Living in the capital of Canada, (Ottawa, Ontario), the last thing you start to expect from your city is to be rich in the arts. I mean, with parliament a stone’s throw away from any part in the city, Ottawa is more about politics than it is about the arts. This summer is different, though.
Every July, the city puts on a 10 day music festival called Ottawa Bluesfest in which they bring many different musicians (not all blues, last years before they brought Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fergie, Wyclef Jean and Kanye West). Although there are usually 2 or 3 decent names on the bill, for the past 4 years, I have deemed the festival “not worth my time or money.” Again, this summer is different. With names like Andrew Bird, the B52s, Hole, Joan Jett, Metric, Passion Pit, the Flaming Lips, Arcade Fire, Drake, Stars, Jimmy Cliff and Weezer, the festival pleases audience of all kinds.
The festival began July 6th, starting the 10 day run with Iron Maiden, which I skipped out on and am happy to say that I did as from what I’ve heard they didn’t even play “Run for the Hills.” I started attending July 8th and went to six full nights up until the last night, July 18th.
To cover the festival as a whole, I most definitely had to write more than I could fit on this page, so by clicking the “more” link below, you can read all about my six days of hot weather, late nights and great music.
