X RIFFLANDIA X

Rifflandia has come to an end, and goddamn that shit was good. It was four intense days of dancing, drinking and going full ape shit on Victoria. We took over the city. Electric avenue, RAP, the bars, the clubs. It was glorious. I ran into a friend, who was wearing a sweater with JT riding a unicorn shooting lasers out of its ass in space, that said: "Rifftoria man, I feel bad for the poor fuckers who have never experienced it."

When I did my first Riff 7 years ago, it was in its childhood. There was no curfew, no night shows at every bar in the city, Mother Mother was the headliner every year, the Metchosin One was a celebrity, and you didn't even have to try to hide those Blue Bucks. Riff has 100% evolved into something that has become a part of is Victoria. This year I had to book off time from work 6 months in advance just to go, and I couldn't even make it to Sunday without an IV drip.

When it comes to music festivals, some like to drive over to Pemberton, others wear daisy crowns and pretend it's 1966 at Coachella, and a few cntrl+alt+delete for a week at Shambhala. But me, and every other tourist loathing Victorian, we like to get absolutely fucking tanked at noon in thrift clothes and see who can still make it through Mother Mothers set.

There's a sort of bona fide camaraderie between residents of Rifftoria. I was walking down the street on Friday night in my flamboyant pink Phillips summer shirt, and this guy runs past me and starts waving at this car that was leaving a parking spot on the side of the street. Buddy rolls up to the guy driving and in a heavy Russian accent just says "Me save parking spot!" and starts yelling in Slavic up the street to another muscovite who was obviously on the phone with some rent-a-whateverfuck trying to find a parking spot, not knowing that Riff was in town. I keep walking and see the car that pulled out drive past me. I saw the dude driving was wearing a floral shirt, we looked at each other and just shook our heads and we both agreed: "fuckin' tourists eh?"

Needless to say, I'm already stoked for the 2018 edition of Rifflandia. Just one thing... for the love of god, don't bring back Mother Mother.