The joke around the Halifax Pop Explosion office yesterday was they threw one really big launch party for this year’s festival.

Hours before Broken Social Scene took the stage at MFest ‘ put on by the HPX team at Alderney Landing on Sunday ‘ festival organizers revealed the first 40-odd bands coming to Halifax in October.

“We’re pretty excited,” said HPX executive director Jonny Stevens. “And the fans have responded. People are really, really stoked about the lineup.”

The bands ‘ including heavyweights like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, F—-d Up, Dan Mangan and Titus Andronicus ‘ constitute a big chunk of this year’s headliners. But Stevens hinted at a few more big announcements as the festival gets closer.

“We do have probably three more headliners to announce,” said Stevens, refusing to go into greater detail. “One of them is going to be pretty big, I think.”

The Pop Explosion had one of its biggest years in 2010, with a cumulative attendance of over 17,300 people over five days. But Stevens said an emphasis for this year’s festival is to build capacity to attract even more people ‘ something made more difficult after the festival lost one of its go-to venues.

“The Paragon closing down threw us for a loop. And then we were like ‘OK, let’s just go build a venue,’” Stevens said.

To that end, Stevens and his team have secured St. Antonio’s Hall on Windsor Street for this year’s festival.

Get in on the acts
The full initial lineup for the 2011 Halifax Pop Explosion can be found at halifaxpopexplosion.com.