Motion Notion is an annual underground electronic

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...

and

transformational festival A transformational festival is a counterculture festival that espouses a Community building, community-building ethic, and a value system that celebrates life, personal growth, social responsibility, healthy living, and creative expression. ''Transf ...

located in the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

near Golden, BC,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Started in 2000, it is one of Western Canada's longest running annual outdoor electronic dance music festivals. Originally a single night event, the festival has grown to be a four night event, usually held over a weekend towards the end of July. The event features three festival sponsored stages (The Temple, Cabana, and Spectrum) and allows for up to four independently operated and funded stages.

Music

Motion Notion formed its roots in the

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

and

festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

scene with

psychedelic trance Psychedelic trance, psytrance, or psy is a subgenre of trance music characterized by arrangements of rhythms and layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. The genre offers variety in terms of mood, tempo, and style. Some examples include full ...

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

drum and bass Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...

downtempo Downtempo (or downbeat) is a broad label for electronic music that features an atmospheric sound and slower beats than would typically be found in dance music. Closely related to ambient music but with greater emphasis on rhythm, the style may ...

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...

, and

breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that uses drum breaks, often sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as Florida breaks, hip-hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat ...

. List of some of the headlining artists who have performed at Motion Notion: *

Infected Mushroom Infected Mushroom () is an Israeli musical duo formed in Haifa in 1996 by producers Erez Eisen and Amit Duvdevani. They produce and perform psytrance, electronica, dream trance and psychedelic music. They are one of the best-selling groups in ...

Shpongle Shpongle is a psychedelic music, psychedelic electronic music project from England that formed in 1996. The group includes Hallucinogen (musician), Simon Posford and Raja Ram (musician), Raja Ram (one of three in The Infinity Project). The duo ...

The Crystal Method The Crystal Method is an American electronic music act formed in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada, by Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland in 1993. They were pioneers of the big beat genre and their music has appeared in numerous TV shows, films, v ...

Amon Tobin Amon Adonai Santos de Araújo Tobin (; born February 7, 1972) is a Brazilian electronic musician, composer and producer. He is noted for his unusual methodology in sound design and music production. He has released eight major studio albums unde ...

Dirtyphonics Dirtyphonics is a French electronic music band from Paris, consisting of members Charly Barranger and Julien "PitchIn" Corrales. Known for blending Drum and bass, Dubstep, and other bass music genres with heavy metal and cinematic influences, t ...

Excision (musician) Jeffrey Abel (born 29 April 1986), better known by his stage name Excision, is a Canadian DJ and electronic music producer. He is the founder of Rottun Recordings and Subsidia Records. Active since 2006, his first release, "Warning", was in 200 ...

Datsik (musician) Troy Beetles (born June 8, 1988), better known by his stage name Datsik, is a Canadian DJ and music producer. His first release was in the spring of 2009. He has since played at venues all over the world, including festivals such as Coachella, Ult ...

Noisia Noisia was a Dutch electronic music trio from Groningen, Netherlands. The trio was composed of Nik Roos, Martijn van Sonderen, and Thijs de Vlieger. Their music spanned several genres, including drum and bass, dubstep, breakbeat, and house. They ...

David Tipper David Alexander Tipper, also known as Tipper for short (born c. 1976 in Wimbledon, London, England) is a British composer and producer specialising in electronic music that ranges from Ambient music, ambient, through trip hop, to uptempo nu sko ...

History

The first Motion Notion was held in a warehouse in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, in 2000. Partly as a result of the City of Calgary's extended dance bylaw, and a change in direction to host outdoor events rather than indoor, Motion Notion moved out of the city to a rural setting. Subsequent years saw the festival move to various sites around Western Alberta, including Nojack, Evansburg and

Drayton Valley Drayton Valley is a town in central Alberta, Canada. It is located on Alberta Highway 22, Highway 22 (Cowboy Trail), approximately southwest of Edmonton. It is surrounded by Brazeau County, known for its vast petroleum, oil fields. The town is lo ...

. The festival then moved to Golden, BC, which would remain its home for many years. In 2018, organizers announced the festival would be moving to Merritt, BC, where it was held that year. For various reasons the festival was put on hold and then cancelled in 2019.

Location

The 2018 Motion Notion festival was held on the Coldwater Fields Festival Grounds located in

Merritt, British Columbia Merritt is a city in the Nicola Valley of the south-central British Columbia Interior, Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is northeast of Vancouver. Situated at the confluence of the Nicola River, Nicola and Coldwater River (British Co ...

References

{{Reflist Music festivals in British Columbia Electronic music festivals in Canada Music festivals established in 2000 2000 establishments in British Columbia