If you are looking for the best Canada Day party in the Okanagan, go no further than the SOEC where world-renowned DJ Avicii will hit the stage.
"It should be one of the best produced, best dance parties in the Okanagan for Canada Day," said Dean Clark, general manager of the South Okanagan Events Centre. "If this is your taste in music, you will see the most premiere DJ in the world right now. It's amazing."
After worldwide hit singles in 2010 like Seek Bromance and My Feelings For You, Avicii followed it up with remixes of Tiesto, Robyn, David Guetta and Bob Sinclair. His first release of 2011, Street Dancer, went straight to number one of the worldwide Beatport charts.
With his monthly Le7els podcast and radio show on SiriusXM, Avicii is establishing his name among the stars bringing his contagious sounds to the masses. In 2012 the Grammy-nominated DJ and producer has had a hit single with Le7els, followed that up with Silhouettes, appeared onstage with Madonna at the Ultra Music Festival, Coachella and will headline Lollapalooza in August.
Avicii, aka Tim Berg, went from being a producer plucked from a forum to aggressively courted by bookers, agents and labels in a matter of 12 months. The DJ kicked off 2012 with a philanthropic House For Hunger tour that enabled him and his manager Ash Pournouri to personally donate $1 million to the charity Feeding America. He is currently on the road with an all-arena trek, the Avicii Le7els tour. In fact, he is double-booked on Sunday first performing at the SOEC then heading to Edmonton for a 1 a.m. performance on the main stage at Boonstock.
"It should be one of the best lighting and sound shows we ever had," said Dean Clark. "With that said, we have added on to his arena tour and he is playing that night in Boonstock. We are trying to duplicate his set as much as possible but it is not going to be exactly the same as his show in Edmonton that night because he is playing at 1 a.m. that evening."
Clark said they have spent tens of thousands of dollars on the Avicii production, but it would not be identical to shows he has played in Detroit, London or Miami.
"Certainly it is going to be an Avicii show and he is known for his production, so expect nothing else but that," said Clark.
The SOEC manager said they were lucky to get Avicii to perform in Penticton, which happens to be a "perfect storm" for those that want to enjoy Canada Day in the city later that evening. The Avicii show in Penticton, with special guest Cazzette, will start at 6 p.m.
"The show ends a bit early and most of this crowd, I would guess, have a place or club they want to go to and they are still going to be able to enjoy that," said Clark.
Tickets for the VIP section, have already sold out for the 16 years and older Penticton show. Clark said there are still other tickets available for Saturdays show. Clark said Avicii is a bit of an experiment for Global Spectrum in seeing what genres of music will be supported by the area.
"It is a unique genre, electronic dance music, and I am interested in seeing how the demographic supports it. Do they support it to my expectations? Are they going to come out and support this event in Penticton so that I can take a look at it financially and say we should do this again? I am interested to see whether or not the youth are supporting the music or maybe it is something we don't do again," said Clark. "It is a bit experimental. It is a bit of risk and I think it is our job to try that and have to be diversified. I think we are criticized a little bit for doing classic and country but that supports us. If nobody buys eggs at the store you don't bring them back. If everyone is buying eggs guess what you bring back. This is fresh exciting talent but are the youth going to support it?"
To purchase tickets for Avicii visit www.ValleyFirstTix.com, by phone at 1-877-763-2849 or in person at the SOEC box office and Wine Country Visitor Centre.