Many people see Ottawa’s RBC Bluesfest as an excellent opportunity to catch some of their favourite musical acts roll through the nation’s capital on tour.
But the festival also does an excellent job at giving audiences the chance to discover what might be their next favourite band or artist—right in their own backyard.
Each year, the festival organizing committee gives an opportunity to musicians from around the city of Ottawa to perform on their stages.
“It’s a part of our mandate to do it, but it’s also an integral part of our programming,” Kelly Symes, a programming assistant with RBC Bluesfest, said.
“By giving them the chance to share the stage with international acts, it helps them grow their audience base.”
Symes detailed a selection process which the Bluesfest’s programming committee uses to decide which Ottawa acts get the chance to play.
Submissions begin around nine months prior to the festival, with the committee looking at elements such as whether the artist has released new material in the past six months, and whether they have played the festival before.
“We research how they look on stage,” Symes said. “We watch Youtube videos, and look in to how many live shows they play in Ottawa.”
One local act who took the stage at this year’s festival was Roberta Bondar, a self-described ‘noise rock’ four-piece. This was the band’s first time playing at Bluesfest.
“It’s pretty exciting,” guitarist Alex Maltby said. “They have been treating us very well. It is a very accommodating festival to play.”
“We applied to play and they said yes,” explained drummer Tyler Goodman, who was impressed with the simplicity of the application process. “I never assumed I was a good enough musician to play Bluesfest.”
Though many of the artists play on smaller stages around the festival, Symes doesn’t see the situation as smaller acts competing with headliners. Rather she said she sees it as an opportunity for the local acts to add to their own resumes.
“Putting that you’ve opened up for Alice in Chains, or shared the same day of a festival with BB King, it really does give you credit to your name,” she said. “I look at it as growing an audience. So if we did put a local band at 2 p.m., maybe people will come earlier in the day to hear some new stuff.”
Ultimately, Symes said, it’s important to showcase the local talent and the musical diversity of Ottawa.
“We have such a strong and extremely talented group of local bands who deserve to be showcased at a higher level,” she said. “We’re so proud of them and we’re so lucky to live in a city where we have the opportunity to provide them with a forum to play.”
—with files from Joe Ryan
