by Matthew Stefanson

We set off at eight in the morning, garnishing our early trip with The Spice Girls’ Greatest Hits and a 45-minute scavenger hunt for one of  our companions' wallet & phone in Rosetown. The majority of our group are veterans of the festival, so we spent a good deal of the car ride talking about past experiences (three-dollar tallboys at Bamboo, kissing British Royal Marines in the backyard of the hostel and the 45-year-old Booty Quake instructor at the Big Freedia show in 2010.) Expectations are riding high among the rookies.

Sled Island is by far my favourite music festival. All of the shows are in bars that I never get to go to. I get to sleep in a bed. No one asks why I’m not doing acid. It’s the best, so it’s absolutely thrilling to be covering it for CFCR this year.

The festival's headliners are impressive. Among the big name bands at this year's festival are Feist, The Hold Steady and Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks. The real strength of the festival though is in the lesser-known bands that you can see for the first time. My first experience with the funniest dudes in New York garage rock, Cheeseburger was at Bamboo in 2010. The festival has enough draw that it can get bands from exotic locales, but it's not so big that it only attracts the regulars on Stereogum. It is a festival for those who are curious about their budding live music tastes.

This year’s festival includes a great comedy line-up in addition to the music. Headliners of the comedy portion include Todd Barry, of “The Doggy Bounce” fame,  Tim Heidecker of The Tim & Eric Show and noted bottle-target Neil Hamburger. For updates on all of my deep belly laughs check out @yesohrobot on twitter.

Wednesday's schedule is showing the greatest potential at Broken City, where a line-up of world-electro, noise, 8-bit techno and dance beats will smooth me into the next three days of music. Stay tuned for special coverage of the festival, courtesy of CFCR.