Hillside

The Hillside Festival is a three-day, five-stage event with a broad artistic vision that emphasizes diversity: of culture, of musical heritage and style, of age, geography and influence.Last year's line-up embraced such styles and influences as indie, rock, folk, hip hop, blues, jazz, world, electronic, and reggae with bands like the Great Lake Swimmers, Cold Specks, Bombay Bicycle Club, Arkells, Valdy, Joel Plaskett Emergency and Sidi Touré. It crossed generations from the Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart Band to the spanking new high school band from Guelph, The Durants, and it salutes some of Canada's best female artists, such as Kathleen Edwards, the Be Good Tanyas, Chic Gamine, Christine Fellows and Jennifer Castle.Hillside turns 30 in 2013 and is celebrating its recent receipt of the Best Greening of a Festival (for its environmental initiatives) award and Best Program award from Festivals and Events Ontario.