The BreakFest Blog
News about Ottawa Festivals and our Member festivals, special events and fairs.
Ottawa Fashion Week Tickets on Sale Soon Through Ottawa Festivals
Tickets for Ottawa Fashion Week’s (OFW) sixth season taking place at the Ottawa Convention Centre from September 29, 2011 to October 1, 2011 will be on sale tomorrow starting at 7:30 a.m. You can purchase tickets online through Ottawa Festivals by going to www. ottawafestivalsticketing.ca
OFW has become a platform for national and international designers and artists to showcase their work while uniting the community with the latest trends in art and design. It has also become a means for arts and fashion industry members to grow and gain opportunities. The overall philosphy has been to promote the arts such as photography, music ad film and allow for artistic expression.
Carrie Underwood brings her fans to their feet
Lambert blasts the show open
REVIEW
Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert
Capital Hoedown, LeBreton Flats Park, Friday, Aug. 12
OTTAWA — If Carrie Underwood ever tires of Nashville, Ottawa will welcome her with open arms. At least the 17,000-plus fans who greeted last nights headliner at Capital Hoedown would embrace her.
When the country superstar, who played Scotiabank Place just over a year ago, took the stage at LeBreton Flats Park, lawn chairs were abandoned and the folks who’d been sitting in the raised VIP sections were suddenly standing on their chairs, dancing in place to tunes like the big opener Cowboy Casanova and Wasted. (The fans were eventually chased off the chairs by a Hoedown representative.)
Underwood’s not a big woman, but her rafter-shaking voice easily dominates whatever venue hosts her. The former American Idol proved that again Saturday night with tunes like Some Hearts, a big sing-a-long favourite for her Ottawa fans.
She’s also a hard-working performer who uses body language superbly to connect with the audience in a song like All-American Girl.
A Chamberful of success
Healthy attendance, smooth operations marked this year’s festival
Richard Todd, The Ottawa Citizen
The 18th annual Ottawa Chamber Music Festival is history now, though such recent history that a box office and financial analysis will not be ready for some time. Still, anyone who has attended the Chamberfest regularly over the years will have noticed that the main venue, Dominion-Chalmers church, was full or close to it every evening.
What may have surprised some people was the attendance at St. Brigid’s Centre for the Arts at 310 St. Patrick St in the ByWard Market, which was remarkably higher than in recent years. In the past some potential audience members have avoided this venue because it is in a part of town some regard as a little shady, parking can be difficult and there has been a perception that the best artists are at Dominion-Chalmers.
But this year there was a shuttle service between Dominion-Chalmers and St. Brigid’s. You could leave you car at D-C, catch all or part of the performance there, take the shuttle to the ByMarket venue and get a ride back, either at the end of the 8 p.m. concert or after the 10:30 cabaret events. “Clearly this was a breakthrough,” says Chamberfest’s director of Marketing and Communications, James Whittall.
SuperEx 2012 still seeks home
New site on Albion Road sits untouched while organizers seek partner to mount annual fair
David Reevely, The Ottawa Citizen
The Central Canada Exhibition is looking for a temporary location for 2012 and maybe beyond, since practically nothing has been done yet to prepare a “permanent” home for the fair on land it has been granted off Albion Road in south Ottawa, according to Councillor Bob Monette.
Monette, who sits on the exhibition’s board, said the property has to be cleared, prepared and serviced before it can host even a strippeddown agricultural fair, and none of that has been done yet.
The 10-day event had been held for a century at Lansdowne Park, until the city ejected it this year to make way for construction work on the Lansdowne redevelopment.
That’s been held up by the Friends of Lansdowne court case that was only settled last week, so as it turned out the fair’s traditional home might have been available – but the Ex’s board decided last winter to pull the plug on this year’s edition and restarting the whole works wasn’t feasible.
Drum circle catches the beat
Day-long jam hits the right note
Tony Lofaro, The Ottawa Citizen
The beat goes on for drummers in a drum circle at the foot of the Peace Tower, but not for Lindsay Ballard who found it difficult to keep the beat.
“I’m trying to keep the rhythm in my head and just beat it out, but it’s hard when everyone around you has the beat,” said Lindsay, 12, on Saturday afternoon as she banged away on a djembe, a skin-covered drum native to Mali.
“I’m not a drummer at all, I’m a ballet dancer,” she said.
Lindsay was one of many spectators who tried the free drum jam on Parliament Hill as part of the second annual Ottawa International Drumming Festival.
The day-long event saw eight drum groups perform, as well as Vietnamese, Indian and Middle Eastern dancers in a free show.
The drum groups represented were Samba Ottawa and the samba drums of Brazil and Afro-Latin rhythms, Tine Rufaro Marimba Band featuring the sounds of Zimbabwe and Muraya showcasing the voice of a Burundi reggaeton artist and the cool sounds of the Ottawa Folklore
Read more on the Ottawa Citizen website: Drum circle catches the beat
‘Guerrilla throwdown’ showcases hip-hop celebration in ByWard Market
Julia Johnson, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Passersby in the ByWard Market got a taste of B-boy style Thursday afternoon as local breakdance crews performed a “guerrilla throwdown,” putting on a showcase of their head spins, acrobatic twists and freezes, as part of the city’s annual House of Paint hip-hop festival.
The event grew from a small barbecue in 2003 to celebrate the designation of the House of Paint — a wall under the Dunbar bridge near Carleton University — as a legal graffiti wall to a five-day music, dance and art festival.
“What we try to focus on with the House of Paint and these legal graffiti walls is this idea that there are artists that want to show their work in public. There’s a job in artwork that is done publicly and shared publicly and shared for free,” said House of Paint organizer Sabra Ripley, an Ottawa B-girl.
Sami Elkout, 25, has been a B-boy for 10 years and performed Thursday with the Breadcrumbs Crew he manages. He said festivals like House of Paint are making break dancing more mainstream, as is shown with the festival’s steady growth each year.
Read more on the Ottawa Citizen website: ‘Guerrilla throwdown’ showcases hip-hop celebration in ByWard Market
NCC’s Second Annual Environment Report Highlights Progress on Objectives
[Source: NCC press release]
Canada’s Capital Region ― The National Capital Commission’s (NCC) 2010-2011 Annual Environment Report is now available on the NCC’s website. This second annual environment report provides an account of the NCC’s environmental management approach and shows the progress made toward meeting its environmental objectives.
“From hosting greener events and promoting more sustainable transportation alternatives, to engaging our staff and stakeholders, we are starting to see real, tangible progress on the environmental front,” said Michelle Comeau, Senior Vice-President, Environment, Capital Lands and Parks Branch at the NCC. “We have made it an organizational priority to apply sound environmental management to all NCC initiatives.”
Highlights of NCC’s environmental accomplishments include:
- Canada Day 2010 — NCC’s first carbon neutral event.
- Rehabilitation of the heritage Rideau Hall Dome Building with the objective of achieving LEED® Silver accreditation.
- Land acquisitions in Mer Bleue Bog (84 hectares) and next to Gatineau Park (477 hectares) to protect the ecological integrity of these conservation areas.
Bhangra beat boy back to boost capital
David Reevely, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — So-serious-he’s-silly YouTube star Wilbur Sargunaraj has made another video praising the delights of Ottawa,
Sargunaraj burst into Ottawa last winter with his first local video, to go with The Canada Song, featuring him praising the capital and clumsily experiencing some of its winter delights, including chowing down on a Beavertail and trying desperately to stay upright on skates on the Rideau Canal. The Indo-Canadian Internet sensation (he was born in Calgary, raised in India, and splits his time between Toronto and Tamil Nadhu) was hired by Ottawa Tourism to make Ottawa look awesome.
A hundred thousand hits later, now it’s Bhangra in the Capital.
The song lyrics don’t say much about Ottawa — they mostly praise bhangra music as a genre — but the video is pure city. Sargunaraj leads a group dance at Nepean Point featuring young men in Sikh turbans and parliament in the background, cavorts with breakdancers on Sparks Street and teens by the Rideau Canal, leads a female dancer in a chase around a ByWard Market fountain, takes to Victoria Island to caper with aboriginals in full costume, and peers around the base of the metallic sculpture One Hundred Foot Line by the National Gallery.
Ottawa International Film Festival stars slate of world premieres
EMC News
EMC News – The Ottawa Film Festival (OIFF) is proud to announce their Official Film selections for the second annual edition, which takes place at the Empire Theatres at the World Exchange Plaza from August 18 to 21. Filmmakers of Internationally and Canadian-made feature and short films will be attending the various Canadian, Ottawa and World premieres.
“It is a real privilege for us to introduce these films to the Ottawa audience. Our program is a wonderful example of the incredible talent we have in Ottawa and it reflects the diversity of filmmakers across Canada and around the world,” said Nina Bains, Executive Director of OIFF, “We are really excited to screen several world premieres, which will help establish the Nation’s Capital as a great place for cinema.”
“I’m very proud of this year’s line up of films. We will showcase a number of great shorts and feature films that mirror the festival’s image in terms of independent cinema – a celebration of our homegrown filmmakers with extra added international flavors,” commented Martin Forcier, OIFF Programmer.
Starring Henry Winkler, Graham Green, DJ Qualls, and Paolo Mancini, the comedy Running Mates (directed by Thomas Michael, USA) about two best friends who run against each to be the mayor of their home town, will make its Canadian premiere on Saturday, Aug. 20.
Read more on the EMC News website: Ottawa International Film Festival stars slate of world premieres
House of PainT a celebration of city’s urban culture
YourOttawaRegion.ca
OLD OTTAWA SOUTH – Ottawa isn’t just Parliament buildings and tulips.
House of PainT is out to show that urban culture is alive and well in a city that some say “fun has forgotten.”
Now in its eighth year, the city’s largest independent hip-hop festival in Old Ottawa South is proving that hip hop is about more than rappers like 50-Cent. It takes place this weekend, from Aug. 3 to 7.
“Five or six years ago, that’s what the mainstream understood about hip hop,” said Sabra Ripley, founder and organizer of House of PainT.
The former Old Ottawa South resident said attitudes about hip hop are changing as socially conscious rappers like K’Naan and Shad climb the record charts and television shows like So You Think You Can Dance gain in popularity.
“In general, there is a much broader appreciation of hip hop – not as a novelty, but as an art form,” Ripley said.
That is reflected in the attendance at House of PainT, which has evolved from a one-day party with about 150 people to a five-day festival that attracts more than 2,000.
Read more on the YourOttawaRegion website: House of PainT a celebration of city’s urban culture
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