Festival Updates and News
News about Ottawa Festivals and our Member festivals, special events and fairs.
A New Yorker and a photographer from Québec search for the soul of Canada Day in Ottawa
By Bruce Stutz with photography by Renaud Philippe, Canadian Geographic
MY FIRST CANADA DAY! Bonjour! Bonne fête du Canada! Please pardon my French, for I’m from New York City, where we pretend to all speak the same language. Forgive me, too, for passing up, at eight in the morning, a street vendor’s proffer of a paper plateful of poutine. The celebration is not yet underway. The cobblestone courtyards of the Byward Market are quiet. But the barricades are being set up along the motorcade route and the tide of red shirts and red caps has started coming in: families with folding chairs and coolers vetting vantage points, bright young bénévoles (I’m learning already) bearing fistfuls of little Canadian flags, and vendors at their stations, griddles already smoking.
“Canada Day, eh?” one says to me, as if to mock my New Yorker’s expectations of Canadian brogue. I smile, wave my little flag and explain that I had planned a bicycle ride along the Rideau Canal and am worried that fries and curds might not be the right fuel for the journey.
Full Story on the National Geographic Travel Club website: Canada Day in Ottawa-Gatineau
Plummer, Pinnock to headline Music and Beyond Festival
Steven Mazey, Ottawa Citizen
Canadian actor Christopher Plummer and British conductor and harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock will headline this year’s Music And Beyond classical music festival, featuring 80 concerts from July 7 to 17.
In its second year, the festival explores connections between music and other arts and disciplines, including theatre, dance, visual art, architecture, science and food, says director Julian Amour.
Like last year’s event, the festival will showcase a wide range of musical forces, including choirs, orchestras, bands, wind ensembles, baroque groups and chamber ensembles. Armour plans to announce the full lineup May 6.
Full story at the Ottawa Citizen: Plummer, Pinnock to headline Music and Beyond Festival
Jazzfest crosses over: Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, k.d. lang play main stage, jazz names move indoors
Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen
The TD Ottawa International Jazz Festival is betting heavily on rock and pop stars to attract Confederation Parkfilling crowds this summer.
Robert Plant & The Band of Joy kick off the jazz festival on opening night June 23. The next night, Elvis Costello and the Imposters play in Confederation Park. On June 25, the main attraction is k.d. lang and Siss Boom Bang. Other park headliners also depart from the festival’s tradition of putting jazz front and centre on its largest stage.
Meanwhile, leading jazz names such as the duo of Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau, singer Kurt Elling, pianists Vijay Iyer and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and trumpeter Kenny Wheeler will be presented indoors, at the National Arts Centre’s Studio or Fourth Stage, playing for several hundred people instead of several thousand.
Full story on the Ottawa Citizen website: Jazzfest crosses over
Jazz Fest announces line-up
Cassandra Trenholme, Centretown News
The TD Ottawa International Jazz Festival has announced its line-up for this year’s event in late June.
Performers include Robert Plant & the Band of Joy, Elvis Costello and the Imposters, k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang, Pink Martini, Return to Forever IV, Youssou N’dour, Paco De Lucia, Lucky Peterson, Béla Fleck & the Original Flecktones, and Daniel Lanois’ Black Dub. They will headline the Concerts Under The Stars series, on the Canal Stage at Confederation Park.
For ticket information, prices and the complete line-up visit www.ottawajazzfestival.com.
Full story on Centretown News Online: Jazz Fest announces line-up
Tulip artist has strong ties with this year’s themed flower
LJ Matheson, YourOttawaRegion
Photo by LJ Matheson, YourOttawaRegion
One of the five-foot, decorative tulips to pop up around Ottawa during Tulip Festival May 6 to 23 will portray the royal couple – Prince William and Kate Middleton – who will tie the knot on April 29 and will be visiting the Capital this summer.
“I saw Will and Kate on TV and thought that would make a great tulip theme,” said Alexander from her home near Bayshore. “I made the call and they (festival organizers) thought it was a great idea, and here we are.”
This will be her sixth tulip and one closest to her heart, as her own son will be married just two weeks after the royal couple. Alexander says it’s about portraying a legacy – a family heirloom of sorts.
Full story on YourOttawaRegion: Tulip artist has strong ties with this year’s themed flower
Tulip Festival will officially unveil spring season
By Sabine Gibbins, EMC News
Source: Walker on Flickr
This year’s Canadian Tulip Festival may have visitors viewing the annual blooms in a refreshing new way.
Visitors to Ottawa’s premiere spring event can wave goodbye to beds of tulips planted in stretches of solid colour, and say hello to an array of colourful blends which unveil a unique design.
The festival takes place from May 6 to 23.
The theme for this year’s Tulip Festival is ‘kaleidoscope – a celebration of spring awakening through colour, culture, and community’, according to the official website.
Read the full story on the EMC website: Tulip Festival will officially unveil spring season
Carp Fair Board welcomes new presidents
Krista Johnston, YourOttawaRegion
Photo courtesy YourOttawaRegion, Krista Johnston
Commitment, creativity and a caring attitude are three attributes that best describe Blair Armstrong and Lynn Hudson.
As the new agricultural and home craft presidents of the Carp Agricultural Society, both Armstrong and Hudson have their work cut out for them as they embark on planning a successful year of activities that will not only raise money for important causes but also bring members of the community closer together.
Full story at YourOttawaRegion: Carp Fair Board welcomes new presidents
Writers Festival Challenges The Myth of Human Progress and Welcomes The Immortalization Commission
OTTAWA, March 22, 2011 -Elizabeth Hay, Chris Hedges, Parag Khanna, Lorna Crozier, Johanna Skibsrud, Bernard Schlink, Jaron Lanier, Madeleine Thien, and Sylvia Tyson headline the Spring Edition of the Ottawa International Writers Festival which runs from April 28 to May 3, at the Mayfair Theatre, Southminster United Church, the Manx Pub, The NAC and Collected Works Bookstore.
“In the context of the grass roots uprisings taking place in North Africa and our own democratic maneuvering here in Canada, it is timely that the themes of exporting democracy, human rights, salvation, and justice run through much of our fiction and non-fiction this Spring,” says artistic director Sean Wilson. “There’s a stong focus on freedom and on how history affects the future. This Spring’s program really highlights how interconnected we are in the 21st century.”
Poetry is front and center with a House of Anansi Poetry Bash at Collected Works and a Poetry Cabaret with Gillian Sze, Pearl Pirie, and Lorna Crozier. The cherry on the poetry sundae is a master class with Robert Pinsky, who served an unprecedented three times as Poet Laureate of the United States.
Music also plays a staring role this Spring with a Ghazal concert with Lorna Crozier, Rob Winger, Sandra Ridley and Robert Pinsky with the MEL M’rabet Quartet. The ghazal originated in 6th century Arabic verse and was popularized with the ecstatic verses of Rumi and reached cult status with the work of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and his music for Dead Man Walking. One of Canada’s most celebrated songwriters, Sylvia Tyson, joins us for an unforgettable evening of music and her acclaimed novel Joyner’s Dream.
A session on documentary fiction about Canada’s First Nations with David Adams Richards and former Lieutenant James Bartleman also promises to generate lively discussion.
Other highlights include John Gray (who Will Self calls “The most important living philosopher.“) the father of Virtual Reality, Jaron Lanier, and religious scholar Tom Harpur. As always, there’s far too much to cram into a single press release so for more on the Festival’s Spring Edition, please visit us online at writersfestival.org. The new site launches Wednesday, March 30th.
Race strategy moving forward all about crowd control
Mark Sutcliffe, Ottawa Citizen
Photo courtesy kieran_mcmullen on Flickr
John Halvorsen, the volunteer race director, says he’d like to see the event hit 50,000 runners one day. But he’s not in a rush to get to the next milestone.
“With more people we can do more things,” says Halvorsen. “The city receives a larger economic benefit and it becomes a bigger party.
“I do have a vision of going there. But it has to be a managed growth. We have to take it slowly.”
A marketing challenge is to maintain the right balance between increasing the number of entries while still limiting supply to create demand and ensure runners register early. Beyond that, while Ottawa Race Weekend has no shortage of runners, it is starting to run out of space.
Full story on the Ottawa Citizen website: Race strategy moving forward all about crowd control
Benson students get the blues
EMC News
Students at Benson Public School have got the blues – and they love it.
For the second straight year, the school is working with the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest Blues in the Schools Program, which brings professional artists into the schools to teach blues music history and appreciation, as well as how to compose and perform an original tune.
During the two-week program professional blues bands come to the school to perform for Benson students as well as students from nearby schools within the Upper Canada District School Board. The bands – The Mighty Popo, Monkey Junk, and Jason and Company – all performed at the school during the first week of March.
Read the full story on the EMC online: Benson students get the blues
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