THE STORY OF BLUESFEST

How a little music show became a juggernaut

It was the very first edition of the Ottawa Blues Festival, and things were not looking good.

After a day of rain, and shortly before showtime on Friday, July 8, 1994, there was a disappointing 60 or 70 ticketholders at the venue, Major’s Hill Park.

Some had bought the $4 advance one-day tickets, others waited until the last minute and paid the $5 premium price at the gate.

They were there for headliners Clarence Clemons, Buckwheat Zydeco and Randy Bachman.

The organizing committee, all volunteers, had hope but no expectations. They didn’t know whether the one-off series of weekend concerts would live beyond the first weekend and any smart betting person would certainly have wagered against longevity. That same year, Festival Franco and a Victoria Island festival had already crumbled under debt and public apathy.

But those $5 latecomers arrived in sufficient numbers to lift the atmosphere of impending doom and as the weekend progressed, the crowds grew.

Bluesfest had an inaugural budget of $100,000, half of which was earmarked for artist fees, the rest for infrastructure — stage, trailer and other equipment rentals. Some of the money they had raised, the remainder was in potential revenue.

It was typical, in that first threeday festival, and for subsequent early Bluesfest versions, for a portion of the artist fees to be paid from the beer money, with runs to the foreign exchange outlet at the Ottawa Airport for U.S. dollars in which many of the artists were, and are, paid.

How times have changed. Bluesfest’s 24th edition, which will kick off Thursday, will cost $17 million to stage.

In the early years, bigger name acts performed for $10,000 to $20,000. Until 2007, and the move to the current LeBreton Flats location, Bluesfest was paying headliners — none of them superstars — a maximum $200,000. The move to LeBreton meant a significantly larger site and the need to invest in acts with enough pull to pack the field. Look back at that 2007 lineup and you’ll find Kanye West, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and The White Stripes.

55%

Ottawans who have been to Bluesfest in past five years. 25,000-30,000 Average daily audience 300,000

Estimated # of beers consumed during festival

3,500

volunteers $150,000

Amount paid to local artists to date

ASHLEY FRASER The late Tom Petty closed out Bluesfest to a packed crowd in 2017. The festival has come a long way since 1994, thanks to Petty and other big name performers.

FILES Kanye West plays Bluesfest in 2007. Other big names at that year’s festival included Van Morrison and The White Stripes.