What do Shania Twain, Pitbull, Death Cab for Cutie and Mumford and Sons have in common? They’re all playing Ottawa Bluesfest 2023!
RBC Bluesfest
What started as a hopeful venture quickly became one of my most memorable nights of 2022.
Night five of Bluesfest welcomed Marshmello to the mainstage on Tuesday.
Day three of Bluesfest was completely packed for headliner, Luke Combs.
In addition to the cool acts, H2Ottawa is bringing a new element of refreshing taste to the festival. The U of O based H2Ottawa initiative will be selling reusable aluminium water bottles to attendees. Launched in March of this year, H2Ottawa’s goal is to educate the public about the issues related to access to clean water and the issues with plastic water bottles.
Irving and his bandmates have gained a lot of experience touring since their 2012 performance at Bluesfest, and as much as he says they love the intimate shows that they have been performing at, Irving says that “nothing can match hordes of screaming fans.”
Plans are already being drawn up so that the City of Ottawa can take full advantage of all the hate energy that will be generated by West’s performance.
This summer’s Bluesfest will be undergoing a radical thematic change now that event organizers are finally giving in to calls to incorporate more “blues” into the festival.
Living up to their slogan, “WE ARE FUN.”, the band never stopped giving it throughout the show, ending with an encore that continued even as a large part of the crowd started wandering out of the festival and towards home. Fun., visibly drenched in sweat, jammed well past 11 p.m., disregarding the city’s noise by-law and focusing solely on their audience.
If I had to guess, playing a show between Wu-Tang Clan and fun. on a rainy Sunday evening was probably never an item on Tegan and Sara’s bucket list.
