Beau’s Oktoberfest 2016 – S12E02

It was a fine Saturday afternoon as I went to Vankleek Hill (an hour’s ride from Ottawa) for the 8th annual Beau’s Oktoberfest. I had to go along with my dad and I’m not total beer drinker. He had extra tickets and why not go to the event for the third year.

The 2016 edition of Beau’s Oktoberfest had a lot of craft beer from Ottawa, Quebec, and Toronto (including the GTA and Golden Horseshoe area). Beau’s brought their 16 beers and tap. Aside from the beer, there were restaurants from Ontario and Quebec serving their kind of Bavarian styled food.

This year’s main concert lineup had 54•40 and Born Ruffians for Friday. k-os and Hannah Georgas for Saturday. Even though, I didn’t stay past 6pm at Oktoberfest, I was able to check out part of Montreal’s Motel Raphaël. I haven’t seen the band live for quite awhile and they recently released a new album, System.
Oh yes, Alan Neal of CBC’s All In A Day was MC for Saturday’s concert lineup.

All in all, it was great to be at Beau’s Oktoberfest and it was quite a big turnout as people will have fun and drink beer. You can check out the photos below.

The 2016 Polaris Music Prize Gala – S12E01

It’s become a tradition to start the new season in Toronto for the Polaris Music Prize Gala at The Carlu. Congratulations goes out to Kaytranada for winning the 2016 edition of the music prize for the album, 99.9%. It beat out the likes of 9 artists and bands from Black Mountain, Basia Bulat, Grimes, Carly Rae Jepsen, Jessy Lanza, Pup, Andy Shauf, U.S. Girls and White Lung.

At the gala, there were live performances from Black Mountain, Jessy Lanza, Basia Bulat, Andy Shauf, White Lung, Carly Rae Jepsen and U.S. Girls. All of the performances were. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra assisted in Bulat’s and Jepsen’s performances. The gala were hosted by Amanda Parris of The Exhibitionist on CBC and Tom Power, new host of CBC Radio q.

To my own delight, there were food served at the Gala. There were perogies, sliders and five spices pork.

Got to hand to Steve Jordan and the Polaris Music Prize staff for the great work as usual.

Don’t forget to check out the photos here.
Enjoy!

Sunday at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival – S11E34

It was quite a weekend to be at the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. I wasn’t planning to go to Sunday’s event but decided to go because one of my lion dance member was participating in the race and also support Loon Choir play live.

Despite being another scorcher, there were some winds helping cool things slightly. It was fun to hop on the raft to check out the races as mentioned that my lion dance member taking part in it. The schedule for the races were delayed and I was able to catch it while on the raft. It’s just the thrill to seeing the races on the waters. Photos are posted below.

The concert series ended with Loon Choir, Young Empires (from Toronto) and Ottawa’s own A Tribe Called Red. Winds were blowing during Loon Choir’s performance while the loud tone from Young Empires rocked through. Lastly, A Tribe Called Red brought loud, strong beats and getting to crowd to dance it out with excitement. Don’t forget to check out the photos below.

Overall, an excellent 2016 edition of the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival and the organizers and volunteers have done a great job holding the festival. It’s become the best in North America. Dragon boat racing, various activities and live music in the hot Summer, you can’t beat it in Ottawa.

This wraps up season 11 of the blog. It’s been fun filled ride with the music and lifestyle events covered in Ottawa. See you in the Fall.

Saturday at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival and the Percy Station Opening – S11E33

There were a lot of events happening in Ottawa. From the Ottawa International Jazz Festival to Escapade to House Of Paint’s Community Jam and the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival.

My afternoon started in Chinatown as there was a popup structure on Somerset and Percy. There was a fire that destroyed businesses in 2015 and the city decided to create a pilot project to transform the streetside parking to space of activity and renewing the urban space. Local businesses from Jackpine and Atelier Ruderal help made the creation possible. On hand at the opening were Somerset Ward Councillor, Catherine McKenney, the Somerset BIA and Awesome Ottawa. Photos from the event are posted below.

After that was off to Mooney’s Bay Park for Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival again. I never had a chance to take photos of the actual race, I have participated in dragon boat race back in the mid/late 1990s but it was the first time to hop on the boat and just have fun shooting the races.

The concert lineup for Saturday night was a good one. It started with Ottawa’s Pony Girl, then Halifax’s Nap Eyes (they’re on the 2016 Polaris Music Prize Long List) and topping it off was Alvvays. All three bands were excellent. I originally planned to leave after the third song of Alvvays but I saw a few friends I know that were in the crowd. I decided to dropped by for a bit. The crowd was quite the spontaneity with the crazy jumping, dancing and bumping around.

You can view the photos below.

Saturday’s Glow Fair and a Bit of Ottawa Asian Fest Night Market – S11E31

There were lots of events happening on Saturday in the Nation’s Capital. From Ottawa Explosion Weekend to UFC to Ottawa Asian Fest Night Market and Glow Fair, there’s not much to miss around with the fun and Summer around the close corner.

I first went to Ottawa Asian Fest Night Market at Lansdowne Park, as my lion dance troupe performed for the opening ceremony. With the hot weather, it was pretty tough to perform in the sun. Photos posted below.

Day 2 of Glow Fair’s concert had Gang Signs from Vancouver, Ottawa’s own The Balconies, Halifax’s Rich Aucoin and Toronto’s Dragonette. Each ranged from the rocking to the dancing beats. Aucoin was the best from Saturday’s lineup because of his interactivity to the crowd and bringing in total fun. The Balconies, who I haven’t seen in a long time had some new members, a change from when they were a trio. Dragonette brought the crowd to its feet as Glow Fair concluded the concert series.

I also took a few Impossible Project black & white instant film photos. Finally tried to B&W 2.0 600 film as it improved the development process but the first photo with Rich Aucoin didn’t turn out good because parts of it was white.

It was a weekend to not forget from the events happening in and around Ottawa.
You can check out the loads of photos below.

Friday’s Glow Fair Festival – S11E30

In its third year, it’s the first time to attend the Glow Fair festival as I had been going to Toronto for NXNE in previous years. This year’s NXNE has been confusing with their changes and what not better way to finally go to Glow Fair.

From its website, it’s a Music + Light + Art festival. It closes 9 blocks of Bank St. in Ottawa. Friday’s music lineup were Caveboy, Fevers, Young Galaxy and Keys N Krates.

It’s been quite a long time I have seen Young Galaxy live. Seeing them live at Glow Fair, I did not know about the changes in their lineup. Missing was their lead member, Stephen Ramsay. Catherine McCandless was mainly on the vocals. Overall, a great performance from Young Galaxy.

Glow Fair is a fun festival for all ages and there’s various activities throughout Bank St. The festival runs until Saturday.

You can check out the photos from below.

Yes We Mystic and Sounds of Stories at Pressed – S11E29

Yes We Mystic and Sounds of Stories played at Pressed on Thursday. It’s been awhile I have stepped foot at Pressed and didn’t realize an expanded space in the back.

Starting with Sounds of Stories, they’re an Ottawa band which is now a 6 member piece. Their genre is on the indie folk and rock side. They started off Thursday’s show at Pressed and made a great impression with their performance. The Voyage is their current album released and possibly a new album to be out in the Fall. You can check their album on Bandcamp.

Yes We Mystic is a Winnipeg indie rock band. They recently returned from Europe and back in Canada. Ottawa being the first on their Canadian tour. The band recently released their album, Forgiver. I was able to catch some of their performance and they were pretty rocking and full of melodic sounds.

Overall, a fine Thursday night to be out and about in the Nation’s Capital. June has a lot of events happening right now. Summer is in full form.

The photos are posted below.

The 2016 Polaris Music Prize Long List – S11E28

© Polaris Music Prize

This year’s unveiling of the Polaris Music Prize 2016 Long List had glitches as it was live streaming through their Facebook. You can’t blame the organizers for the technical difficulties. The long list is quite intriguing with surprises and as usual, excellent Canadian albums. There’s several unknowns to check out from the list.

This year’s long list announcement was held in Yellowknife, NWT and unfortunately didn’t watch of the all live streaming from earlier today.

The Polaris Music 2016 Long List;

Some Expired Impossible Photos While in Toronto – S11E25

Returned from Toronto after a four day excursion. I had the chance to check out live music on Saturday and the Field Trip Music and Arts Festival on Sunday. The festival was held at Fort York and Garrison Common.

I didn’t take much photos as I didn’t bring the Sony a7 camera. I only used the iPhone and the Polaroid SX-70 camera. I’m currently using expired instant film from The Impossible Project. My initial worry from the expired film would be the image looking very washed out. It’s been good so far with the outcome. It was great to see a friend and former co-host, Lauren in Toronto as she’s doing her Masters at Ryerson.

In one of the photos, I was able to get one with Lennon and Maisy, the sisters who were on recently cancelled TV show, Nashville. They were suppose to perform at Field Trip but there was a severe storm which impacted the festival and had music fans evacuate the area. Fortunately, they didn’t disappoint fans with the meet and greet.

From Sunday’s Field Trip, I also got to see Basia Bulat perform and she did not disappoint. Hope she will be back in Ottawa for a concert.

I was staying in the Lakeshore area of Toronto and surprised how revitalized it has been with all the condos and lofts being situated.

You can check out the Impossible photos from below. There’s photos from Wes of Darcys to The Kents playing at The Horseshoe Tavern.

Celebrating Ottawa Music with Heart My City – S11E21

CBC Ottawa hosted a concert at the Horticulture Building at Lansdowne Park on Monday night. It was originally for Winterlude back in February but due to extreme cold temperatures, it was cancelled. What better way to kick off Spring with the event than in the Winter.

The event dubbed #heartmyYOW had Ottawa musicians perform in a sold out crowd. The performers Yaa-Hemaa, Jeremy Fisher, Jim Bryson, Amanda Rheaume and Kalle Mattson. DJ Memetic DJing before the event started. All of the performers were great and had funny and unique stories about living in Ottawa. There were some freebies and refreshments at the event, which was nice to enjoy.

The hosts of the event were Adrian Harewood and Teri Loretto with Alan Neal, Robyn Bresnahan, and Omar Dabaghi-Pacheco as they brought their experience of how great Ottawa is.
Got to hand to CBC Ottawa for holding a great event.

You can check the photos below.