Festival Updates and News
News about Ottawa Festivals and our Member festivals, special events and fairs.
Illusionist, New Disney Short to Headline at Ottawa
Thomas J. McLean, Animation Magazine
Sylvain Chomet’s new feature The Illusionist and the new Disney short film Tic Tock Tale are among the films set to screen at this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival.
The festival, set for Oct. 20-24 in the Canadian capital city, will screen 90 film selected from more than 2,000 entries in a number of categories. The fest also will screen 56 international films out of competition.
Other highlights include Norway’s award-winning Angry Man, directed by Anita Killi; Pixar’s acclaimed short, Day and Night; Oscar-winner Logorama; German film Love and Theft from three-time Ottawa Grand Prix winner Andreas Hykade; and an episode from HBO’s The Ricky Gervais Show.
Full article: Illusionist, New Disney Short to Headline at Ottawa
Up close with Jim Cuddy
Intimate night with former Blue Rodeo star after rained out mainstage moves indoors
By Patrick Langston, The Ottawa Citizen
Jim Cuddy performs for adoring fans Sunday night at the Ottawa Folk Festival
Photograph by: Jana Chytilova, Ottawa Citizen
Fans got a whole lot closer to Jim Cuddy than they had expected when he played the Ottawa Folk Festival Sunday night. The Jim Cuddy Band, originally scheduled to play the main stage, wound up performing in a crowded Galaxie Dance Tent, where the stage is low and performers within arm’s length of the audience, after rain forced festival organizers to shuffle performance venues.
Ever gracious, Cuddy — known for both his longtime work with Blue Rodeo and as a solo performer — opened his show by immediately thanking the technical crew for hastily setting up in the new venue. “There will be mistakes, I’m warning you now,” he said disarmingly. Flubs were the least of his adoring audience’s worries.
Read more: Up close with Jim Cuddy
Dancing between the raindrops
Dismal weather cast a pall on an already struggling festival, but Ottawa’s die-hard folkies and the bands they love still found a way to soak up the music
By Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen August 16, 2010
Sue Moody of The Old Sods play an impromptu concert for festival-goers sheltering from the rain.
Photograph by: Photo by Julie Oliver, The Ottawa Citizen
The beleaguered Ottawa Folk Festival, which has been struggling to pay down a deficit over the past couple of years, took a significant financial hit yesterday because of the weather.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms forced organizers to cancel some of yesterday’s daytime programming and shut down the main stage. “There’s supposed to be more weather coming in and the field is a swamp,” said festival director Dylan Griffith in a late-afternoon interview. “We’d rather be safe and put things in venues we know we can work with. It’s a better audience experience.”
Most of the evening acts were shifted into either the dance tent or the indoor stage at the Ron Kolbus community centre onsite at Britannia Park.
Read more: Dancing between the raindrops
Cows, horses, sheep – Richmond Fair has it all
Your Ottawa Region, John Curry
Lots of livestock to see
RICHMOND – Do you want to see cows? Beef or dairy? How about horses? Or sheep?
Then the place that you want to be is the annual Richmond Fair which this year runs from Thursday evening, Sept. 16 through Sunday, Sept. 19 at the Richmond fairgrounds in Richmond.
Now, talk about seeing cows. Let’s count the ways.
There is an open 4H dairy showmanship show followed by a pre 4H dairy showmanship show on Friday, Sept. 17 starting at 11 a.m. Then there’s a Jersey and Holstein dairy show starting at 1 p.m. that same day.
But not enough. Then plan to attend on Saturday, Sept. 18 when there will be a junior Shorthorn and junior Hereford beef show, an open 4H beef showmanship show and a Shorthorn, Angus and Hereford beef show.
If you still haven’t seen everything you want to see, then return on Sunday, Sept. 19 for an open 4H beef showmanship show with a pre 4H beef showmanship show following and a Limousin and Simmental beef show.
But you are not a cow person – you like horses.
Read more: Cows, horses, sheep – Richmond Fair has it all
Super Ex has its swan song at Lansdowne
By Joanne Chianello, The Ottawa Citizen
After 122 years Super Ex is leaving its longtime home at Lansdowne Park. Will it survive the move?
Photograph by: Ashley Fraser, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — To talk about Super Ex is to talk about the past. It was where Ottawa residents first witnessed electric lighting, it attracted the likes of Bob Hope and Cary Grant — when he was a stilt walker still known as Archie Leach. Bob Barker came in the late 1970s and hosted both a matinée and evening show of The Price is Right. It had everything for everyone: agricultural displays and contests, big-name grandstand shows, a daily car raffle, exotic foods, consumer shows — a great place to see the newest in household appliances — and, of course, thrilling rides.
For decades it was the only venue for major concerts. When the Civic Centre opened in 1967 with 10,000 seats, it was the largest venue between Montreal and Toronto for almost 30 years.
Back then, people didn’t routinely fly to foreign destinations on holiday, there was no such thing as a “home show,” and Lansdowne was chock-a-block with buildings, making the Ex of yesteryear a very different experience.
Read more: Super Ex has its swan song at Lansdowne
Lineup shift fails to rattle Ramblin’ Jack
By Patrick Langston, The Ottawa Citizen
Ramblin’ Jack lived up to his name, entertaining the crowd with his stories almost as much as his songs Sunday afternoon at the Ottawa Folk Festival at Britannia Park.
Photograph by: Julie Oliver, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Folk music legend and veteran storyteller Ramblin’ Jack Elliott proved true to the foot-loose part of his name at the Ottawa Folk Festival Sunday night.
Elliott was scheduled to play the main stage right before the Jim Cuddy Band until the rain forced the closing of the main stage and a lineup shuffle. Cuddy wound up taking the stage after press time, while Elliott was shifted to an earlier slot in the dance tent.
No matter. At 79, Elliott is clearly unfazed by life’s vagaries.
Accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and playing to an attentive audience, he led off with San Francisco Bay Blues. Elliott then got into full rambling mode by playing a few notes from Reuben James, commenting on it briefly, then somehow segueing into Diamond Joe after explaining how he learned the song from a cowboy in Belgium and later taught it to Ian Tyson.
Read more: Lineup shift fails to rattle Ramblin’ Jack
Home-grown talent shines at FolkFest
More area musicians staying, becoming part of thriving music scene
By Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen
Jim Bryson (M), of Jim Bryson & The Weakerthans Band, performs during the annual Ottawa Folk Festival, held at Britannia Park, on August 14, 2010, in Ottawa, Ont.
Photograph by: Jana Chytilova, The Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa Folk Festival
When and where: Continues today at Britannia Park, starting at 10:30 a.m.
Information: 613-230-8234, www.ottawafolk.org.
Passes and day tickets: www.ottawafolk.org; 1-866-9-GET-TIX; or in person at the Ottawa Folklore Centre, Ten Thousand Villages in Westboro and all CD Warehouse locations.
OTTAWA — Acts from afar may have been the most buzzed-about at the Ottawa Folk Festival on Saturday, but it was the ones from home who anchored the proceedings, proving how much musical talent there is in Ottawa.
Arizona’s Calexico was the Saturday-night headliner, rising to the occasion with a terrific set of Latin-flavoured roots-rock. Other highlights of yesterday’s jam-packed program included the Celtic tunes of LAU, a Scottish folk group, the showmanship of Namgar, from Mongolia, and the extraordinary sounds that came from the voice of Tanya Tagaq, an Inuit throat singer.
Read more: Home-grown talent shines at FolkFest
Folk Fest begins bold new era
Indie rock, hip-hop feature as 17th edition of festival gets underway
By Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen
The Ottawa Folk Festival eased into its 17th edition last night with a diverse lineup that showed a bold new artistic vision for the annual event. Indie rock and conscious hip-hop took over the main stage at Britannia Park, while the folkier acts could be found in the dance tent across the field.
At the top of the bill was the veteran American hip-hop crew Arrested Development, who were scheduled to take the stage well past the deadline for this review. While they were probably one of the reasons there were more young faces in the park, in general, it looked like a smaller-than-usual opening-night crowd.
In trad-mad Ottawa, it’s possible that booking rap at the folkfest may have turned off more people than it attracted.
Read more: Folk Fest begins bold new era
It’s always easy being green
TRACEY TONG, METRO OTTAWA
More and more festivals are adopting green initiatives, but for the Ottawa Folk Festival, it’s always been second nature, the festival’s director told Metro recently.
“Environmental awareness has always been a part of that community,” said Dylan Griffith. “These festivals are about sharing and community and love of music, and there is always a sense of awareness in the community. Nobody wants a negative impact.”
This year, the Ottawa Folk Festival continues its bottled water-free initiative, said Griffith.
There will be no plastic water bottles sold or distributed on site, and instead, the festival returns its hydration stations so festivalgoers can refill their water bottles with the city’s clean drinking water.
Read more: It’s always easy being green
Community Garden
Sara Falconer, Ottawa XPress
Capital Pride parade 2009
photo: David R. Carroll, Flickr Creative Commons
Sponsored galas and corporate floats may be de rigueur at Pride, but there are still plenty of groups bringing grassroots action to the week of events. And since queer activists have a long history at the forefront of radical movements, on Aug. 21, a panel of speakers will explore “Queer presence in radical social justice movements.”
“It is true that Pride in a lot of cities is becoming more corporate,” Monika Thakker, one of the organizers of the event. “But I think that doesn’t capture all queer communities. There are lots of queer groups that have been working on social justice issues for a long time, but they may not be getting as much attention.” The panel aims to shed some light on those hard-working organizers, from groups including No One Is Illegal (NOII, nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com, noii-ottawa.blogspot.com), the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid in Toronto (CAIA, caiaweb.org) and the AIDS Committee of Ottawa (ACO, aco-cso.ca).
Read more: Community Garden
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