Check it out right here.

A limited number of full-access festival passes remain. Grab one before they’re gone. Individual tickets are now available online through Ticket Halifax. As of May 1st, cash-only tickets will be available for purchase in person at Lost & Found, 2383 Agricola St. Halifax NS.

We learned recently that, due to unforeseen circumstances, MTL’s Strange Froots aren’t able to participate in OBEY this year. However, we’re thrilled to report that supernatural TO rapper momma Sydanie is stepping in. Please, watch this teaser video and tell us you aren’t also deeply, deeply thrilled.

With the change in time and light comes new feelings of excitement and freedom. We’re psyched to present to you the full festival line-up for OBEY Convention XI. Added to the gnarly acts already announced, we’ve got:

avant-soul treasurer Un Blonde, queer doom cult Vile Creature, rising club deconstructionist Jerico, Anishinaabe viola weaver Melody McKiver, chill-soul warriors Strange Froots, tidal truthseeker WANDARIAN, nomadic groove conjurers DIáSPORA, violin maven Gina Burgess, freek-punk 4-piece Science Project, chamber-jazz naturalists New Hermitage, ambient soundshaper Markus Floats, conceptual theme-ripperz Platitudes, powwow trail blazers the Sacred Wolf Singers, art-beat breaker Maximata, dark-soul lyricist Yohvn Blvck, (bp)d-beat ear-crushers Cutie, Syrian oud titan Hussam Al Assaf, trap phenom Benjamin and deep field song-healers Melissa Labrador & Corbin Hart. Selectors for the weekend’s soundsystems include skin tone, DJ Douvet and DJ Fadzwa.

Check out the line-up page to go a little deeper and explore this amazing artist. More info regarding programming after the jump…

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We’re thrilled to announce the first wave of artists set to perform at OBEY Convention XI, the 11th instalment of Atlantic Canada’s most adventurous music festival. This year will showcase fire-hot Portuguese kuduro prodigy NÍDIA, legendary avant-industrial cult ONO, NYC’s noise exorcist Pharmakon, tension-heavy tonebreaker Sarah Hennies, Chinese-Canadian classical master Liu Fang, dadaist sound freek i dm theft able, Toronto’s new-jazz phenom Joseph Shabason and French-Haitian sound healer Anaïs Maviel.

A limited number of Early Bird Passes are available now! The Sonic Spring awaits!

Check out more details on our Festival Page and/or join the Facebook event to stay up to date.

Our third show of 2018 is coming up and it’s a wild blessing. Visiting all the way from Cairo is Nadah El Shazly, a young woman working at the very forefront of contemporary Arabic music. With roots in the underground punk scene of Egypt’s capital city and diverse influences across jazz, classical and electronic composition, El Shazly burst onto the international radar with her first full-length, Ahwar, at the tail end of 2017. A stunning debut by any measure, Ahwar (which translates to ‘marshlands’) covers an incredible amount of musical and emotional territory through pairing forward-thinking composition with El Shazly’s stunning vocals. Joining her for this unique evening at Garrison’s newly renovated barroom is Crousetown’s  junked analogue duo JOYFULTALK. Tickets on sale now, don’t sleep on this one! More details and insights on our events page.

The 11th instalment of our annual festival will consume the coastal city of Halifax with free ideas in music and sound, May 24 – 27th 2018.  A limited number of Early Bird Passes are available now!

A convergence of creative musicians and sound-savants from local, national and international scenes, OBEY Convention XI will unfold at unusual, alternative and historic venues throughout Halifax. Programmed as a four-day narrative, our festival promises a weekend filled with auditory inspirations from across genres, identities and mediums. Featuring 20+ carefully curated events (none of which overlap), OBEY XI rewards both dedicated festival-goers and casual fans alike as they dip into the mysterious portal of heavy bliss and gnarly power.

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We’re excited to announce that our second show of 2018 features NYC composer, sound artist and space-braider Lea Bertucci. Celebrating her new LP, the heavily resonant, psycho-cumulative Metal Aether (out Feb 9 on NNA Tapes), Bertucci is sure to warp the walls of The Khyber. Joining Lea for this evening of long-form musicality will be local sitar/tabla duo Taral Naik & Daniel MacNeil. Tickets available here

Our upcoming show set for January 20th with the inimitable Beverly Glenn-Copeland and Nick Dourado has changed locations. We’re happy to report that this gem of a show is now taking place at beautiful Fort Massey Church (5303 Tobin Street). See you there!