Ottawa festival season do’s and don’ts

 If you’re like me, you totally love eating uncooked Beeferoni with peanut butter coated celery sticks. Annnd, you also live for festival season! The sunshine, all the live tuneage, the discovery of a new artist, the lawn chairs…  Umm, wait, maybe not those.                                                                                                                             Each year our O-town festivals just seem

It’s Festival City Time Again! Here Are Some Summer Concert Picks to Get You Started

 Ahh, the beginning of June….that snow mountain in the South Keys parking lot is nearly melted away, the pigeons are cooin’ up a racket on my balcony and crews start unloading trucks to build the stages that transforms Ottawa into a summertime Festival City once again. If the O-town festival

Security a Concern for Bluesfest Attendees

 Photos by Andre Gagne / Feature photo: Gatecrashers stopped by Ottawa Police at RBC Bluesfest, 2017 You would think that, given the country of origin, larger beer selection might top the list of wants for the thousands of music-loving Canucks that descend upon RBC Bluesfest each July. However, when over

Ottawa’s Top Concerts of 2017

 Photos by Renée Boucher Doiron, Kamara Morozuk, Sean Sisk, Dan Nawrocki and Andre Gagne As a live music junkie, 2017 in Ottawa was a near endless buffet slathered in awesome sauce! Along with the usual crop of fests and club shows, the city brought in even more concerts to celebrate the country's

And the Ottawa Life Award Goes to…

 FOR 20 YEARS OTTAWA LIFE MAGAZINE has been reporting on the best the Nation’s Capital has to offer. This year, on our milestone anniversary, we wanted to show our appreciation the restaurants, festivals, hotels and people who put the life into Ottawa. In the summer we posted 20 Best Of

Busty and The Bass Puts the BIG in Big Band

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Hamish Anderson Stays out of Trouble

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Lightning Crashes Bluesfest

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Bluesfest Spotlight: Clothing the Volunteers

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Flume Blooms in the Shadows of Migos & Lil Yatchy

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Bluesfest Day 6 Side Stage Recap

 Last night, Albuquerque’s The Shins hit the Claridge stage at 7:55. James led the way with the last of the original ‘Shins essence’. All members uniquely present in comfy-casual attire to commit to the band’s neutral character. For the first few songs, the overcast sky held-off, and then began to

Be In The Band Has Kids Rocking

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Jake Owen’s Barefoot Bluesfest Night

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Anderson East Keeps The Fire Burning

 Young artists like Anderson East are a rarity more than ever. Studying music engineering in school and moving to Nashville, he set himself up for a strong career, and it's paid off well. Taking in fans from just about every Southern genre, his soulful music has earned the respect of

Gabrielle Shonk: More Than Just A Voice

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

50 Cent Makes Bluesfest Get Up

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Bluesfest Preview: Q&A with High Valley’s Brad Rempel

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Etheridge Stax Up the Soul at Bluesfest

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Moore / Mustard at Bluesfest

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Bluesfest Goes Country!

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

In Focus: Festival Photography

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Bluesfest’s Local Flair – Part 1

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals and events! Like a good sunscreen,

Ottawa events to look forward to this summer

 Ottawa Life’s Festival City Series is back! We'll provide a unique look at some of your favourite events. We’ll go beyond the music with artist interviews, volunteer profiles, concert reviews and spotlights on the tastes, sights and sounds of the festival season.  Your city! Your festivals! Like a good sunscreen, Ottawa Life

Ottawa Honours Its Own

 Photos by Andre Gagne As many gathered in front of televisions, inside local pubs and at a sold out Canadian Tire Centre across town as the Sens readied for round two of the playoffs, the setting sun cast amber hues over the Capital’s most iconic landmark. A few blocks away

Invitation to the Blues

 Photos courtesy of Blues & Company Before 1993, Kevin Ficzere was living a regular life filled with bills to pay, kids to raise and work to do. Then he got the blues. First he found a guitar God. A still self-professed Hendrix junkie, Ficzere discovered the legend in the late