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Tottenham Bluegrass Festival
The Tottenham Bluegrass Festival (Tottenham, ON) June 19-21, is three days of Bluegrass Music in the natural amphitheater of the Tottenham Conservation Area, by the waters of the village pond.
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Artist Spotlight: Les Petites Nouveax
Les Petits Nouveaux is a jazz ensemble who’s music is inspired by the legendary guitarist, Django Reinhardt. While many artists have taken to interpreting the classics of this genre known as Jazz Manouche, Les Petits Nouveaux’s goal is to incorporate modern influences and to bring a fresh sound to a genre that is often approached with traditionalism. Les Petits Nouveaux’s humble beginnings can be traced to the halls of Humber College, where many students discovering their love of Django Reinhardt formed an ensemble to perform his music. Many years have since past, and the spirit of the ensemble now lives on beyond the confines of the institution. Now Les Petits…
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DIY Spring Festival
DIY Spring Festival (Ottawa, ON) June 5, promotes, supports and celebrates the work of emerging Black, Indigenous and racialized artists in the Ottawa area through an annual music and arts festival.
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Artist Spotlight: MONOWHALES
Fueled by a passionate desire to create a sound as unapologetic and powerful as the personalities within the band, MONOWHALES have taken the experiences gained fighting their way up the ranks of Toronto’s music scene and barrelled headlong into the creation of their new EP Control Freak. Exploding onto the scene with a DIY ethos and an unforgettable live show, MONOWHALES first made waves with their breakout single Home in August 2016. The band would go on to share stages with Dear Rouge, K.Flay, Matt and Kim, Coleman Hell, and many more. The band’s new EP Control Freak, released in June 2018, was produced by AL-P (MSTRKRFT, Death From Above…
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Ottawa Grassroots Festival
The Ottawa Grassroots Festival (Ottawa, ON) April 23-26, is a family-friendly, volunteer run, not-for-profit music festival - a joyful celebration that will launch you into Spring!
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Winter Folk Camp
Winter Folk Camp (Haliburton, ON) is 6 amazing performers/instructors, 3 days of music workshops, 3 nights of song circles and jam sessions, 2 concerts, 1 site with great food, and outdoor activities
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Artist Spotlight: Laila Biali
Multi award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter and pianist Laila Biali has toured with Chris Botti, Paula Cole, Suzanne Vega and Sting. She has headlined festivals and venues spanning five continents including Carnegie Hall. Her accolades include a 2019 JUNO Award for “Vocal Jazz Album of the Year”, “SOCAN Composer of the Year” and “Keyboardist of the Year” at Canada’s National Jazz Awards, a JUNO nomination for her studio recording Tracing Light, and a spot on DownBeat Magazine’s “Best Albums of the Year” list for her follow-up Live in Concert. In 2015, Laila released her first album of entirely original music, House of Many Rooms – an indie-pop project featuring a star-studded lineup…
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NXNE PRESENTS A SAUSAGE FESTIVAL
From a piece I wrote for Electric City Magazine: “The Canadian music industry is a diverse, varied place, but you wouldn’t know it from the endless parade of white guys with guitars wanking across the festival stages and conference panels of the nation. Over the past month, NXNE have been releasing the lineup for their Portlands festival, and the list, while appearing more racially diverse with the most recent release, is still very dude-heavy. With three women-fronted bands and one genderqueer artist out of 16 total acts released so far, I have to ask: where the fuck are the women, NorthBy?” Read the rest at Electric City Magazine.
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Music City – A strategy
The points I’ve included below – headlined ‘A Strategy for Music Peterborough‘ – was created with my hometown in mind, but swap out a few names and organizations and this would be useful in any city to frame the way you approach different sectors with a view to creating a cohesive push to highlight music (or, I think, almost any local art or cultural highlight) and create a Music City mentality. I’ve made a few edits from the original document to make explicit the sort of things that I take as a given, but which aren’t obvious to everyone (like gender parity, inclusion of racialized people, good working conditions, etc.). A…
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2015 Festival Report Card
In 2015, two volunteers collected data on festival lineups in our second iteration of the Canadian Festival Report Card. This report graded Ontario festivals on gender parity on their stages. Here are the results: A 45% – 50%+ (2 festivals) Home County Music & Art Festival ON – 61.11% Summerfolk ON – 60% B 35% – 44% (3 festivals) Hillside Festival ON – 38.10% CityFolk ON – 37.84% Live From The Rock Festival ON – 36.84% C 25% – 34% (2 festivals) Eaglewood Folk Festival ON – 33.33% Mariposa Folk Festival ON – 30% D – 15% – 24% (1 festival) Northern Lights Festival Boreal ON –…
