u/sam4999

(…cont’d) Was the contact intentional?

"No."

Will SVG speak to Hill?

"I'll talk to him, but he just grunts."

Via E-Mail from Rifflandia:

Hi Everyone,

We’d like to thank you all for your patience. Up until a few weeks ago it looked like we might have been able to bring Victoria one last Rifflandia in 2026. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be and our family, and our company, have come to the very difficult decision that, after 18 years, Rifflandia Festival will cease to operate.

This decision to bring Rifflandia Festival to a permanent close will likely open up a lot of feelings across the city. It certainly has for us as a family. Each festival has marked a passing year, a gathering place to meet old friends and new ones, a weekend where Victoria seems otherworldly, a right of passage when families say goodbye to Kidlandia and hello to The Dome. Over the years we began to realize that Riff feels, as we could only have hoped it would, like everyone’s festival. There is a public ownership over the event that has always made us proud, knowing it has been as well-loved as we have loved it ourselves. It feels like the city’s personal festival, and that is a beautiful thing.

Part of the beauty of Riff largely goes unseen. It lives in the intense pre-orchestrated choreography that goes on behind the scenes. The sheer effort and will it takes from so many talented people to build Rifflandia year after year is mostly hidden from the public. It is no small feat to plan and construct a functional world within our city, and then decorate it to be a feast for the eyes, ears, and soul. Even we, the organizers, are not immune to the magic of seeing it all come together, watching how the many teams synchronize their moves to work side by side in such a condensed period of time. And when the gates open everything launches to the next level. Rifflandia breathes into a whirlwind of a weekend, non-stop and so much fun. At the end, it’s just as magical to see how quickly and quietly it wraps up, stored away for the next September. We will always be deeply proud of what we offered the city and forever be grateful to our incredible team, volunteers, vendors, suppliers and partners for the heart they put into Riff.

For every one of its operating years, Rifflandia Festival has been a labour of love and a gift to our city. Rifflandia Festival doesn’t, and has never, sold enough tickets to cover its costs. It has operated at a loss since the very first edition in 2008. Simultaneously, Rifflandia Festival has been a healthy economic driver for the city, yearly moving millions of dollars through our community by creating jobs, generating services, activating suppliers, boosting tourism and supporting the arts.

Each year when we’ve turned off the sound and lights, it’s been bittersweet for us. We’ve discussed Rifflandia Festival’s future at length. We’ve nearly said goodbye many times before. We took an extended break from 2019 through 2021. We’ve iterated on the format in countless ways, from adding days and weekends, to dropping days and weekends. Access to a venue of the right size and scope in downtown Victoria has always been challenging and this year it finally became unattainable. The rising costs of infrastructure as well as accessing artists at fees that maintain a palatable ticket price? Same.

We have had tons of support along the way. Not only from family and close friends, but from our business partners, Scott and Jess. They have put as much heart into Rifflandia as we have. Together, we continued to produce Rifflandia Festival because we cherish it and the positive waves that ripple from it. To us, Riff has been and will always be an absolute success. We built this event in our hometown, for our hometown, so that we didn’t have to leave the island. We built it so that our fellow community members could experience a weekend of world-class entertainment, and sleep in their own beds at night. We are deeply proud of what we offered. Our sites were 100% magical. They were warm, welcoming, inviting, clean, with excellent food, drinks and amenities. Our standards for our events have always been high. It wouldn’t be Rifflandia if we had to water it down, and so we decided not to do that and instead are bringing it to a close.

While the festival is closing, we’re proud that our locally-based company is continuing to grow. Our Rifflandia team remains hard at work producing and supporting music, cultural, sport, and entertainment experiences both at home and around the world; we are busy working on projects in Victoria, Toronto, Paris, and London. Our newly formed Rifflandia Foundation will also continue to offer greater access to sports, live events, and cultural gatherings, making sure that more people can take part in the connection, joy, and belonging that these moments provide.

We have had champions in our midst, people who care for us and our wellbeing, those that have loved the festival as deeply as we have, and helped us when we most needed it. They know who they are and we continue to thank them. The biggest thank you, however, is reserved for the audience members who have repeatedly bought tickets. Without you, it is certain that the festival would not have continued as long as it did. Because of you, Rifflandia did continue, and the community did gather, and we can’t thank you enough for the moments of love and joy that made it all worth it. And now we truly hope that something special will grow in its place, the next generation will foster events of their own. We’ll be first in line to buy tickets.

As a family, and as a company, we’re feeling a lot of grief as we let the festival go. It’s only natural as we are saying goodbye to something we love. We expect there will be some strong feelings out there while this news sinks in. For now, we’ll let things sit. But, as those who know us can well attest, we’re not a family that’s the greatest at sitting still. We’re positive that our team at Rifflandia will continue to reach for ways to connect locally through joy, art, and belonging. It’s what we love to do, and we love our city.

Casey and Nick

Live on both Lionel and Circle B; assuming other retailers will follow shortly.

City of Victoria crews are on site and have Transfer Street closed until at least 8PM. Avoid taking Lampson Street northbound out of Esquimalt today as this will definitely impact rush hour traffic.

“This doesn’t even feel real typing this… Easily one of the absolute greatest of all time, any track, any car, it didn’t matter he was gonna be good. Getting to race against Kyle was a true pinch me moment, I’ll never forget the first time just sharing the track with someone I had so much respect for. Two of my favorite wins of my entire career came going head to head against KB and what made them so special was the fact that I was racing against KB someone who I considered one of the all time best. Getting to know Kyle throughout my NASCAR career has been a highlight for me. Whether I was racing door to door with him or talking to him about Samantha, Brexton, and Lennix and what all they had going on I always had to tell myself how cool it was I was getting to be around one of my heroes. I’m gonna miss everything about “KFB” and I can assure you no race I run from now on will ever feel the same because the impact Kyle Busch left is unlike one any other driver could ever have. Thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Busch family and all of Rowdy Nation. Godspeed KB.”