The Grassroots fest unveils lineup for its April shows
Ottawa Grassroots Festival unveils gender-balanced lineup
Ottawa singer-songwriter Lynn Miles, Yellowknife songstress Leela Gilday and homegrown troubadour Sneezy Waters are among the musical performers lined up for a gender-balanced edition of the Ottawa Grassroots Festival.
The four-day affair is essentially an indoor folk festival that takes place April 26-29 at Southminster United Church in Old Ottawa South. It begins Thursday, April 26 with a night of francophone music, featuring headliner Jean-Marc Lalone, best known as the accordionist for the traditional group La Ligue du Bonheur. Opening the show is singer-guitarist Marc-Antoine Joly.
On Friday, April 27, Waters and His Very Fine Band will take the spotlight, sharing it with powerhouse Dene singer Gilday, and two groups under the direction of Ottawa’s Alicia Borisonik. The One World Choir and the World Folk Music Orchestra for Kids are made up of musically inclined individuals of various ages who recently arrived in Canada.
Ottawa’s Juno-winning grand dame of songwriting, Miles, is featured in the Saturday-night headlining slot on April 28, performing with her longtime sideman, Keith Glass. She will also introduce six of her top students from the songwriting program at Carleton University. Algonquin elder Albert Dumont and Smiths Falls singer-songwriter Campbell Woods are on the bill, too.
Festival founder and producer Bob Nesbitt is proud of his efforts in not only presenting an equal number of male and female performers, but also in ensuring gender balance among the festival’s volunteers.
In an interview, Nesbitt said his desire for balance stems from his experience supervising a crew of about 40 volunteers for the former
I thought, ‘You know what?’ I know lots of women performers. So I started looking around and there’s so much good female talent around.
Ottawa Folk Festival at Britannia Park. Things went smoothly when there was roughly the same number of men and women on his crew.
“If there were too many men, they tended to discount the women,” Nesbitt said, noting that he never had an oversupply of female volunteers.
Extending the quest for balance to the lineup came in response to an offhand comment from someone who believed there weren’t many women in folk music.
“I thought, ‘You know what?’ I know lots of women performers so I started looking around and there’s so much good female talent around,” Nesbitt said. “That’s how it started.”
This year marks the seventh anniversary of the festival, which Nesbitt, a longtime folk-music fan, founded in 2012 as a reasonably priced, family-friendly alternative to the big summer music festivals.
Although the evening performances require a ticket, daytime programming is free. Performers during the day include Steve Palmer, Kate Weekes, Moonfruits, Greg Kelly, Mark Evenchick and many more, with a special talk/ performance by Gilday.
If you’re in the mood to participate, there are workshops on building an instrument, singing in a choir, learning to dance and playing in a jam session, or you can test your songs on the open stage. School-age children can have fun in the kids’ zone, while younger ones will be stimulated in a workshop aimed at toddlers and babies.
Evening tickets are $20 for Thursday, $25 for Friday and $30 for the Saturday night concert. A threenight festival pass is $49. Tickets and passes are available online at ottawagrassrootsfestival.com.
Children 15 and under are admitted free of charge.