With large crowds pouring into LeBreton Flats every summer, Bluesfest consistently proves why it’s one of Canada’s top music festivals. However, there is always one question that remains unanswered: why is it still branded as a blues festival?
When Bluesfest first started in 1994, it was actually a festival for blues music, featuring blues headliners. In its earlier years, the festival welcomed Ray Charles, Clarence Clemons and B.B. King as headliners. Today, it’s a diverse music festival that presents headliners from a variety of genres, including rock, country, electronic, and hip-hop.
For comparison, festivals like the Montebello Rockfest and the Ottawa Jazz Festival have stuck to their respective roots. Ottawa Bluesfest looks a little more like the Festival d’Été de Québec (FEQ, or Quebec City Summer Music Festival). FEQ is a festival that prides itself on the diversity and variety of its featured artists. At this year’s FEQ, the 80,000 capacity main stage welcomed many former Bluesfest headliners, plus Camila Cabello, Neil Young and Alexisonfire.
No one is asking Bluesfest to go back to featuring only blues performers—but perhaps it’s time for Bluesfest to re-brand itself, so that its name reflects the diverse festival it is today, rather than what it was in 1994.
