CAUTIOUS APPROACH
Festival organizers getting ready
As major events around the world dive headlong back into the business of juggling crowds and live acts, the key festivals in Ottawa are approaching the rest of the summer with caution, their efforts hampered by the slow rollout of Ontario's reopening plan.
“The problem was the announcement from the province about Step 3 came just a little bit too late for some of the festivals to do shows,” said Lee Dunbar, director of research and communications for the Ottawa Festival Network.
“The planning cycle for festivals is months, not days or weeks, and since the beginning of the year festivals really didn't know what they would be planning for in terms of capacity.”
When surveyed on their plans, most festival directors who are conjuring in-person activities for this year's summer season say they're playing it safe. If they're planning something, it's likely to be a scaled-back show or hybrid event that encompasses both in-person and livestream elements.
So far, just one event, the Escapade Music Festival, the electronic music festival that appeals to a younger demographic, is planning to go as big as regulations allow, but it will require proof of full, double-dose vaccination (or a single dose and a negative COVID test) to attend. To make it easy for fans to get the shot, the festival is co-hosting a pop-up vaccination clinic on Saturday at the Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Park.
Although Chamberfest, which starts Friday, and the Ottawa Jazz Festival have come up with plans for robust hybrid events, it's too late for Bluesfest, which usually happens in July, and things don't look promising for CityFolk, usually scheduled in mid-September.
“It's very difficult to plan something of any magnitude at this point in time,” said Mark Monahan, executive director of both Bluesfest and CityFolk. His office also runs the Festival of Small Halls, which will be announcing a fall concert series soon.
“What happened was in the States they opened up, and here we didn't, so the uncertainty around the border and the different steps just did not allow us to plan because the artists were basically saying, `If you can't guarantee it, we're just going to go somewhere where they can.' So we decided we're not going to reschedule anymore until we know for sure we can do it,” Monahan said.
With those two staples of the summer season sidelined, that leaves Chamberfest, Escapade and the Ottawa Jazz Festival as the city's major festivals this year. Also a contender is the Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival, set for Sept. 2-6 at La Baie Park, featuring performances by top Quebec acts. Site capacity will be limited to 5,000 people for the evening shows, and 800 for the matinee performances.
For Jazzfest, its shape-shifting plan has settled on a hybrid model, with a virtual concert series as well as a free, live, in-person series that will take the festival back to its traditional home at Confederation Park from Aug. 19-22, after infrastructure updates in the park forced the festival to move across the street to Marion Dewar Plaza in 2019.
“It's not the free-for-all we had hoped for when Step 3 came into effect,” said Jazzfest director Catherine O'Grady. “There are enormous protocols that still have to be observed with the live stuff. It's turning out to be quite complicated.”
Among the restrictions are capacity limits, masking requirements and the need to reserve tickets in advance, even though admission is free.
O'Grady expects to accommodate about 500 fans in the park, a number that's well short of its 5,000 capacity but allows for plenty of physical distancing. The in-person shows in the park will feature an array of Ottawa-area talent, while the virtual concerts, which are ticketed, include marquee performances by Kathleen Edwards, Larnell Lewis Band, the Barr Brothers, Socalled and more.
As previously announced, Chamberfest has adopted a hybrid model, too, patterned after the success of its fall-winter concert series, which broadcast live concerts from the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre and allowed a certain number of audience members if health regulations permitted.
Festival director Carissa Klopoushak was elated when Step 3 came into effect in time for Chamberfest, which starts Friday and runs until Aug. 4. Under Step 3, regulations allow for indoor shows with up to half of a venue's capacity, to a limit of 1,000.
“We were counting on it being a leaner, simpler year,” Klopoushak said, “so this feels like gravy at this point.”
The chamber-music festival features intimate performances of classical music and, in the case of the Chamberfringe series, more eclectic musical styles, including the Afro-Cuban rhythms of OKAN and Montreal's Infusion Baroque. Chamberfringe shows take place outdoors at Club SAW, while other concerts happen in four locations across the city, from the Dom-Chalm centre to The Record Centre to the Beechwood Cemetery. Still more events take place online.
Meanwhile, the trend that's energizing festival directors and promoters is the demand for tickets. Whether it's a drive-in movie night, a dinner and show or an upcoming club gig, people are snapping up tickets as the vaccination rate increases.
“Our community is well vaccinated and it's giving people confidence,” Monahan said, pointing to the demand for the upcoming Chef's Table series, a partnership between Bluesfest/Small Halls and the National Arts Centre that features bands playing on a boat for an audience of people enjoying a dinner on the terrace of the NAC. Five shows have been added, for a total of 17 performances in August and September.
“When you look at the macro picture on this thing, people have not been able to buy any services. They haven't been able to go out. They've been sitting at home doing everything online and everybody is sick of it,” Monahan said. “Given an opportunity to go out, people are taking advantage of it.”
There are enormous protocols that still have to be observed with the live stuff. It's turning out to be quite complicated.