Center of Gravity (festival)

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Center of Gravity Festival is an annual three-day sport and music festival held in Kelowna, British Columbia, at the City Park on the Okanagan Lake and hosts approximately 25,000 people.

Background[]

Center of Gravity was founded by Scott Emslie in 2008, and is organized by Kelowna-based production company Wet Ape Productions. The event features eight sports: beach volleyball, crossfit, basketball, wakeboarding, freestyle mountain biking, FMX, skateboarding, and BMX. The event has three stages of music playing various genres of electronic, hip hop and rock (although primarily electronic focused) throughout the days and nights.

In 2014 the event moved from the long August weekend to a weekend in July. Despite attracting attendance of 7,000 per day the organisers lost money. The local authority urged Emslie to broaden the demographic and improve security.^[1]

In February 2019 the organisers announced there would be a hiatus and the 2019 event wouldn't take place. In recent years there had been difficulties controlling the crowds. A teenager had died from a drug overdose at the 2018 event.^[2]

Past events[]

2018[]

Taking place from July 27 to 29, the event was headlined by Wu-Tang Clan, Zedd, and French Montana.^[3][4]

2017[]

• Snoop Dogg (headliner)
• Marshmello
• ScHoolboy Q
• Excision
• Lil Dicky
• Shaun Frank
• Cash Cash
• Ephwurd

2015[]

• Atmosphere
• Diplo
• 3LAU
• MAKJ
• Bliss N Eso
• Delhi 2 Dublin
• The Funk Hunters
• Ilan Bluestone
• Matoma
• Will Sparks

2014[]

• Calvin Harris
• J. Cole
• Chromeo
• Tegan and Sara
• Adventure Club
• Matt & Kim
• Morgan Page
• The Glitch Mob
• Capital Cities
• Chris Lake
• Borgeous
• Trinidad Jame$
• Bro Safari
• Dizzy Wright
• Odesza
• Robert Delong
• Savoy
• Bas
• Torro Torro
• Burns

2013[]

• Hoodie Allen
• Tiësto
• Kaskade
• Wolfgang Gartner
• Dada Life
• Tommy Lee
• Hopsin
• DVBBS
• Le Castle Vania

2012[]

• The Bloody Beetroots
• Lupe Fiasco
• Knife Party
• Morgan Page
• Datsik
• Nero
• R3hab
• Dirt Zone - New ramp setup, starting at over 25 ft in the air. Local riders performed tricks including a double backflip, from Colin Van Andel, the first time that trick has ever been landed at COG.
• Water Zone - Brand new setup using the Cable System 2.0. Water Zone was moved onto the beach, with two pools, two rails, and a wall ride feature.
• Urban Zone - Build from Bakery Boardshop for a pro-am invitational in both skateboarding and BMX.
• Beach Volleyball - 2012 winners were Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas (Women's) and Chaim Schalk and Matt Zbyszewski.
• Hoop Zone - 2012 winners were Open the Cage from Vancouver: Drew Slaght, Tyler Lutton, Omid Davani, Rob Houggard, Clayton Crelin, Pierce Anderson, Michael Zayonc.

2011[]

The 3-day festival brought in 25,000+ attendees.^[5] Showcased a variety of genres of music on 3 different stages.^[6]

• Main Stage: held a different concert each night, headliners included A-Trak, Calvin Harris, Chromeo, Classified, Dev and The Cataracs, and more.
• Beach Stage: an electronic dance stage located in a 1,000-person beverage garden, featuring artists such as LA Riots and Bad Boy Bill.
• Bass Stage: located under the trees in City Park and played mostly dubstep, drum and bass, and hip hop, featuring artists Mat the Alien, Downlink, Snak the Ripper and more.

Featured over 200 professional athletes in five different sports, as well as introduced the all-new sports zone the "Urban Zone".^[7]

2010[]

Established as one of the largest sport and entertainment festivals in western Canada, COG added Freestyle Moto Cross and Jet Ski racing to the sports action. There were two stages, Beach Stage and Main Stage. Headliners included Steve Aoki, Naughty by Nature, Dragonette, Karl Wolf and more.^[8]

2009[]

Basketball and wakeboarding were added to the sports line-up, and big name Canadian artists Bif Naked, Kardinal Offishall, and Danny Fernandes performed on the Main Stage.^[9]

2008[]

First year as "Center of Gravity", the Dirt Zone was added to include Freestyle Mountain Bike riders in a dirt jump competition.^[10]

2007[]

Originally called "Volleyfest", it started as a professional beach volleyball tournament with local entertainment.

References[]

Coordinates: 49°53′02″N 119°30′08″W / 49.8840°N 119.5021°W / 49.8840; -119.5021