Iceberg Alley: St. John's coolest concert venue is a big blue tent

On Thursday night in St. John's, The Strumbellas hit the stage to open a brand-new music festival. The headliners thrilled the crowd, many of whom already had tickets for the festival's other nights, featuring the Arkells, Sloan, Big Sugar and more top Canadian talent.

But despite the big names on the bill, the biggest star of the festival is turning out to be the venue itself: a big blue tent near Quidi Vidi Lake.

The Iceberg Alley Performance Tent is a nine-day, 12-concert music festival.

But it's also a really cool tent.

And while the music is what people are coming to see, it's the tent that people want to know more about.

What's up with that tent?

"The buzz that was created [Thursday night] was something that couldn't be replicated anywhere else." said Seamus O'Keefe, the festival's event manager.

"We wanted to show something that people had never seen before. And a big-top, 25,000 square-foot tent in the heart of Quidi Vidi is something that's never been done before."

For several months this spring, curious citizens of St. John's watched as the giant tent slowly took shape.

Was it a circus? A car show? A really, really rich person's wedding?

Eventually, word of a music festival got out. But even when the bands were announced and tickets went on sale, no one in the city knew what to expect when they walked inside.

O'Keefe says the promoters knew people would be surprised.

But what they really wanted was for people to be wowed.

"Many of the people I work with have been around the world and seen different venues and different festival settings." he said.

"And we thought, why don't we go and try to do something that's just as good or better."

'All about the patron experience'

The tent was sourced from a seller in London, England. It was loaded into crates and shipped across the Atlantic, along with the support structures and 800 bleacher seats.

Everything else under the canvas was custom-built for the festival, from the enormous plywood floor to the elevated lounges and VIP areas. Local food vendors serve tacos and smoked brisket at both ends of the tent. And libations flow from three separate bars: one for wine and spirits, one for draft beer, and speed-bar selling beer cans only.

O'Keefe was the longtime head of George Street Association, the group that manages events on the city's most famous bar-lined block — including the George Street Festival, one of the largest tourist attractions in Newfoundland and Labrador.

He says he put everything he's learned about concerts into this festival.

"It's all about the patron experience." O'Keefe said. "How do you minimize the lines, how do you make sure the beer is cold, how do you make sure the music is loud?"

So far, the world O'Keefe has created under the tent seems to have all that and more. 

As a bonus, the tent also insulates the festival (pun intended) against the famously fickle weather of St. John's. 

In July 2015, for instance, an outdoor concert featuring Rod Stewart was somewhat sullied when fans needed winter coats to survive unseasonably cold temperatures.

At the end of the two-week festival, the big blue tent and everything inside it is being packed up and tucked away for next time.

O'Keefe hopes the Iceberg Alley Performance Tent becomes an annual festival, but he says the tent could be back up before then.

He's already being approached by other groups who want to house their own events under the big top. 

"We'd love to see something like Come From Away inside that tent," said O'Keefe, referring to the Broadway hit that chronicles how Newfoundlanders welcomed stranded passengers after the 9/11 attacks. 

"We've got other genres of music, like electronic dance music, Celtic music, potentially maybe even Oktoberfest. We think the venue and the tent is selling itself."

For a tour of the tent, watch the video above.