It’s not every day that you get to play a bigger part in Canada’s largest night for music. The JUNO Awards are like the Grammys for the Canadian music industry and I was fortunate enough to be part of this big event as one of the 7 Official Juno Awards Bloggers.
How crazy is that?
To call it a mind blowing experience is an understatement. If you followed along on my IG-stories of the weekend festivities during JUNOS weekend, that was only the tip of the iceberg of how crazy it was. I want to share my experience as a JUNOS Blogger with you guys because of how proud I am that Canada celebrates local talent in such a huge way. Not forgetting, that hey, a lot of the biggest stars in music are indeed..Canadian.
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by the JUNO Awards and Jackson-Triggs Wines. I attended all events during the #JUNOWeekend as an Official JUNOS Blogger. That said, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many people in one place in Vancouver. I spent the majority of my time at events held at the official JUNO hotel in Vancouver- our new casino hotel, Parq Vancouver and I honestly forgot that we were in Vancouver that weekend. It felt like we were in LA because of the sheer number of celebrities I walked by without noticing. I’m sorry Michael, I didn’t see you
The MUSIC – 2018 JUNO Awards Live Broadcast
What we’re here for people!!
The 2018 JUNO Awards were hosted by none other than fellow Canadian, Michael Buble! We were seated front row so I had a pretty up close view of the performances. Absolutely loved them ALL! Everything from Lights and her impressive backdrop of hand drawn illustrations, to City and Colour’s tribute to the late Gord Downie, to The Arkells literal fire-ry performance, to Barenaked Ladies closing the show with If I Had a Million Dollars (plus a wind blower and a ton of balloons and fake money filling Rogers Arena), it was a beyond night for Canadian Music!
The Experiences
The bloggers had a pretty comprehensive itinerary that hit the major spots of the events that were happening on JUNOS weekend. Have you ever tried Virtual Reality (VR)? I did!
The Ready Player One 3 storey exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery was cool! It was situated right by the Let’s Hear It Live stage so visitors got to enjoy some sick beats while exploring the set replica from the movie. I even got to play a round in the Arcade Room.
If you ever have high tea in Vancouver, I strongly recommend grabbing some pals and visiting Honey Salt for their high tea experience in the Parq Vancouver hotel. They have their own crepe station – and this excitement is coming from someone who isn’t the biggest sweet tooth.
Yoga with Lululemon x Ryan Leier x Felix Cartal – Beats Per Moment was one of my absolutely favourites because you guys know how much I love yoga! Though I don’t think any of my future hot yoga classes will ever beat one with Felix Cartal , just sayin’
TD Canada Green Room #MusiCounts
Where I hung out while listening to artists, indulging in all things edible, got my hair done and supported MusiCounts TD Community Music Program. This is an amazing program by TD Canada that aims to put musical instruments and equipment to schools and centres for children who need it! Find out more HERE
JUNOTV Interview
I want this pastel set up in my home for my videos SO BAD. But in case you were wondering, we walked in, jumped in the interview almost immediately, talked about style and a couple minutes later went for food. Aha, the best!
Walking the Red Carpet
I’ve always been on the Media side of the red carpets I’ve covered in the past but walking ON the SAME CARPET as musical geniuses is something else! It was definitely as chaotic and busy as I pictured it to be and totally helped me make sense of red carpets at awards shows on TV, but so much fun and so much to take in! I’m hooked- when’s the next one?!
The Parties
The JUNOS experience had its large share of parties, and boyyyy were they fun! Needless to say, I had a whole lot of wine. Shout out to my fav Jackson-Triggs!
JUNOS Welcome Reception presented by Music Canada
JUNOS Gala Cocktail presented by SOCAN at Vancouver Convention Centre
JUNO Fest presented by CBC Music
This was a two night event that featured 15 venues around Vancouver with a variety of music performances for the public to experience. We went out on Saturday night and chose to have a chill night swooning to sweet, sweet Jazz at Frankie’s Jazz Club!
The Wine – more Jackson-Triggs please!
Basically the only thing I drank the whole weekend because wine is classy and doesn’t make me bloat (laughs). But in all honesty, I’m pretty picky with wines, I don’t like them too sweet or too dry but I LOVE Jackson-Triggs Merlot! Will be sharing more about my love for Jackson-Triggs and my experience at the Jackson-Triggs Red Carpet Lounge in my next post so keep an eye out!
The Food – Media Tasting at Parq
As Parq Vancouver was the official JUNO Hotel, I was the lucky girl who was able to eat everrrryytthinggg from Parq’s list of restaurants in one place, for all three days. It was GREAT. Excuse me, while I work this all off.
Thank you very much to The JUNO Awards and Jackson-Triggs for bringing me along this journey to celebrate music and Canadian Talent! Def one for the books! Now someone send me to TIFF
xx
