Sled Island Stirs Up Trouble in Calgary After Not Censoring Holy Fuck's Band Name on Posters
6/17/2009 By Brock Thiessen

Once again, Toronto’s Holy Fuck are igniting controversy, and again, it’s because of their expletive-sporting name, not their music. This time, the trouble is brewing in Calgary, where the band’s name was printed, minus any censoring, on posters for the upcoming Sled Island Festival.

According to a report by the CBC, this didn’t sit so well with many local businesses when they found posters up with the words “Holy Fuck” on them.

"One of the kids pointed out to me there are swear words on a poster," restaurant manager Ali Clark told the CBC. "That's appalling to find in a family restaurant... It has a bunny on it. Imagine your eight-year-old going over to read it."

It also likely didn’t sit to well with some of the high-ranking corporate sponsors, such as the Calgary Sun, the Calgary Arts Foundation and the City of Calgary, all of whom were listed on the same offending poster.

"Sounds to me like somebody didn't edit the poster well enough," Alderman Ric McIver said. "I would say it was an unfortunate oversight and one that should be corrected."

And by the sounds of things, Sled Island festival director Zakary Pashak agrees. "I looked at the poster and thought, 'Oh gee,'" he said, referring to the words Holy Fuck.

As a result, organizers are now reprinting the posters and adding in some asterisks instead of the F word in full.

"We apologize that those got into family restaurants," Pashak said.

As previously reported, this year Holy Fuck and some 200 other bands will be playing Sled Island, which takes place in Calgary June 24-27.

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