By STEPHEN COOKE / Entertainment Reporter

1998 may go down as the year of the summer mega-music festival.

First the Great Big Picnic, then Fish Aid, and now Summersault '98.

Featuring some of Canada's biggest bands, the newly incarnated rock festival will touch down on the Shediac Can-Am Speedway in Parlee Beach, N.B. on Sept. 5.

The brainchild of Toronto Juno award-winners Our Lady Peace, Summersault will bring a variety of acts, including Moist, I Mother Earth and Sloan to Atlantic Canada, which has previously missed out on major travelling music happenings like Edgefest and Lilith Fair.

Summersault also visits Toronto and Quebec City in August, and St. John's, Nfld. Sept. 3.

"I don't know why, but Edgefest is not going out East, and it didn't last year," says Our Lady Peace vocalist Raine Maida by phone from Toronto. "I don't know why, but we feel kinda obliged that if we're going to do this thing we should go out East."

Maida says he sympathizes with Atlantic fans who don't get to see a lot of the major acts.

"It sucks! The same way a lot of bands doen't go out there, and that's why we started our last tour there."

Our Lady Peace played a big part in the success of Edgefest last year, but this time, instead of getting a piece of the action, they wanted to run the show.

"We wanted to start our own festival," explains Maida, "so we developed Summersault. It's us; we pick the bands and decide where it goes, and it's a real treat for us to be able to do this.

"It's almost a selfish thing, 'cause we're just picking bands we like."

Other bands on the East Coast Summersault dates include Est-hero and Bucket Truck, with more to follow for the festival's second stage.

Planning for the shows is still underway. Maida says the band started putting Summersault together between shows on a recent European tour, as they approched the 400th show mark following their last album, Clumsy.

The important thing Maida wants to get across is that Summersault isn't meant to be a big ego trip for Our Lady Peace.

"It's not a headlining thing for us, with a bunch of openers, it's just a festival with a bunch of great bands playing music over eight or nine hours. I don't know how comfortable we are with bringing a lot of the stuff we bring to our own shows."

Tickets for Summersault '98 go on sale Saturday, July 4 at 10 a.m. Admission is $35 (BST included), however some early bird tickets will be available for $29.50.

Tickets can be purchased by phone at 1-800-361-4595, or in Halifax at the Metro Centre box office.