You might not have made the trip down to Sasquatch last weekend, but fear not: this week, the Music Waste Festival is taking over venues across the city. Eschewing $300 tickets and massive stages in favour of a $15 all-access pass (or $5 per show) and concerts scattered across the city, Music Waste offers a more intimate, democratized festival vibe.

“It’s everyone’s love letter to the Vancouver Music Scene,” says Mike Gittens, one of the festival’s organizers. “It’s totally non-profit. All the money goes back to the bands, or towards getting the festival going for next year. It’s a lot of fun. Everyone just gets involved because they love the festival.”

And even though bigger festivals like the Sasquatch Music and Arts Festival and Vancouver’s own Olio Festival are having success as big, headliner-driven destination festivals, the organizers of Music Waste are happy to keep their festival on a smaller, more local scale.

“That’s not what Music Waste is,” explains Gittens, “we don’t have any desire to book big touring headlining acts. Music Waste is as big and as good as it can get. We just have to keep up with the quality bands.”

“Our festival is mostly for Vancouver bands, for Vancouver fans.”

This emphasis isn’t lost on the artists chosen to play the festival, like Vancouver’s Teen Daze.

“I love city festivals! With that intimacy there, it means that you get to hang out with people afterwards, and there isn’t as much separation between musician and fan.”

The little things make a big difference, too.

“At, say, Sasquatch, when you go to the festival grounds from your camping site, there’s no in and outs. And all the food there is so expensive and you end up rationing your granola bars all day. And it’s something so simple like that - if you’re not eating all day it’s probably gonna have an effect on you and you’re not gonna have a good time.

At a city festival, you walk out of the venue and you’re surrounded by really great local food. It brings a very human feel to the festival.”

And it doesn’t matter that the bands aren’t playing on a gigantic stage to hundreds or thousands of people. “As long as there’s people there, and somewhere to play, it’s fun,” says Duncan McConnell of Slam Dunk. “And one sweet thing about playing festivals is that you get to see other bands.”

Lots of other bands.

“When I tell people from out of town that I’m involved with a festival that’s 4 days, about 110 bands, for $15, their minds are blown” explains Gittens. And with that many bands, there’s something for everyone.

“Music Waste is about new and exciting bands… It’s totally eclectic. We don’t ask for any sort of genres when we get the submissions. We try to book the bands that make sense together for shows, but it’s such a wide variety of bands, it’s mind-blowing.”

So grab a festival pass at Scratch, Red Cat, Zulu or Neptoon, take a look at the schedule, and go see some shows this week. Teen Daze plays Thursday at Pat’s Pub, with DBL Dragon, Bartel and MT-40. The show starts at 8:00pm, and Teen Daze is schedule to play at 10:00pm. Slam Dunk play Saturday at Electric Owl with World Club, Phonecalls and Sun Wizard. World club starts things off at 10:20pm, and Slam Dunk should take the stage at 11:40pm. If you can’t decide who to watch (the selection is truly staggering), here are some insider suggestions:

“I really love Peace these days - that Peace/No Gold Show at the Waldorf is gonna be great. At the Astoria on Friday night is Apollo Ghost and Flash Palace, who played one of their first shows last year at Music Waste and have been doing really well ever since. They’re a brand new band.” - Mike Gittens, Music Waste Organizer

“There’s a show happening the same night as my showcase, which is Basketball and Humans at the Biltmore. I’m hoping maybe I can run over there and see part of it. And I’ve got some friends from Kelowna coming in called Kingdom Cloud, and they are - they’re just one of my favorite bands. I love them so much. They’re just these three kids who play really tropical-influenced 70s post-punk stuff. They’re just a lot of fun, and when they play they all have the biggest smiles on their faces and you can just tell they’re having a lot of fun.” - Teen Daze

The full festival schedule is available here. Maps and directions to all the venues are here.