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Since 2013, Field Trip has brought art, comedy, and music to Toronto’s Fort York and Garrison Common, standing tall as the kickoff of Canadian music festival season, and a summer highlight we look forward to every year. This year, the only thing that stood in the way of headliners The National, Robyn, of Montreal, and Santigold serving up guaranteed good times on two festival stages was the foreboding weather report. Electrical activity ended up throwing a wrench into Sunday’s plans, forcing an early evacuation of the Field Trip grounds. Organizers handled the setback as promptly and professionally as possible, and with a hope and a prayer hands emoji, a modified schedule resumed later that evening.
Read on for our reviews of Field Trip sets by Santigold, Holy Fuck, Jazz Cartier, Charlotte Day Wilson, and Robyn.
Santigold
There are few acts who could bring stronger summer vibes than Santigold. Taking the stage just before sundown on Saturday, the effortlessly cool songstress ran through a brief, but hit-heavy set—"L.E.S. Artistes" and "Disparate Youth" went off in a big way. Accompanied by dollar store chic visuals inspired by her new album, 99¢, Santi ran through a few new tunes (including “Banshee” and “Big Boss Big Time Business”) before closing things out with an on-stage dance party during “Creator.” For a brief moment, it felt like summer might last forever.
Holy Fuck
Canadian electro alchemists Holy Fuck recently returned with Congrats, their first album in nearly 6 years. “You might not know it, but this is our hometown,” de facto frontman Brian Borcherdt told the eager audience. Field Trip acted as a bit of a Congrats release party for the four-piece, as they mixed together glitchy oscillations and rock-solid grooves with ease. DIANA’s Carmen Elle joined the band for something Borcherdt called an “experiment,” which saw the pair trading off ambient vocals during Congrats track “Neon Dad.” Experimental or not, it was a clear-cut highlight of the mostly-instrumental performance.
Jazz Cartier
On Hotel Paranoia’s “Talk Of The Town,” Kensington Market’s own Jazz Cartier declared himself “the Prince of the City.” A heavy touring schedule in 2016 made Field Trip a coming home party, and despite going against Saturday’s headliners The National, Jacuzzi Lafleur made the most of a light, but dedicated crowd. Jazz rattled off track-after-track from Hotel Paranoia ("Talk Of The Town," "100 Roses," "Tales," "Stick & Move" all made appearances) before digging into the songs that define his come-up—“Switch,” “The Downtown Cliche,” and “New Religion.” Mid-set technical issues might have thrown a less confident performer for a loop, but it was nothing a few sips of Henny and a few bars of a capella couldn’t overcome.
Charlotte Day Wilson
Weather concerns loomed over Day 2 of Field Trip, but miraculously, the sun was on full display for Charlotte Day Wilson’s matinee performance. The Toronto alt-R&B upstart has been catching looks from around the globe, on the strength of raw, impassioned vocal performances. On Sunday, Day Wilson’s perfect pitch seemed to part the clouds for an hour or so, before the sky finally opened up, and forced a temporary evacuation of the grounds. The fact that her set wasn’t rained out must have been an act of the Music Festival Gods, because our Field Trip experience would have been incomplete without Charlotte.
Robyn
The Robyn set we witnessed at Field Trip was not the Robyn set we signed up for. Enthusiasm for the 2016 edition of Field Trip soared when it was announced that the Swedish pop icon would be blessing Fort York with her take-no-shit brand of electro-pop. Months later, we learned of the news that instead of getting the “Call Your Girlfriend” mass singalong we craved, we’d be treated to a series of transformative remixes. When the clock finally struck Body Talk o’clock on Sunday night, any initial enthusiasm from the crowd was quickly vanquished. As the set began, four-on-the-floor techno rhythms were swapped out for the buoyant beats we know and love, and Robyn seemed more concerned with losing herself in the music than attending to the mic. Some of the night’s reinterpretations fared better than others—Cassius’ rework of “Dancing On My Own” and Black Madonna's version of "Indestructible" seemed to breathe life into a relatively low energy audience. Despite meeting mixed reactions, the affair was uniquely Robyn-esque: avant-garde, energetic, and ultimately joyous. Hand-picking the setlist was never in the cards, and for any would-be critics, the response is a no-brainer: Don’t fucking tell Robyn what to do.