BJORK DOES THE BLUES Enigmatic Icelandic singer added to the headliner list
And fans seem satisfied with hard-hitting, eclectic lineup
Say you’re Grace Potter, the powerhouse singer of the upand-coming U.S. rock band, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. You can knock yourself out playing 100 club shows a year, and be lucky to get 100 people a night come out to see you. Twelve long months later, you’re burnt out, run down and your van needs major repairs. But hey, you might have 10,000 new friends.
Compare that to playing a major festival like Coachella, Bonnaroo or Ottawa’s RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest, where Potter played last year and generated a huge buzz with her knockout performance. When she comes back to this year’s festival on July 8, she’ll have the opportunity to play for 5,000 or 10,000 people in one shot, or maybe more if she ends up opening for that night’s mainstage headliner, Rush. If you were her, which type of gig would you prefer?
The potential for wide exposure is one reason that festivals have become such an important part of the concert industry in the last 10 years. As shown by Bonnaroo, the Nashville festival that sells out every year, if fans have a good time, they will come back. For them, the sooner the lineup is available, the better.
Bluesfest organizers felt the pressure from artists, managers and agents this year to confirm bookings earlier than usual. Historically, the lineup isn’t revealed until late April, with artistic director Mark Monahan filling slots up to the last minute. This year, however, he announced an eclectic and hard-hitting lineup this week, a full two months early, largely because a good number of the headliners fell into place before Christmas.
“Artists like Dixie Chicks and Zac Brown were super keen to get in the market,” Monahan says. “I think the whole festival circuit is really being recognized much more amongst agents and the industry. Everybody is really cognizant of how important it is to play festivals. That has changed in the last five or seven years.”
There was another, more personal reason the work got done early: Monahan quit smoking four months ago.
By cutting out his two or three cigars a day, the time that would have been spent on smoke breaks was channelled into working the phones. “You have a lot more time on your hands,” says the married father of four daughters. “That’s one of the reasons things are done. I’ve got to keep myself busy so I’d get on the phone.”
Of course, the lineup isn’t completely finished, but the preliminary list of artists that was announced on Wednesday, Feb. 27, is meeting the approval of the majority of music fans, even the blues stalwarts who supported the festival from its inception and felt alienated by last year’s electro-heavy program.
This year’s program ranges from B.B. King to Skrillex, with everything in between, including Dixie Chicks, Zac Brown, Rush, The Tragically Hip, Weezer, Great Big Sea, fun., Wu-Tang Clan, Mother Mother, Garland Jeffreys, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Passion Pit, Animal Collective, Ottawa DJ collective A Tribe Called Red, and many more. By the end of the day Wednesday, Icelandic goddess Björk was added as the opening night headliner on July 13, leaving just one mainstage slot (on July 4) left to be filled.
When all is said and done, more than 200 acts will make up the $5-million talent budget. This year’s festival will be held July 4-14 on the grounds of the Canadian War Museum, with a day off on July 9. The music runs on five outdoor stages and one cosy air-conditioned theatre inside the museum. Although it’s the 20th edition of the festival, the 20th anniversary won’t be marked until next year, when it will be a three-way celebration between Bluesfest, the Ottawa Folk Festival and the chamber-music festival. All three events began in 1994.
As for smoking, the proposed ban on lighting up has some fans threatening to boycott the festival. Monahan says the festival is striving to adhere to the municipal smoking ban, but smokers can be reassured by the fact that a zero-tolerance stance will be impossible to enforce. “This is the way things are going,” he says. “We’re trying to be sensitive to what the city and the National Capital Commission are moving toward. At the end of the day, eventually people are going to have to find another place to smoke.”
Bluesfest tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Feb. 28, through capitaltickets.ca. Until midnight March 1, early bird tickets are $195, available online only. Taxes are included, but surcharges are extra, depending on the ticketbuyer’s preferred delivery method. There are also three-day and five-day packages available, and a $99 youth pass.
Single day tickets and regular priced passports ($249) go on sale at 10 a.m. March 2, though Capital Tickets and in person at Compact Music and Sports Experts locations. For phone orders, call 613599-3267.
For more information, go to ottawabluesfest.ca.