During this year’s South By South West Music and Networking Conference in Austin,TX we had the chance to kick back with one of the Bay area’s most talented music producers, Nicholas Alvarado, aka Pumpkin. In addition to talking about the craziness of SXSW, his origins in the burner scene and what was next up on his plate, we also had a chance to ask him about Shambhala, a festival that he’s set to perform at in August, which has also been on our bucket list for years. Here’s what Pumpkin had to say when the subject of Shamb’s came up.
CYM: You’ll be playing Shambhala Music Festival in British Columbia, which we’ve heard really good things about. What do you think about Shambhala?
Pumpkin: The first time I played was this last year and it was absolutely incredible. It felt like my first festival in a lot of ways. Just because they do everything so right and Canadians are so nice [laughs]! They are just some of the friendliest people. British Columbia, it’s gorgeous. It’s all on this farm, the rest of the year it’s a functioning farm and part of the year it’s under water because the snow melts. It’s right on this beautiful river, Salmo. It’s the only festival that, at least I know of, of this size where they have built the stages as permanent structures cause it’s the only event that happens there year long. It’s just incredible, every stage is gorgeous, one of the stages is called the Ewok Village, because the forest looks like the Ewok Forest from Star Wars and the stage is built to kind of resemble their village – like tons of cat walks, and big trees looking down on the dance floor. It’s crazy. I definitely can’t wait to play there again.
We’re counting down the weeks too, Pumpkin! If you haven’t yet, tickets are available for purchase on Shambhala’s official site here.
