Cambridge prepares for booming bass, electronic tunes with upcoming music festival

The Rising Tide Music & Arts Festival is on the way to Cambridge this summer, set to bring a wave of electronic dance music (EDM) to the city.

It is set to be hosted in the city’s Gaslight District, with an overhaul on the way for Tappestry Hall, which is set to hold the festival’s after-party. The current setlist still remains unannounced.

While it’s a great opportunity for music fans, Waterloo Region has had a difficult history when it comes to EDM festivals, with the previous bass-heavy music causing some disturbances for the local community in past years.

The last major music festival that stopped by was the Ever After Music Festival, when the City of Kitchener received over 100 complaints over a three-day span as the event was hosted at Bingemans in 2017.

It saw over 40,000 festival goers in attendance and remains one of the more impactful economic music festivals the region has seen.

Due to the complaints, festival organizers were also faced with the potential of a class action lawsuit, with legal struggles continuing through 2022.

It led to refunds from the festival, along with the Ever After festival migrating out of the city, heading north to Barrie since.

While the upcoming festival, Rising Tide, will feature similar music to what was featured in the Ever After Music Festival, there are a few key differences between the two that should quell some concerns for the local community.

While Ever After was hosted in an open area, with no sound barriers present for many of its events in the region, Rising Tide is set to be hosted in a more enclosed area, currently anticipating a smaller crowd than what was present for Ever After.

It’s also set to feature an artistic focus as well, with a fully curated art gallery being developed in Tapestry Hall, focusing on sustainability and providing safe water to those in need worldwide. A portion of ticket proceeds will go to support that same mission in partnership with Water.org.

It’s all set to kick off this coming summer on July 5, lasting from 4 p.m. through to 11 p.m., and the full details can be viewed on the festival’s website.