Halifax Pop Explosion
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The Halifax Pop Explosion is a music festival that takes place every fall, two weeks after Canadian Thanksgiving, in Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada.
Founded in 1993, the Halifax Pop Explosion has actually been three different events that are now remembered as one long standing event. The original Halifax Pop Explosion, which was operated as private business from 1993-1995, was created as a platform to celebrate Halifax's new found fame as the "Seattle of the North" and home of Canadian grunge, as well as to promote local bands such as Sloan and Thrush Hermit. The company that organized the festival went out of business and a new organization launch the "Halifax On Music Festival" which ran for four years, successfully but not profitably. The festival did not take place in 2000.
In 2001 a past owner of the Halifax On Music Festival and one of the staff created the not-for-profit Halifax Pop Explosion Association to operate the festival for the good of the music community, abandoning any pretense that the event had long term profitability. The festival name returned to the Halifax Pop Explosion and it has doubled in size since 2001. The Festival has expanded its programming to support other genres within the independent music community as well as the power pop that it is best known for. It now features acts from hip hop and electronica to folk and alt-country to punk and hardcore and everything in between. With shows all around town over five days the festival exhibits considerable breadth in presenting new music.
In addition to the music, the Halifax Pop Explosion also continues to support a variety of independent arts and pop-culture events at the Indie Zine and Label Fair, which features panels, work shops and lectures, as well as face painting and entertainment for children, public readings by zine authors and film screenings.
