THE BASICS OF BLUESFEST
Drive-in concert series set to begin
In Scott Pollard’s 40 years in the live-event business, the only thing that comes close to reminding him of this summer’s pandemic-proof edition of Bluesfest was the SARS benefit in Toronto with The Rolling Stones, which took place on July 30, 17 years ago.
“I was very involved in that and I would say there are a lot of parallels,” said Pollard, who is Bluesfest’s longtime technical director. “I mean, we had 429,000 people come to see it but the impetus was similar. The big thing this time is that everybody is directly involved by COVID-19 and everything is shut down, whereas with SARS, the only people really affected were in the entertainment industry in Toronto. We put on a hell of a concert and the world watched.”
During the SARS crisis, Pollard recalls a climate informed by similar health and safety considerations, economic fallout and political oversight.
Pretty much everything else is radically different, starting with the fact that audience members will be watching the five-concert series from their cars and tuning in to an FM frequency to hear music by Canadian artists such as Sam Roberts, Tim Hicks, Patrick Watson and more. With space for up to 440 automobiles on the site at Zibi’s Place des festivales in Gatineau, the numbers will be far less than the tens of thousands who normally attend Bluesfest concerts, even if each car is packed to the max.
Thousands more, however, are expected to tune in to the live broadcasts on Facebook. Co-presented by the National Arts Centre and its #CanadaPerforms initiative, the livestream makes it feel more like setting up a TV show than a concert, Pollard notes. It’s important to keep the action running smoothly to avoid gaps in the broadcast and ensure the lighting design is suitable for the cameras.
“One difference is to make sure the camera always has a great shot,” Pollard said. “If it looks good on TV, it looks good for everybody.”
As for the sound, without a P.A. system, the decibels emanating from the two stages are minimal, avoiding cause for concern about the noise bylaw and eliminating the appeal of watching the show from outside the gates (you won’t be able to hear anything). Neither is there a need for rows of speakers hanging from the stage or even a huge front-of-house sound tent. Instead, engineers will be watching on a video monitor and mixing the show from a trailer.
Up to 200 people, including subcontractors, are working the concert series, most of whom haven’t had work in more than four months, ever since the pandemic was declared a global health crisis and the live-event industry shut down. About 100 volunteers are also involved.
“It was a little slow the first day for everybody to get in the groove. Everybody looked at each other to figure out who does what,” Pollard said. “But by 2 p.m. it was like any other day with COVID-19 protocols in place.”
The crew is adapting well to the requirements, both technical and safety-related, he added, and thankful to have the gig.
“Every one of them has said, ‘Thanks for having us,’” Pollard said. “It’s not the usual three or three-and-a-half weeks of work, but it’s something. I think there’s way more gratification at being able to do something, although obviously everybody’s happy about getting some money, too.”
Meanwhile, other members of the Bluesfest team have been dealing with the logistics of parking hundreds of vehicles, as well as answering a slew of questions about the event, including the fundamental nature of it. People want to know if it’s a drive-in or a concert.
“By calling it a drive-in, people don’t think of it as a concert, they think of it as a movie,” said Mark Monahan, Bluesfest’s executive director, attributing some of the confusion to Garth Brooks’ June 27 drive-in concert experience, which found the country superstar performing a live show that was streamed to 300 drive-in theatres in North America.
At the Bluesfest Drive-in, the artists are performing in real life on one of the two side-by-side stages, and are thrilled to do so. Toronto singer-songwriter Julian Taylor, who plays Friday’s opening night, says he’s “stoked” to be part of music history, while Saturday night headliner Sam Roberts predicts it will be his defining memory of the summer of 2020.
“It’s going to be so completely out of the box that it will just naturally exist in its own space in our minds and our memories,” Roberts said in a recent interview.
Monahan is also keen to see the response to the livestream, curious if it could become another revenue stream for festivals in the future.
“Everyone is doing a virtual event or some version of it, and we’re also looking at that. I remember watching Coachella or Lollapalooza years ago but the streaming wasn’t that great, and it generally wasn’t the headliner. This COVID thing has really shone a light on how to do it well,” he said. “Maybe that’s something that could come out of this, and potentially be another part of the business for us in the event industry."