Festival Updates and News
News about Ottawa Festivals and our Member festivals, special events and fairs.
New Sound and Light Show a Hit: Poll – CFRA
Source: Josh Pringle – CFRA
Visitors are giving the National Capital Commission’s new Sound and Light Show on Parliament Hill rave reviews.
More than 160-thousand visitors have seen “Mosaika: Canada through the eyes of its people”
The NCC says a survey by Harris Decima found 95 per cent of visitors who have experienced the show were “very or extremely satisfied with the show,” while 95 per cent also said it helped them to appreciate the beauty of Parliament Hill, the Capital and Canada.
The Sound and Light Show is on daily until September 12th.
Breakfast opens Capital Pride
Sneh Duggal, The Ottawa Citizen
The third annual fundraising breakfast, the kickoff to Capital Pride Week, was held by the Ottawa police and its GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered) liaison committee.
The event aims to raise money for three area GLBT groups, but two of the groups chosen this year — Bruce House and Ten Oaks Project — stated they would not accept the funds in protest over how officers recently publicly identified an HIV-positive man charged with aggravated sexual assault in May. Police said he did not disclose his HIV status to another man, who contracted the disease.
Read more: Breakfast opens Capital Pride
Blaine knows how to play SuperEx crowd: Lots of classic-rock cover songs mixed in with his own fine material
Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen
Pembroke native Jason Blaine returned to home turf on Friday to deliver a concert at SuperEx that included songs by John Mellencamp, Tom Petty, Trooper, Eric Clapton and Bryan Adams.
No, it wasn’t karaoke night on the outdoor stage. Blaine is one of Canada’s fastest-rising country singer-songwriters, and has three albums’ worth of his own material.
So why all the classic-rock cover tunes?
Perhaps he was trying to stretch an hour-long show into a 90-minute one without having to play a bunch of slow songs. If so, the technique worked. The familiar tunes kept the small but lively crowd of young country fans engaged, even during Blaine’s solo acoustic turn at the mike.
Full review: Blaine knows how to play SuperEx crowd
Read the full statement from the board of directors of Ottawa’s reggae festival
By Peter Simpson, The Big Beat
As you may have already read, Ottawa’s three-year-old reggae festival, which has long been the subject of rumours about financial problems, collapsed into insolvency on the weekend. The sheriff literally showed up to grab what meagre dollars could be had from the gate and beer tents. You can read a story about it by clicking here. Below is the full statement from the festival’s board of directors, issued Sunday night and again on Monday afternoon.
Not sure where all the money went, but it sure didn’t go to publicity and marketing. Until The Citizen published a small advance story late last week, I hadn’t seen a single news release, advertisement, facebook post, tweet or news story anywhere about this festival. Nor did I hear any of the legions of music fans in the city that I know mention anything about it.
Ottawa Reggae Festival – Official Statement
Ottawa – August 22nd, 2010
The Ottawa Reggae Festival is run by its’ Board of Directors which sees Benjamin Williams, the boards Chair, as the festival’s president.
In the role of festival president, Mr. Williams’ youth and inexperience caused him to make decisions that were ambitious, and ill advised. His financial decisions were made without consultation, and ended up costing the festival its’ reputation, and put him in ‘over his head.’
Read more: Read the full statement from the board of directors of Ottawa’s reggae festival
Pride stays true to its community roots
Claire Brownell, The Ottawa Citizen
Sixteen years ago, Joanne Law mustered her courage, hoisted a sign — “Family of Pride” — and became one of the first transgendered people to march in Ottawa’s pride parade. It was almost a decade after the first Capital Pride.
“I was petrified. I was scared out of my wits,” said Law, who was a boy at birth but lives her life as a woman. “Years ago, to be different, you got beat up.”
This year’s gay-pride festival will give revellers the chance to reflect on the evolution of Ottawa’s gay community since that afternoon in 1985 when about 50 people first gathered. The 2010 edition, which runs Aug. 20 to 29, boasts more than 60 events.
Read the full story: Pride stays true to its community roots
Final day of reggae festival cancelled
Jennifer Pagliaro, The Ottawa Citizen
The Ottawa Reggae Festival was cancelled Sunday after a financial meltdown forced organizers to axe the remaining finale line-up.
The festival took a hit Saturday after headliner Ky-mani Marley bailed and police and law enforcement officers stormed the gate for money owed by court order.
The order was for $14,000 in cash owed to former chief financial officer A. Raoul Nembhard, who said he was never reimbursed after footing the bill for last year’s beer supply. In all, the officers collected less than $500 in the round-up.
Full Story: Final day of reggae festival cancelled
Troubled reggae festival can’t stop the sheriff: Headliner pulls out; cash gate seized
Gary Dimmock, The Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa’s Reggae Festival had already been off to a bad start when news ricocheted Saturday that Bob Marley’s son, Ky-mani, had pulled out as its headliner.
Then, at around 7 p.m., as some lined up to get in, while others were demanding refunds, a provincial sheriff, accompanied by Ottawa police, came for the cash receipts at the front gate.
The enforcement officer showed concert staff a court judgment against the festival and its founder, Benjamin Williams, and started seizing bills from the cash box.
Full story: Troubled reggae festival can’t stop the sheriff
Bob Marley’s son headlines reggae fest
LeBreton Flats expected to be a dance hall this weekend
The Ottawa Citizen
Kymani Marley, son of reggae icon Bob Marley, performs at the Ottawa Reggae Festival.
Photograph by: Handout photo, .
The third annual Ottawa Reggae Festival is set to go Friday, with a full slate of live performers featuring reggae, dancehall, reggaeton, soca, R&B and hip hop. The reggae festival, which takes place at LeBreton Flats Festival Park, runs throughout the weekend.
The gates open at 4 p.m. Friday, and at noon on Saturday and Sunday. Top acts include Loud Love, Kymani Marley, Sugar Roy, Sean Paul, Barrington Levy and Tarrus Riley.
Visit www.ottawareggaefestival.com for festival information and to purchase tickets.
Marley, who performs Saturday at 8 p.m., is the son of reggae icon Bob Marley. He is also the author of Dear Dad. The book chronicles his ascent to music stardom from the drug trade in Miami, where he moved when he was nine.
Read more: Bob Marley’s son headlines reggae fest
National Capital Commission aims to reduce post-party waste in Ottawa
By Claire Brownell, The Ottawa Citizen
Rideau Street was awash with Canada Day 2010 revellers. A year earlier, slightly less than half of the waste left after Canada Day in 2009 could have been recycled or composted, but only about a fifth of the trash made it to blue and green bins instead of the garbage.
Photograph by: Bruno Schlumberger, The Ottawa Citizen, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — After hiring people to dig through its own trash last year, the National Capital Commission concluded it could send a lot less to landfills after big events with a little extra effort.
According to audit results published in the NCC’s most recent environment report, about 92 per cent of the waste left behind after the Rideau Canal Skateway and Winterlude in 2010 could have been recycled or composted. But only a small amount actually was — about eight per cent at the Skateway and 22 per cent at Winterlude.
Slightly less than half of the waste left after Canada Day in 2009 could have been recycled or composted, but only about a fifth of the trash made it to blue and green bins instead of the garbage.
Read more: National Capital Commission aims to reduce post-party waste in Ottawa
Fifth-graders make the cut at international film festival
Kate Hammer, Globe and Mail
For proof of what a group of preteens can accomplish over two months of lunch breaks with the help of some popsicle sticks, a few light bulbs and a camera, see this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival.
One official selection, a stop-motion short film called The Bright, the Bad and the Ugly was written, shot and directed by a Grade 5 class at Grosvenor Wentworth Park School in Halifax. Their tale of the town of Squander, a tumbleweed-infested homestead populated by energy-wasting light bulbs, beat out more than 70 other entries from across the globe to win one of five spots in the high-school category.
Chris Robinson, the festival’s artistic director, said they are the only grade-school class to ever win a spot in that category.
Read more: Fifth-graders make the cut at international film festival
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