The recent Shania Twain concert at Ottawa’s Wesley Clover Parks should have been delayed and merged with Ottawa’s successful outdoor festival, RBC’s Royal Bank Bluesfest. Guests faced many issues that could have been easily resolved had the event been held at a different venue.
The event was held in late June at a horse ranch in rural Ottawa where guests were told to pay-to-park at various pickup locations across the city and take shuttle buses to the venue.
The outdoor venue was necessary as organizers expected crowds too large to contain within the Canadian Tire Centre (CTC). The final count was 24,000 people according to the Ottawa Citizen.
People came from across Ontario—I met people from Timmins, Thunder Bay, Lake Simcoe, and London all complaining about the same problems I was.
Getting to the venue was quite easy, as people arrived at staggered times and the buses could depart all day. But once I got there, I saw how many difficulties there were going to be, especially when everyone left the concert at the same time.
The issues started to occur around dinner time, when crowds of people decided they wanted food. The lines were hundreds of people long, and it was at least a 30 minute wait in line to get anything.
From then on the night only got worse. With a total of three beer tents, 24,000 people were waiting in line longer than an hour to get drinks. Some people went as far as “bribing” others $60 for two beers as a way to skip the line. From what I overheard, the kegs were empty before the end of the night.
If the event was held at LeBreton Flats Park, the crowd would have been able to disperse throughout the venue and wait times would have been shorter. When I went to Bluesfest, the longest wait was 20 minutes for a beer and that was immediately before Kanye West’s performance.
Multiple stages and increased variety in food and drink options made Bluesfest far more enjoyable. If Shania Twain was organized like that, the event would have been more pleasurable for everyone.
Wesley Clover Parks was extremely inaccessible, which proved difficult at the end of the night when crowds were waiting for shuttle buses. After watching multiple buses pull up and leave, many people in the crowd, including myself, decided to walk back to where we had parked our cars at the various shuttle locations.
We walked for two hours before managing to hail a cab and get the rest of the way to the CTC, where we learned that there were still people waiting in line for shuttles. This could have been avoided if the concert was held within the city where guests could have easily taken OC Transpo buses or cabs.
Even had it been impossible for Shania Twain to have been at Bluesfest, I’m sure LeBreton Flats Park would have been a superior venue where officials are used to managing large crowds.
