About

Wonderment was a pioneering music festival in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada that ran for ten years from 2016 to 2025.  At its heart, Wonderment was an ambient and electro-acoustic music festival that took a “big tent” approach to curating live music performance.  Wonderment sought to elevate artists normally sidelined by mainstream EDM festivals and properly frame its programming within the broader lineage of electronic music dating back to the 1960s (music concrete, tape music, kosmische music) prior to Brian Eno coining the term “ambient” in the 1970s. The electro-acoustic performances often featured acoustic instrumentations, weaving in elements of world, folk, jazz and classical.

 

 

Wonderment’s unique outdoor venues became a hallmark of the festival, allowing it to be one of a handful of in-person events in Canada to operate safely throughout the pandemic in both 2020 and 2021.  COVID rules were relaxed just days before the 2021 festival, making it the first major music event in southwestern BC after the pandemic had officially ended.  Concurrent to this, wildfires on the BC mainland saw many summer vacation plans shifting to Vancouver Island.  Attendances surged, and Wonderment subsequently consolidated itself as a regional festival with national and international reach – with annual attendances over 5000 through the weekend.

 

 

As Wonderment’s growth brought a culture of music tourism to Victoria, night programming added avant-garde dance music experiences featuring underground techno, house and bass music.  Live performances were still the focus, but DJ sets also became part of Wonderment programming.  In its final four years, Wonderment’s weekend arc generally opened with a social environment with ambient-adjacent dance music and energetic night programming that settled into core electro-acoustic and ambient programming as the weekend progressed.

 

 

By the numbers, Wonderment presented 209 performances (145 live performances, 20 live- DJ performances, 40 DJ performances) over 57 events (42 of which were free events) to a combined audience of over 30,000 attendees throughout its decade of existence.

 

 

Wonderment would not have been possible without the support of Heritage Canada, the BC Arts Council, Creative BC, BC Tourism, the BC Community Gaming Grant, the Capital Regional District and the City of Victoria.  These grants combined with community and business supports to manifest the Wonderment vision of a barrier-free, festival experience featuring international, national and regional talent.  

 

Wonderment was presented and produced by the Garden City Electronic Music Society, and supported by industry partners DL Sound, Deepwest Sound System, Long & McQuade, the Inn at Laurel Point, and Swan’s Hotel.  We would like to thank our media sponsors at Monday Magazine, the Georgia Straight, Capital Daily, and Exclaim!