Ottawa Folkfest still growing strong

This year’s edition of the Ottawa Folk Festival proved once again that a few good ideas, under the right management, can go a long way to achieving success. It’s true the festival industry has flourished in the last decade, with a lot of promoters throwing their hats in the ring, but it takes more than a large field and bunch of bands to succeed. Yes, the line-up crucial—it has to have wide appeal and include name recognition, but there’s more to it than that.  And yes, location important, it has to be accessible and it helps if it’s in a beautiful park, such as Hog’s Back, but there are other key pieces to the puzzle. “We decided to offer a more unique overall experience to our patrons this year, says the festival’s artistic director Mark Monahan. “The line-up came together nicely and seemed to resonate with music fans, but I feel what set us apart was the free side of the park, especially with the addition of our new Craft Beer House, which was  extremely popular.” The beer house offered a wide selection of craft beers from across Canada (with a Dutch brand included for good measure) and free live music. “We wanted to have a place where fans could meet up, listen to music, enjoy a beer, and generally have a good time. The response was great,” added Monahan. Festival organizers also introduced  a Food Truck Rally, a more interactive approach to workshop ‘sessions’ with some real star power, and brought back their popular KIDSZONE and Hill Stage, which featured some high-end performers, all free to the public at large. All in all, approximately 50,000 people showed up to enjoy some great late-summer festival activities and stellar music performances with stand-out sets by Foster the People, Lorde, Serena Ryder, The National, Blue Rodeo, Joss Stone, and even the Wiggles and Fred Penner to make it truly family friendly. “It was a lot of fun, but I have to admit it’ll be nice of take a couple of days off before we start working on next year’s RBC Bluesfest and Folkfest,” says Monahan. And likely, to start cooking up a few more novel approaches to staging two of Ottawa’s most popular events. Contact(s): AJ Sauve ajsauve@ottawabluesfest.ca (613) 247-1188 ext. 229 Joe Reilly joe.wavelength@sympatico.ca (613) 859-5797 Media Relations Team, RBC Bluesfest | Ottawa Folk FestivalAJ Sauve, Director of Media Relations RBC Bluesfest | Ottawa Folk Festival (613) 247-1188 ext. 229 | Toll free: 1-866-258-3748 ajsauve@ottawabluesfest.ca