Osheaga Music Festival

[dannyboy]

So I spent the large majority of my day standing at Osheaga in Montreal on Saturday. It was honestly one of the best experiences of my life. So many awesome bands played and the crowd was on fire with their energy. Owen's individual set was still marvelous (of course), but the sound tech f'd up the sound so it was terribly mixed and Owen couldn't hear himself or Thom. Owen was pissed, but we still had fun. He announced a new 12" coming out soon with Scandal on it so that was a welcome proclamation. The best part of it all was seeing Arcade Fire play most of Funeral, a couple of Neon Bible and a few new songs, all with Owen on stage playing right along! My life was literally complete. If anyone was also there, I want to know thoughts on anyone's set or how Sunday went. I've been looking for reviews of the weekend but I haven't really found too many good ones.

[emilypoulain]

I also attended, but was unfortunately underwhelmed by the experience. In my opinion it was badly organized- the staff was argumentative and the performers on the small stages seemed to have been stuck with completely incapable sound guys. Therefore, the music took a back seat to almost everything else which was frustrating. The Arcade Fire was brilliant, truly, but that was only by their own creation and was not due to the festival at all. I'm glad I attended because truly, the Arcade Fire was beautiful, but Osheaga as an event was a big disappointment.

[dannyboy]

pahaha wouldn't it be funny if you were the only one who responded?

[ben]

Err Scandal on a 12 inch? SCANDAL ON A 12 INCH??

[sakalamp]

osheaga was great.

owen's set was still good despite these problems. the weather was perfect, good array of performers, and tons of interesting people to watch. couldn't really ask for more.

Arcade fire was spectacular and the fireworks on parc jean drapeau were the highlight of the evening.

[exitsign]

Osheaga made me want to be a festival hippie for all summer, every summer. And I agree, Owen's set was still impressive despite the issues with the sound and his point about not really being a festival band (no "I say Meh, you say Bleh" bits, ha). Sound problems seemed to be an underlying issue across the festival, which is unfortunate. I thought Torq (of Stars) was going to beat up the sound guy right on stage - his looks could kill.

Anyway, my favourites apart from Owen were probably Hannah Georgas, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, We Are Wolves, and Arcade Fire (naturally - it was exciting to be able to see Owen play with them and it was just one giant all-singing-all-dancing party with the aforementioned lovely fireworks).

[slymouse]

I had a great time at Osheaga. I give all my sympathy to the bands and their struggle with the sound crews. Ra Ra Riot will be my own "new" discovery from this weekend. Montreal looks to be a great city and hopefully the line up next year will be just as good, because I'm already planning to go back. Maybe Owen will give them the benefit of the doubt and sign on for next year as well.

The Arcade Fire set blew me away! Considering the last time I saw them in NYC (3 years ago) Win was sick with flu and the crowd was less than excitable. Maybe because we were all afraid to scream and shout in a church? I dunno...
But has anyone else heard a story like this? I found a copy of "The Suburbs" at Osheaga, propped up against the wall on the bridgeway. Did Arcade Fire plant copies of their album around the grounds?

And what about the new look on Owen? It makes him look much older and serious IMHO. I don't think he looks bad with facial hair. But it is different.

[yesanastasia]

I would also describe myself as "underwhelmed" by Osheaga, but I'm beginning to wonder if I've just been spoiled by small, volunteer-run fests, and this is just the reality of large, for-profit events.

I went last year too, and didn't particularly enjoy it then either - the lineup this year convinced me to break my pledge never to go back.

Osheaga's organizers are certainly able to bring together a great bunch of acts, but I feel that they really fail at the execution. The sound problems were incredibly frustrating, the communication with festival attendees was horrible, and the festival set up isn't really designed to deal with the volume of people that attend.

I'd be really interested to know how Osheaga stacks up against some of the big festivals in the states (Coachella, Bonnaroo etc.)

For anyone else left cold by Osheaga (and hey, those who enjoyed it too!) : come to Hillside in Guelph next year! This was my second year attending there too, and perhaps it's Hillside's amazingness that causes me to judge Osheaga so harshly.

[Ren]

yesanastasia: I was at Hillside this year too! I think there really is something to the small/volunteer-run thing being more amazing than the large/for-profit thing. Ottawa Bluesfest wasn't anything so great as Hillside or the festival I was at this past weekend, Electric Eclectics.

Anyway, I want to go cross-Canada festival hopping next summer: what are people's favourite festivals?

[dannyboy]

This was my first big festival that I've ever been to and I really had a good time. I enjoyed the crazy atmosphere (at least until 11:30 when we were trying to leave) but I agree with yesanastasia's comment about how unorganized the whole thing seemed to be. We wanted to put our bags in the bag check but apparently you could only do this as you were coming in and the side we came in on didn't have bag check. The security guy (or should I say kid) was less than helpful about our problem and no one could help us. And as we were trying to leave, there was NO organization about how to put everyone on the metro in a timely and orderly fashion. But overall, a fun time in Montreal.

[emyli]

The only big festival I've ever been to was Sasquatch. I saw some amazing shows there, but the way it was run was so obviously for-profit that it made me furious. When you bought one of their ridiculous $4 bottles of water, they took the cap so you couldn't re-fill it. Once you were in the festival for the day, there was no re-entry, so you couldn't even go back to camp to rest or eat or anything.

Last weekend I went to a tiny, free, all ages all local volunteer run festival and it was a huge amount of fun, even though I'd never heard of most of the bands.

[dannyboy]

Oh Sasquatch, how much I've heard. I would love to move out to Portland after college and switch coasts. The east coast has worn me out.

[yesanastasia]

Ren : Glad to have a fellow Hillside fan here!
re: your question - I've never been to Sappyfest, but I think if I were planning a cross-country festival trip, I would try to go. I've heard really good things!
London (the wrong London, that is) has a lot of decent festivals too, if you're interested in staying localish. I go to Sunfest (world music - July), Home County (folk - July) and LOLA (indie music - September) every year, and they're all usually pretty high quality (and free!)

Danny - Those were a lot of the same problems I found, both this year and last. I really don't like the fact that the security staff are the only people around to talk to about problems and questions. The fact that the bag-check is located outside (one of multiple!) gates at a festival with no in/out privileges is another really good illustration of how unfriendly the whole affair is for attendees. That having been said, I'm really glad you had fun!

Emyli - I remember running into that awful no-lids issue at a lot of shows and festivals back in the day (so frequently I used to carry an assortment of different sized lids in my purse, actually). I'm relieved that this has let up a bit in recent years (at least in Canada) due to various environmental initiatives. Yay progress!