For fifteen years, Vish Khanna has given Guelphites a respite from the commercial madness of the holiday season, staging a mini-music festival a few days away from Christmas.
Stay Out of the Mall, the 15th, is back this year, with a slate of six bands. It happens this Thursday and Friday at eBar, 41 Quebec Street.
Admission is $15 each night, or $12 if you bring along a non-perishable donation for the Guelph Food Bank. Showtime is 10 p.m. both nights, and tickets are available at the door.
Khanna, a writer, podcaster, arts organizer, and radio host, started the event to raise funds for cancer research, after a good friend, Sharon Marshall, passed away in 1997 from a rare form of leukemia.
“It’s primarily a two-day festival,” Khanna said Wednesday, as he was putting the finishing touches on an event that always brings together musical originals.
“It’s a benefit for the Canadian Cancer Society, and the proceeds go to leukemia research,” he added.
After completing graduate studies at the University of Guelph, Khanna wanted to memorialize his friend and help a good cause, while harnessing the positive energy that swirls around the city during the festive season.
“The idea is to reflect upon the year that was and the spirit of the season,” he said. “I also wanted to do something that kind of spoke to the materialistic aspect of the season, and kind of oppose that a little bit.”
He’s not quite sure where the name Stay Out of the Mall came from, but it stuck. The initial editions were at the old Café Aquarius on Macdonell Street. It has been held at the eBar for several years.
“It’s a nice mix of people who are really into the music and people who are just home for the holidays,” he said. “It’s a bit of a reunion for some, a bit of a party for others, and a chance to see really good music.”
Khanna is pleased this year to support the Guelph Food Bank and hopes that all those who attend will bring something good for the charitable organization. Christmas is the Food Bank’s busiest time of the year.
The acts this year include Polaris Prize short-listed Jennifer Castle, a great song-writer and musical improviser; the politically charged, experimental work of Lido Pimienta; and Guelph natives, and brothers, Geordie and Evan Gordon, and their group The Magic – music with a synth soul and an 80s bent.
Peterborough’s Lonely Parade, Horsey Craze, a kind of Neil Young tribute band, and Toronto’s Culture Reject, round out the bill.
The event is all-ages.