The Ottawa Folk Festival is attracting younger audiences this year with artists like Dallas Green, who performed with City and Colour Aug. 26, festival spokesperson AJ Sauve said.
The band joined the likes of Hawksley Workman, Bright Eyes, Serena Ryder and Steve Earle to form one of the more eclectic and diverse mixes of acts the festival has seen in its 18 years, Sauve said.
While the older base audience is taken into account, the festival needs to appeal to youth in order to develop its audience, Sauve said.
City and Colour played an hour-long set to a largely young crowd on the main stage at Hog’s Back Park and helped attract 4,000 people that night.
“There’s more diversity in our programming this year certainly,” Sauve said. “Diversity is the order of the day, more inclusive programming, and it seems to be very successful.”
In the first three days, festival attendance was already at 17,000, surpassing the expectation of 15,000 for the four-day festival, Sauve said.
“The Folkfest was teetering with debt at the end of last year’s festival and Mark Monahan [executive director and artistic director of Bluesfest] decided to step in with an offer to the Folkfest to help with the financing and the programming,” Bluestfest and Ottawa Folk Festival media representative Joe Reilly said in an email.
This year, the festival has been able to bring in big acts like City and Colour and Bright Eyes that appeal to a younger demographic as well as Bruce Hornsby and Steve Earle, due the programming budget increase from about $150,000 to almost $500,000, Reilly said.
Another change at the festival to make it more accessible to youth and all audiences with a venue change from Britannia Beach to Hog’s Back Park, Reilly said.
“The Folkfest had been at Britannia Park for 16 years and I think the feeling was that it was time for a change. The Festival was going through a metamorphosis this year under new directions so changing the venue now made sense,” Reilly said.
Green recently underwent his own changes as he split with Alexisonfire several weeks ago in order to focus on City and Colour, having put out Little Hell in June, according to Spinner magazine.
Taylor Johnston, a third-year environmental studies student who said he has been a fan of Green’s since first hearing Alexisonfire said he wasn’t surprised Green was having trouble juggling two bands and a new marriage.
“Something was bound to give, in hindsight,” he said.
Despite some fans’ dismay, Johnston said he has no doubt Green will continue producing high-quality work.
“City and Colour never loses sight of what makes them a band, which is meaningful songs, dynamic instrument arrangements, and falsettos that would make Rebecca Black question which day comes after Friday,” Johnston said.
City and Colour began their folk fest set on the main stage with “Bring Me Your Love.” Green played several songs off of Little Hell but hits “Comin’ Home” and “Waiting” off of his older albums are what had the crowd cheering and singing along.
“It’s always nice to come and play these kinds of festivals,” Green said between songs, “They always have wonderful, wonderful vibes.”
