With headliners such as Tiesto, Skrillex, and LMFAO, one might have been hard-pressed to find a legitimate blues act at the RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest. Festival organizers made no attempt to deny the fact that many of the acts were electronic-based, even going so far as branding the festival “Electro-fied” to appeal to certain audiences.
While the festival lineup was not without its share of blues artists, their names were overshadowed by those that might be classified as mainstream popular acts. When a name such as the Brothers Chaffey, a bluesy rock group, shines through, there appears to be hope for the festival as a showcase for the genre. That is, until you discover that they’ve been sequestered to the Rideau Centre stage, a good half an hour from the main festival grounds.
Approaching its twentieth year, the festival is not too old to rebrand itself. The festival should not have to have a genre-specific title considering the number of different styles the lineup includes. Festival boss Mark Monahan told the Ottawa Citizen that the Bluesfest business model guarantees that it will never be devoted to a single style of music. A genre-neutral name like Ottawa Summer Fest would suffice and the festival’s lineup would be more than enough to bring in the numbers.
At this point, re-naming Bluesfest after the extreme heat festival-goer experience might be more appropriate than trying to maintain it as one that revolves around a single genre.
