The second Everybody Love Everybody, (ELE), festival kicks off Sept. 26 with an MMVA winning headliner and no cover charge.
The festival aims to promote young, local musicians.
“I noticed that there was a big gap between playing a show at a local bar and between playing Bluesfest or Folk Fest or some of the city’s bigger music festivals,” says Sean Callaghan, festival co-founder and Director of Operations. “I wanted to create something that was a stepping stone, that would enable local musicians to gain the experience and credibility they would need to perform at, say, Bluesfest.”
Callaghan explained similar events, like battle of the bands, sometimes give preference to whichever acts sell the most tickets.
“I wanted to make something that was less competitive in nature and more about bringing the Ottawa music scene together.”
The festival is also committed to featuring artists from a variety of genres rather than focusing on only one style of music.
“Luckily, there’s tons of different performers, who are in a whole gamut of genres that apply for the festival. Especially this year,” Callaghan went on to say that organizers had to seek out performers for last year’s inaugural festival. “But this year we had over 100 applications.”
Festival co-ordinators also encourage collaboration between performing artists.
“We kind of need the bands to be from various genres, because if we have two rappers collaborating it’s not really as interesting—in our minds at least,” Callaghan said.
He said growth since last year has enabled the addition of a headliner—SonReal, a young rapper from Vancouver. This year, he won the 2014 MMVA MuchFact Video of the Year Award for his video to “Everywhere We Go,” his 2013 single.
He has also been nominated for two Juno awards and five 2014 MMVA’s. Though Callaghan suspects it won’t be possible this year, he hopes to eventually have headlining acts mentor local artists in order to foster growth in the community.
All proceeds from the sale of merchandise go to the Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Support Program, a charity that provides services to children with cancer and their families. Callaghan said the program’s commitment to helping youth, “struck home with us, so we decided to work with them.”
The festival takes place on Sept. 26 from 3-11 p.m. at 603 Cumberland St. near the University of Ottawa campus.
