RBC Royal Bank Ottawa Bluesfest
| July 4, 2012 | to | July 15, 2012 |
This award winning, 12-day, multi-staged music extravaganza is the largest Blues Festival in Canada and ranks as one of the most popular music festivals in North America. Thousands of national and international performers are featured at the NCC festival site at LeBreton Flats Park, adjacent to the Canadian War Museum, in the heart of downtown Ottawa. The site is fully licensed and offers a wide variety of food concessions and an even wider variety of musical genres.
Our charitable activities include our annual Blues in the Schools program and new initiatives such as ongoing music lessons for Ottawa students in conjunction with the Ottawa Folklore Centre and our ‘Be in the Band’ mentorship program (ensemble training for younger musicians ages 12-17).
Festival Information:
General information: 613.247.1188
General information email: info@ottawabluesfest.ca
Location: LeBreton Flats (adjacent to the Canadian War Museum) 1 Vimy Place, Ottawa, ON
On the Web:
Website: www.ottawabluesfest.ca
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Cisco-Ottawa-Bluesfest/9971056370?ref=mf
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ottawabluesfest
Map:
[mappress]
Bluesfest and RBC Royal Bank Partner to Ensure the Music Plays On in the Nation’s Capital
[Source: Bluesfest press release]
Ottawa, December 2, 2011 – North America’s premier music festival, Bluesfest proudly announced its long-term partnership with RBC Royal Bank at a media event earlier today. The partnership ensures the music plays on for another five years in the Nation’s Capital and further strengthens RBC commitment to culture in Ottawa.
RBC Royal Bank has always shown a keen interest in cultural initiatives, supporting numerous organizations and events at a grassroots, national and global level. The new five-year partnership with Bluesfest further enhances their rich calendar of cultural and customer driven initiatives in Ottawa and its surrounding communities.
“RBC Royal Bank is proud to partner with North America’s premier music festival because we have two great things in common: we both continue to evolve to provide our customers with the best possible experience, and we are 100 per-cent committed to Ottawa from both a business and cultural perspective,” said Jeff Boyd, Regional President, Ontario North and East, RBC Royal Bank. “This is great news for our customers, for Ottawa and for RBC Royal Bank. We are delighted that RBC Royal Bank and our customers will now be able to benefit from this new partnership and we look forward to growing and enhancing the festival over the coming years.”
“This new partnership will ensure the festival can continue to operate as one of the biggest festivals in North America for many years to come.” said Mark Monahan, Executive Director, Bluesfest. “RBC Royal Bank’s long-term commitment to Bluesfest now allows Cisco to focus its sponsorship on technology enablement.”
Bluesfest was founded in 1994 and remains one of North America’s premier music festivals, continuing to play a prominent role in promoting the Capital Region on a global stage. The 2012 line-up will be announced on April 24th at the official launch event.
Bluesfest scales down plans for former Westboro church
Neco Cockburn, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — A 98-year-old church in Westboro might be converted into a Bluesfest office space and a community centre, but the project would not include a 400-seat music hall that was presented in previous plans.
Bluesfest executive director Mark Monahan said the concept for the former Westboro United Church has changed.
“We actually did all of the drawings and costed it out, and it just in our opinion was too ambitious a project,” Monahan said on Tuesday.
“It wasn’t clear to me that it would be viable or sustainable.”
Council’s planning committee is to discuss on Monday a zoning amendment that would allow the church to be used by the Ottawa Music Foundation as office space for Bluesfest and other music organizations, as well as for a community centre and community health and resource centre.
The church, at 450 Churchill Ave. North, near Byron Avenue, was built in 1913. Under the plans, additions at the back of the church building would be demolished and the rest of the site filled with 16 three-storey townhouse units and four “live-work/office/townhouse units” in a three-storey building, says a staff report to go to the committee.
Big Beat: EBA studio tour shows off everything from a wall of waxed bricks to plastic-bag dresses
Peter Simpson, The Ottawa Citizen
Enriched Bread Artists open house
When: Oct. 21-23, Oct. 28-30 (6 to 9 p.m. Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays). Vernissage: 6 to 9 p.m. Oct. 20
Where: EBA studios, 951 Gladstone Ave.
More: See more photos and a video tour of the EBA open house at www.ottawacitizen.com/bigbeat
OTTAWA — Was the terrible wind of July 17 — the same one that ravaged Bluesfest — being creative when it got over to Gladstone Avenue?
Was it making an artistic statement when it blew the roof off the building that houses the studios of Enriched Bread Artists? Something about deconstruction, perhaps, or was it just an attempt at irony? The wind did blow bricks off the roof of the one-time bakery and onto a woodworking shop trailer below, so it was brick-crushes-wood, like a cosmic game of rock-paper-scissors.
Sometimes you just don’t know why the bricks start to fly, but that’s not the case inside the re-roofed EBA studios, where at least one artist is making bricks of another sort: wax.
Compelling art rises from the disaster of Bluesfest stage collapse
Portraits of Bluesfest 3
What: A fundraising auction for the Blues in the Schools organization
When & where: 7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 9 at Patrick Gordon Framing, 160 Elm St. (near the City Centre)
More: See more images and a video tour of the art in Portraits of Bluesfest 3 at ottawacitizen.com/bigbeat
OTTAWA — Suddenly, there was no question what the prevalent theme would be in the paintings and photographs in Portraits of Bluesfest. In one terrible instant, many other themes were gone with the wind that crumpled the festival’s main stage like a cheap accordion.
It’s a small silver lining, but compelling pieces of art have risen from the stage that collapsed on the final night of Bluesfest 2011. A half-dozen of approximately 15 images created for Portraits of Bluesfest 3, the third annual fundraiser for the Blues in the Schools organization, are focused on the mighty wind that tore the main stage apart — which, of course, is the one memory from this year’s Bluesfest that people will remember for years to come.
Goin’ solo: With a new location and a new director, Folkfest is taking a new direction
Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen
The 18th annual edition of the Ottawa Folk Festival, taking place Aug. 25-28, marks the dawn of a new era for the grassroots event. Now run by the same people who organize Ottawa’s biggest summer music festival, Bluesfest, our cosy little folkfest is about to experience a growth spurt.
For starters, it’s taking place in a spacious new site at Hog’s Back Park, where there’s room for multiple stages and thousands of people. Naturally, a key part of the strategy to get people in the park and attract a new generation of festivalgoers is to spend more money on artists. Prominent American musicians like Bruce Hornsby, Steve Earle, Bright Eyes and Levon Helm anchor this year’s $500,000 lineup.
But, in a refrain that echoes the where’s-the-blues-at-Bluesfest lament, folk-music fans are wondering where the folk is. At a time when folk music is thriving and a new generation of musicians is exploring folk traditions, the amount of traditional folk music at this year’s festival seems limited.
Amos bringing new sound to Bluesfest
Jessica Cunha, YourOttawaRegion.ca
Kanata’s Amos The Transparent is set to rock Bluesfest this Saturday, July 16.
Playing on the National Bank stage, the timeslot of Amos’ performance has been moved to 6:30 p.m., from the scheduled 3:30 p.m. As of July 12, Bluesfest organizers had not updated the website with the new time for the band.
The band’s manager confirmed the time change, said Amos guitarist Dan Hay.
“We’re on at 6:30 now.”
Veterans of the major Ottawa music festival the band is excited about adding extra instruments to their set, even with the time change.
Read more on the Your Ottawa Region website: Amos bringing new sound to Bluesfest
Review: Huey, Frampton has boomers grooving
Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen
Huey Lewis and the News, Peter Frampton
Main stage, Sunday, July 10, 2011
Between Peter Frampton and Huey Lewis, the main field at Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest was a happy place on Sunday, packed with thousands of people of all ages grooving along to music they’ve known for most of their lives.
Both Frampton and Lewis are veteran artists who haven’t been to Ottawa in a couple of decades, and both delivered crowd-pleasing shows that left the vast audience wanting more.
But if one had to choose, Lewis was probably the favourite, simply because he has more hits that you can sing along to. Dressed casually, in jeans, a dress shirt and shades, the charismatic American cranked up the good times with the spirited party-starter, Heart of Rock ’n’ Roll, from their breakthrough 1984 album, Sports.
In case you haven’t been following the career of the News since then, they released a new album, Soulsville, late last year that pays tribute to the American soul music that first inspired them. From it, Lewis led the band through a knock-out version of Respect Yourself.
Read more on the Ottawa Citizen website: Review: Huey, Frampton has boomers grooving
Bluesfest Gallery – Day 6
Lebreton Flats was just as lively as ever during the weekend at Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest. The lineup included The Tragically Hip, Erykah Badu, Justin Nozuka, Shawn McDonald and some other fun acts.
Here are some pictures from Day 6 of Bluesfest by photographer Ming. To see more of his photos visit: http://photogmusic.com/
Review: On the Side Stages of Bluesfest
Something for everyone
Patrick Langston, The Ottawa Citizen
On the Side Stages
Bluesfest, Sunday, July 10, 2011
Who’s the best companion when you’re going to Bluesfest?
“Someone who’s adaptable,” said audience member Craig Conoley after Diamond Rings’ performance Sunday afternoon on the National Bank stage. His reason: “There’s so many different kinds of music here.”
Diamond Rings (Toronto artist John O) proved Conoley’s point.
Resplendent in mascara and lipstick, a pink tank top, and tight white pants, the solo artist plays everything from guitar rock to spacey stuff. It’s fun and infectiously danceable. In fact, dancing is what he did in an ungainly sort of way after setting his synthesizer on loop. How much of his performance is irony remains up for grabs.
Conoley’s choice of companion for the show, by the way, was solid.
Said his girlfriend Emmy Hillman, “I like all kinds of music.”
Sitting on the grass with a group of friends during Yukon Blonde’s performance at the same stage, Lorena Ruci said her vote went to “Someone who doesn’t get drunk in the first hour.”
Read more on the Ottawa Citizen website: Review: On the Side Stages of Bluesfest
