blog post Searchlight Profile: Ottawa Bluesfest - Best Music Festival In Canada Finalist

The final push is on to see who will take the prized for Searchlight, Canada's Best Music Festival. To give you a sense of our ten finalist, we sent out questionaires to the remaining festivals. We'll post them as we receive them, so please check them out, and don't forget to VOTE!

How long has Ottawa Bluesfest been in operation?
SINCE 1994

What is the mission statement of your festival?
The mandate of the Ottawa Bluesfest organization is to provide a world-class event that showcases local, regional, national and international musicians.

What makes your festival site special?
The Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest is staged in a magnificent setting. The festival venue at LeBreton Flats Park (adjacent to the Canadian War Museum) is bordered by the tree-lined Ottawa River to the north and the Ottawa River Parkway to the south, minutes from the Parliament Buildings. By incorporating LeBreton Flats Park with the green space that surrounds the museum, the venue can comfortably accommodate an increasing number of fans. In 2009, approximately 300,000 people attended the 12-day event.  

The festival site provides unobstructed views of all stages in a picturesque environment, with an additional stage that showcases acoustic acts in the Canadian War Museum’s state-of-the-art theatre. The site also allows us to have two large stages on NCC property between the War Museum and the Ottawa River Parkway, with a capacity of 40,000. These stages feature alternating acts and allow patrons a view of both stages at any given time. To augment these views in 2009, festival organizers place six Jumbotron-like ‘big screens’ on-site to broadcast the on-stage entertainment throughout the festival site. This is much appreciated by fans who enjoy roaming around the park-like setting. Along with the two main stages, Bluesfest offers three additional outdoor stages along with the museum's Barney Danson Theatre. The festival site map is available on the Bluesfest website: www.ottawabluesfest.ca under ‘VISITOR INFO’.

What is your favourite festival moment of the past?
Standing on the roof of the bunker-like Canadian War Museum on opening day (2007) watching Van Morrison perform in front of an extremely appreciative, capacity crowd. This was the first day of programming at our new festival site.

Name one artist that is playing this year?
Although we are not at liberty to announce any acts until April 21st, our track record speaks for itself; some of our past headliners include: Al Green, Ben Harper, Black Eyed Peas, Blue Rodeo, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Bryan Adams, Dan Aykroyd & Jim Belushi, Down From the Mountain Tour, Feist, James Brown and many more.

Why should we vote for your festival?
The Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest should be deemed Canada's Best music festival because our  world-class programming has given the festival a tremendous opportunity to gain larger audiences for emerging Canadian artists. These Canadian artists are seen by a wider audience (often in the tens of thousands) whereas they'd rarely have this kind of exposure in the early stages of their careers. This is one of the key cornerstones of our Artistic Vision: accessing audiences generated by international artists to showcase important and deserving Canadian artists from a wide range of genres.

[Photo courtesy Ottawa Bluesfest]