Get ready to rock and talk this Labour Day weekend in Richmond.
The city’s annual World Festival is hosting Canadian indie band Tokyo Police Club and Korean rapper Verbal Jint at this year’s expanded event at Minoru Park.
The free celebration of music, food and culture will feature more than 75 performances on nine stages. There will also be more than 50 food trucks on site as part of the FEASTival of Flavour; a Global Village with interactive cultural activities; the Bamboo Theatre and Digital Carnival; Kids World fun zone; an Artisan Marketplace; and Imagination World at the Richmond Library.
There’s so much to see and do, the festival has been extended to run over two days: Friday, Sept. 1 and Saturday, Sept. 2.
“In just two years, the Richmond World Festival has become a can’t-miss date on the summer calendar,” said Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie. “It’s a great opportunity to enjoy the many sounds, tastes and colours of our diverse community and nation.”
Headliner Tokyo Police Club has won both critical and popular acclaim across the country and internationally. The Toronto band released Melon Collie and the Infinite Radness EP in 2016 with songs Not My Girl and My House shooting up the Canadian alternative rock charts.
The foursome began as a group of teenage friends. A decade later, lead singer/bass player Dave Monks, drummer Greg Aslop, keyboardist/guitarist Graham Wright and guitarist Josh Hook are still going strong.
Tokyo Police Club performs on the YVR Mosaic Man Stage on Saturday. Canadian electro-pop innovators Dragonette will also play the main stage on the same day.
South Korean hip-hop artist Verbal Jint will kick off the festival on Friday. The rapper is known for his innovative Korean hip hop rhyme work, achieving the grammatical accuracy needed to arrange Korean lyrics successfully into rhymes.
Jint was the first performer to create actual rhyme schemes in Korean and his methods are now the standard for Korean rapping within the hip-hop scene.
He is also one of the few musicians from the underground hip-hop arena to achieve crossover mainstream success in a market saturated with K-pop.
The Richmond World Festival takes place Labour Day weekend at Minoru Park, 7191 Granville Ave., and is presented by the City of Richmond and Coast Capital Savings.
For more information, visit
RichmondWorldFestival.ca and follow @FunRichmond on Twitter
#RichmondWorldFest.
