The wave of a return to normal for festivals continues to sweep over the island of Montreal, and it has just engulfed Osheaga. On the first day of his 15e edition, the flagship event of the summer in Montreal, brought together smiling, enthusiastic and cheerful people.
Posted at 9:35 p.m.
“I am excited, relieved and stressed. 33% each,” Nick Farkas, Founder of Osheaga, told us as he approaches his baby’s big comeback this week. No need to worry: the event is off to a good start.
A little before 7 p.m. on Friday, it was already difficult to get around, as the different areas of Parc Jean-Drapeau were so crowded. By nightfall, it had become virtually impossible. A few tens of thousands of people, mostly young people in their twenties, took advantage of the facilities on site — and the six different stages at their disposal.
It is a panorama that the organizers of Osheaga have been waiting impatiently to see for three years, affirmed Nick Farkas. After a cancellation in 2020 and a reduced edition last year, this return to the usual format made him “can’t wait to see the reaction of the crowd and the artists”.
It goes without saying: sunglasses, caps, brilliants, camisoles, colorful shirts and other summer clothes were on the agenda. Everything that characterizes a festival, finally.
“All of our teams really thought about doing it in 2020, and then we thought about doing it even more in 2021,” he admitted. We finally made a smaller version anyway the fun, but it wasn’t six stages and 45,000 people. »
“It was difficult to stay motivated for so long, to prepare everything for the festival and not to be able to present it. But one thing is certain, we learned in uncertainty. »
During the afternoon and early evening, several artists from different registers took turns, to the delight of the crowd.
Despite being late, singer-songwriter Dominic Fike garnered a nice reaction upon his arrival. The Kid Laroi, from the height of his 18 years, thrilled the metropolis with his hit songs. The handling of the crowd during his interpretation of Stayhis number one success, gave (good) chills.
This enthusiasm carried over to the performance of Charlie XCX, who particularly got the spectators on board singing I Love It on one of the main stages. A little further on, the Australian group Parcels has bet on their straight hair, their mustaches and their guitars to set the mood.
As the sun set, rappers Big Sean, 6lack made festival-goers jump, while Les Louanges made them soar.
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
Visitors Jake H., Maurice, Cassandra Tardif and Luca Kong enjoying the festival
real village
The wait was long enough to enter the site, so much so that some ticket holders waited up to two hours. That didn’t stop them from showing their smiles once inside the festival.
“It feels good”, “You can discover artists”, “I wanted to introduce my friends”, “I’m not afraid to be myself here”… with a smile on their face, all the people consulted by The Press were having a good time.
In the afternoon, a few thousand festival-goers were already criss-crossing the site. And as the hours passed, their numbers grew steadily. Food sales, clothing stores, games: for one weekend, Parc Jean-Drapeau has been transformed into a veritable village.
We’re building a city for Osheaga. We are like the 12e major city [en population] in Quebec during that weekend.
Nick Farkas
A maximum capacity edition of Osheaga is 45,000 people per day. This bar was not reached this year, admits the organization. But the attendance figures are better than in 2019. It is also the first time since this edition that the physical layout of the site was back to normal.
On one side of the site’s central walkway, the main performances took place on the duo of the River and Mountain scenes. Electronic artists performed on the Island stage. On the other, you could go to the (more intimate) stage of the Trees, or even to the new duo of the Green and Valley stages.
“We think it’s going to work really well. It’s a good change”, supported the founder of the festival.
For the rest of Osheaga, which takes place over three days, Nick Farkas recommends, among other things, going to see the duo 100 Gecs, Sam Fender and the group Inhaler (which includes Bono’s son).
On Saturday, American rapper Future is headlining. His show will be preceded by performances by Burna Boy, Khruangabin, Porter Robinson and Mitski. On Sunday, Machine Gun Kelly, Glass Animals, Idles and Girl in Red will be featured. The popular singer Dua Lipa will end the festivities.