Bluesfest

Lineup includes everyone from Steely Dan to Fergie

Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Organizers have come up with the word "funkalicious" to describe this year's Bluesfest program and its diverse lineup. Mainstage acts announced yesterday range from a black eyed pea to Great Big Sea.

Hiphop princess Fergie, indie sensation Feist and boogie-blues rockers Black Crowes, along with singer-songwriter James Taylor, disco queen Donna Summer, jazz-rock pioneers Steely Dan and the formerly reclusive rock legend, Brian Wilson, are also among the headlining artists confirmed to appear on the Bank of America mainstage at Bluesfest, which runs from July 3 to13 on the grounds of the Canadian War Museum. (Thanks to the Bank of America's recent takeover of MBNA, you'll be thinking of the stars and stripes when you're at the main stage of one of Canada's biggest music festivals.)

It's a terrific lineup, though perhaps not quite the blockbuster of last year, which included Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, the White Stripes and Kanye West. However, you don't have to delve too far into the 2008 program to find artists like Lucinda Williams, Primus, Akon, the Wailers, Johnny Winter, Richard Thompson and Metric on the side stages. That's where it gets exciting.

Last year Bluesfest drew huge crowds to the big shows, and set new records for attendance, with more than 300,000 people over 12 days. But some nights it seemed as if there was nothing much else going on beyond the main stage. There were whispers that organizers blew the budget on the big names, and plugged the holes in the side stages with whatever would fit.

That won't happen this year. The quality of side-stage acts is up considerably, partly the result of a pivotal decision that shifts the festival's focus from growth to programming. The reason? Executive and artistic director Mark Monahan says there were some illuminating statistics after last year's festival. First of all, he saw a "dramatic" increase in passport sales, from around 10,000 to around 15,000. Then, among passholders, there was a significant increase in the average number of shows attended, from seven to eight. "Looking at our research, we now know if you want to get a younger audience, or if you want to keep the audience, you have to have enough stuff on seven or eight nights that they want to go to," he says. "We're basically now in a position where we've got a wide demographic to please. So we've sort of tried to program against ourselves on certain nights."

Take opening night on July 3, for example, with secret machines and the Tragically Hip on the main stage, TV on the Radio on Rogers, Cassandra Wilson on Black Sheep, Taj Mahal on River and gospel kings the Blind Boys of Alabama on Roots.

Or, if you don't want to see Fergie on July 8, there's Boz Scaggs or Tokyo Police Club on the same night. Not a fan of Great Big Sea? Check out Theory of a Deadman, Metric or singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne instead on July 11. Never heard of Widespead Panic? No doubt you'll find something else of interest on July 6, with Primus, Johnny Winter and the Wailers on the other stages.

The budget for talent is up about half a million dollars, to about $3.5 million, and the extra money is being spread around all six stages. "We need a substantial amount of dollars to do that," says Monahan. "A couple of years ago, if we spent $100,000 on an act, we didn't have another 100,000 to spend on everything else. So we've expanded the budget so that if something came along, we could have a completely different demographic on the same night."

It's also a way to spread the crowd more evenly throughout the site, hopefully avoiding the huge throngs that clogged the main stage area last year. Fifteen years into the festival, the point is not to get too much bigger, but to nurture the existing audience.

"Given the growth we had last year, my hope is we'll grow marginally," says Monahan. "We want people to go and have a good time and not feel like they're jammed in. Our goal now is we've grown to a certain size and we want to look at it now and see how we can maintain that audience. There's always going to be opportunities to grow on certain nights."

One of the most significant changes to this year's festival is the addition of a sixth stage. The Roots stage will be tucked in between the River Stage and the Black Sheep Stage, on the north side of the museum, with space for a crowd of about 4,000. Among the artists booked to appear are Zappa Plays Zappa on July 5, the Wailers on July 6, Bette Lavette on July 7, Dr. John on July 8, Calexico on July 9 and Don MacLean on July 13.

Including the new stage, there were about 30 more time slots to be filled this year, bringing the total on all six stages to about 220. For Monahan and his core programming team of Paul Symes from the Black Sheep Inn and Revolution Rock promoter Shawn Scallen, the challenge was not only to fill the spots but also to keep in mind the demographic appeal and musical style of each act, plus the decibel level.

"I had to look at the timing of each stage so I'm not putting in a punk rock act that's blowing something else out of the water," Monahan says. "Hopefully over the years, you get a little better at it and you anticipate some of the problems from previous years, but it's never going to be perfect in terms of the sound bleed and people wanting to see acts that are scheduled at the same time.

"My approach is just give them more: give them more music."

© The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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Feist, Tragically Hip, James Taylor to play Bluesfest

Last Updated: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 | 11:07 AM ET

CBC News

Music veterans such as James Taylor and Steely Dan and newer stars such as Fergie and Feist are among more than 2,000 musicians who will share the six stages at Ottawa's annual summer music festival this year.

The Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest released its 2008 preliminary lineup Wednesday for the event that runs July 3 to 13 at Lebreton Flats.

The festival's 15th edition will include popular Canadians The Tragically Hip, Great Big Sea and Sam Roberts, other well-known musicians such as Brian Wilson, Donna Summer, and the Black Crowes, and popular indie bands such as Stars, The Weakerthans and Wintersleep, a news release announced.

Hundreds of other blues, rock, pop, R&B, soul, gospel and world musicians will play near and inside the Canadian War Museum over 11 days.

Tickets will go on sale on April 26.