Ottawa Bluesfest | |
---|---|
Genre | Hip Hop, Reggae, Blues, pop, EDM and rock |
Dates | July (6-16, 2023) (10 days) |
Location(s) | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
Years active | 1994-present |
Attendance | 1,430,000 (2023, 11 days total) |
Capacity | 132,000 (all stages combined) |
Ottawa Bluesfest (currently known as RBC Bluesfest under a naming rights sponsorship) is an annual outdoor music festival that takes place each July in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. While the festival's lineup historically focused on blues music at its inception, it has increasingly showcased mainstream pop, hip hop, reggae, rock and EDM in recent years. Bluesfest has become the second largest music festival in Canada and the third largest music festival in North America. [1] [2]
Since its inception, the festival has been managed by executive and artistic director Mark Monahan. The organization also manages CityFolk Festival [3] (2011-) and the Ontario Festival of Small Halls. [4]
In 2002, Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest won the Best Event Award from the Ottawa Tourism and Convention Authority and in 2003 the organization received the Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) award for arts education from the Memphis Blues Foundation. Mark Monahan is a past recipient of the Toronto Blues Society's Blues with a Feeling award. In December 2011, Bluesfest reached a five-year sponsorship deal with RBC Royal Bank to ensure its financial stability. Henceforth, the event will be known as RBC Bluesfest. [5]
The festival was first held in 1994 at Majors Hill Park with the performance of Clarence Clemons, attracting 5,000 spectators. The following year the festival attracted larger crowds with entertainers like John Hiatt and Buddy Guy. In 1996, 250,000 fans attended the 10-day Bluesfest to see Robert Cray, Los Lobos and others. It was then that the Mitel corporation became the first major sponsor of the event. In 1997, the festival was moved to Confederation Park to provide more space for the increasing number of fans to see musicians such as Dr. John and Little Feat. In 1998, over 800,000 people showed up for the festival in 10 days, which coincided with Canada Day.[ citation needed ] Bell Mobility and CIBC Wood Gundy joined the list of sponsors. In 1999, the festival was moved to LeBreton Flats. Bluesfest became a registered charitable organization while attracting over 950,000 fans in 10 days. The Royal Canadian Mint became a sponsor. Cisco Systems became the Bluesfest Title Sponsor in 2001, while the Ottawa Citizen and the National Post became Presenting Sponsors. In 2002, Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest moved to Festival Plaza in downtown Ottawa and 1,200,000 fans in 10 days. [6]
In 2003, the festival expanded to eight stages to celebrate its tenth anniversary with 1,220,000 people in attendance. [7] 2005 saw the festival further diversify its offerings, reaching out to a younger audience as well as those interested in more than just blues. The 2006 edition saw continued growth with increased crowds and the move of the MBNA stage to Lisgar Collegiate Institute to provide more capacity. In 2007, Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest relocated to LeBreton Flats Park, a move from the site at Festival Plaza the previous year. The new site offered five stages in and around the Canadian War Museum. The stage set-up featured twin main stages akin to the Austin City Limits Music Festival, which allowed audiences to transfer between headlining acts. [6]
The festival continues to be held in July annually for 10 days. Headliners such as B.B King and the Dixie Chicks (2013), Blake Shelton and Lady Gaga (2014), Kanye West (2015), Red Hot Chili Peppers (2016), and Foo Fighters (2018) attracting approximately 1,500,000 attendees each year. [8]
Along with showcasing international musical talent, Bluesfest is a non-profit charitable organization with year-round music education initiatives such as Blues in the Schools, Be in the Band, and the Bluesfest School of Music and Art, augmenting a focus on developing local artists in the Ottawa region. [8]
On July 17, 2011, just 20 minutes into Cheap Trick’s set, a thunderstorm blew through the festival area. The band and crew narrowly escaped the collapse of the stage's 50-ton roof. It fell away from the audience and landed on the band's truck which was parked alongside the back of the stage, breaking the fall and allowing everyone about 30 seconds to escape. Sandy Sanderson, Cheap Trick's truck driver, was treated for a laceration to the abdomen and released from hospital the same day. An investigation by the Ministry of Labour concluded the stage was poorly constructed, and though the report recommended criminal charges, none were filed due to building codes for temporary structures not covering staging that lasted less than 30 days. [9]
During preparations for the 2018 festival, a pair of killdeer was found nesting on some cobblestones, which help camouflage the eggs. It was right where the main stage was about to be constructed. Killdeer and their nesting grounds are protected under the Migratory Birds Convention Act. With permission from Environment and Climate Change Canada, and help from the Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary, the nest was successfully moved 25 meters, one meter at a time, to a protected area behind the stage site, and stage construction was allowed to continue after a 12-hour delay. [10] [11] [12] It marked a first for successful killdeer nest relocation. [13]
The killdeer is a large plover found in the Americas. It gets its name from its shrill, two-syllable call, which is often heard. It was described and given its current scientific name in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae. Three subspecies are described. Its upperparts are mostly brown with rufous fringes, the head has patches of white and black, and two black bands cross the breast. The belly and the rest of the breast are white. The nominate subspecies breeds from southeastern Alaska and southern Canada to Mexico. It is seen year-round in the southern half of its breeding range; the subspecies C. v. ternominatus is resident in the West Indies, and C. v. peruvianus inhabits Peru and surrounding South American countries throughout the year. North American breeders winter from their resident range south to Central America, the West Indies, and the northernmost portions of South America.
The Byron Bay Bluesfest, formerly the East Coast International Blues & Roots Music Festival, is an annual Australian music festival that has been held over the Easter long weekend in the Byron Bay, New South Wales, area since 1990. The festival features a large selection of blues and roots performers from Australia and around the world and is one of the world's leading contemporary music festivals.
CityFolk Festival is a folk music festival held annually in Ottawa, Canada.
LeBreton Flats known colloquially as The Flats is a neighbourhood in Somerset Ward in central Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It lies to the west of Centretown neighbourhood, and to the north of Centretown West. The Ottawa River forms the western and northern limit, with the western side being a wider area of the river known as Nepean Bay.
Beverly "Guitar" Watkins was an American blues guitarist. Sandra Pointer-Jones wrote, "Beverly Watkins is a pyrotechnic guitar maven whose searing, ballistic attacks on the guitar have become allegorical tales within the blues community." George Varga, reviewing her debut CD, observed that Watkins “sings and plays with enough poise and verve to make musicians half her age or younger consider alternative means of employment.”
Canadian blues is the blues and blues-related music performed by blues bands and performers in Canada. Canadian blues artists include singers, players of the main blues instruments: guitar, harmonica, keyboards, bass and drums, songwriters and music producers. In many cases, blues artists take on multiple roles. For example, the Canadian blues artist Steve Marriner is a singer, harmonica player, guitarist, songwriter and record producer.
JW-Jones is a Canadian blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and band leader. He is a Juno Award nominee (2015), Billboard magazine Top 10 Selling artist, and winner of the International Blues Challenge for "Best Self-Produced CD Award" for his release 'High Temperature' in 2017 and Best Guitarist in 2020.
Roxanne Potvin is a bilingual French-English Canadian singer, guitarist and songwriter based in Gatineau, Quebec. Potvin has earned a Juno nomination, seven Maple Blues awards nominations, making appearances at the Montreal Jazz Festival and Ottawa Bluesfest, and has toured internationally,.
The Twisters were a blues band from North Vancouver, British Columbia. They are signed to Toronto's NorthernBlues Music.
Bluesfest International is a three-day blues and roots music festival held annually in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, at the Riverfront Festival Plaza on the banks of the Detroit River, in front of Caesars Windsor and opposite Motown.
The Capital Hoedown was an annual outdoor music festival that took place in August in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Started in 2010, the three day festival was one of the largest in North America.
Steve Marriner, is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and record producer based in Toronto, Ontario. He first garnered attention in the Ottawa blues scene in his early teens as a prodigy blues harp (harmonica) player. He also plays baritone guitar, electric guitar, piano, Hammond organ, upright bass and electric bass. Since 2008, he has been the frontman, singer, one of two guitarists and harmonica player for the Canadian rock'n'roll-blues group MonkeyJunk. The band's album To Behold won the 2012 Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year.
Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer are a Vancouver based blues duo, consisting of Shawn Hall and Matthew Rogers.
Buck N' Nice is a hip-hop duo from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The group consists of rapper SawBuck and producer DJ So Nice.
Emeka Morris Ogbowu (born May 15, 1993, better known as Asuquomo, is a Nigerian-Canadian visual artist and musician based in Ottawa. In 2020, he won the RBC x Ottawa Arts Council's Emerging Artist of the Year Award. As a performer, he has opened for international artists such as Burna Boy, WizKid, and Lido Pimienta.
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