Center of Gravity (festival)

Center of Gravity Festival is an annual three-day sport and music festival held in Kelowna, British Columbia, at the City Park on the Okanagan Lake and hosts approximately 25,000 people.

Background

Center of Gravity was founded by Scott Emslie in 2008, and is organized by Kelowna-based production company Wet Ape Productions. The event features eight sports: beach volleyball, crossfit, basketball, wakeboarding, freestyle mountain biking, FMX, skateboarding, and BMX. The event has three stages of music playing various genres of electronic, hip hop and rock (although primarily electronic focused) throughout the days and nights.

In 2014 the event moved from the long August weekend to a weekend in July. Despite attracting attendance of 7,000 per day the organisers lost money. The local authority urged Emslie to broaden the demographic and improve security.[1]

In February 2019 the organisers announced there would be a hiatus and the 2019 event wouldn't take place. In recent years there had been difficulties controlling the crowds. A teenager had died from a drug overdose at the 2018 event.[2]

Past events

2018

Taking place from July 27 to 29, the event was headlined by Wu-Tang Clan, Zedd, and French Montana.[3][4]


2017


2015

2014

2013

2012
  • The Bloody Beetroots
  • Lupe Fiasco
  • Knife Party
  • Morgan Page
  • Datsik
  • Nero
  • R3hab
  • Dirt Zone - New ramp setup, starting at over 25 ft in the air. Local riders performed tricks including a double backflip, from Colin Van Andel, the first time that trick has ever been landed at COG.
  • Water Zone - Brand new setup using the Cable System 2.0. Water Zone was moved onto the beach, with two pools, two rails, and a wall ride feature.
  • Urban Zone - Build from Bakery Boardshop for a pro-am invitational in both skateboarding and BMX.
  • Beach Volleyball - 2012 winners were Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas (Women's) and Chaim Schalk and Matt Zbyszewski.
  • Hoop Zone - 2012 winners were Open the Cage from Vancouver: Drew Slaght, Tyler Lutton, Omid Davani, Rob Houggard, Clayton Crelin, Pierce Anderson, Michael Zayonc.

2011

The 3-day festival brought in 25,000+ attendees.[5] Showcased a variety of genres of music on 3 different stages.[6]

  • Main Stage: held a different concert each night, headliners included A-Trak, Calvin Harris, Chromeo, Classified, Dev and The Cataracs, and more.
  • Beach Stage: an electronic dance stage located in a 1,000-person beverage garden, featuring artists such as LA Riots and Bad Boy Bill.
  • Bass Stage: located under the trees in City Park and played mostly dubstep, drum and bass, and hip hop, featuring artists Mat the Alien, Downlink, Snak the Ripper and more.

Featured over 200 professional athletes in five different sports, as well as introduced the all-new sports zone the "Urban Zone".[7]

2010

Established as one of the largest sport and entertainment festivals in western Canada, COG added Freestyle Moto Cross and Jet Ski racing to the sports action. There were two stages, Beach Stage and Main Stage. Headliners included Steve Aoki, Naughty by Nature, Dragonette, Karl Wolf and more.[8]

2009

Basketball and wakeboarding were added to the sports line-up, and big name Canadian artists Bif Naked, Kardinal Offishall, and Danny Fernandes performed on the Main Stage.[9]

2008

First year as "Center of Gravity", the Dirt Zone was added to include Freestyle Mountain Bike riders in a dirt jump competition.[10]

2007

Originally called "Volleyfest", it started as a professional beach volleyball tournament with local entertainment.

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gollark: Question 10 out of 12.
gollark: I am currently doing maths homework.
gollark: Go show that $$k$$ satisfies $$k^2+2k-3>0$$ yourself. I'll work it out.
gollark: ++remind 21y sabotage <@341618941317349376> maths early

References
  1. "Kelowna's Centre of Gravity might not return". Kelowna Daily Herald. 27 October 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  2. Kelly Hayes (19 February 2019). "Mixed reaction to Center of Gravity in Kelowna going on hiatus for 2019". GlobalNews.ca. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  3. "Enter to win 3-day passes for Center of Gravity (Canada's hottest beach festival)", Daily Hive, 11 April 2018. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  4. Scott Brown (10 April 2018) "Concert announcement: Wu Tang Clan headline Kelowna's Center of Gravity", Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  5. http://www.kelownacapnews.com/news/126362503.html
  6. http://www.kelownacapnews.com/entertainment/122061303.html
  7. http://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/63521/Thousands-arrive-early-for-day-2-of-COG-
  8. http://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/56098/Long-weekend-relatively-calm-RCMP
  9. http://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/48638/COG-crowds-well-behaved-RCMP
  10. http://www.castanet.net/news/John-Thomson/40808/Here-and-there

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