Sunday evening, it was at Half Moon Run that the organization of the Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ) had entrusted the mandate of riveting the nail to its 2022 edition on the Plains of Abraham, the Montreal trio taking advantage of the opportunity to invite Daniel Bélanger and the Boulay Sisters to share the stage. “We had promised a Quebec Summer Festival like before the pandemic” and that’s what the organization delivered, rejoiced Anne Hudon, CEO of the Festival, during a press conference earlier. during the day, admitting nevertheless that the planning of this edition was not done without having to overcome many challenges related in particular to the pandemic, the shortage of labor and the redesigned configuration of the sites.
“It was not a post-pandemic edition, but an edition in a pandemic situation,” said Louis Bellavance, vice-president of content and artistic direction of the Festival d’été de Québec, acknowledging that the emergence of A seventh wave of contagion was not in the organization’s plans. The virus continued to disrupt the normal course of musical things, six or seven artists or groups having had to cancel their presence, including Alison Wonderland scheduled before Maroon 5 on the plains, the biggest popular success of this edition of the festival which will however pass to history thanks to the concert, described as “historic” by the VP, of the group Rage Against the Machine. We will not contradict him!
Louis Bellavance himself had to submit to six tests during the festival, the virus having “gave some scares” to the programmers. “We were under COVID protocol with the team of Jack Johnson and that of Rage Against the Machine”, he confided to the To have to. But the most important challenge the organization had to face this year was of a logistical nature: the FEQ has completely reviewed the layout of its stages and reception sites, which will still have to be modified in view of the 2023 edition.
Thus, the organization first abandoned the (free) stage formerly located on Place d’Youville, opting to expand the site in front of the National Assembly. The place was regularly stormed by festival-goers, especially for concerts by Tiken Jah Fakoly, Femi Kuti and Hubert Lenoir. “The place has a lot of potential” that will have to be better exploited in the future, assures Bellavance. We confirm it: during our visits, Calamine played there in front of what was to be his biggest crowd last Friday evening, an important step in his career. The next day, country singer Tami Neilson softened our morals before they were stiffened by the boring grooves of Rage Against the Machine. Two superb performances in a welcoming and well-located venue.
However, it was in the Parc de la Francophonie that crowd management was problematic. The site, completely redesigned, could technically have accommodated 15,000 spectators, but by adding the bars, the furniture and the two stages – a novelty – the capacity dropped to 10,000 spectators. Several festival-goers thus had the displeasure of being turned away on certain particularly popular evenings: the punk evening on Friday (Pennywise, Millencolin, Sum41) and the one devoted to rap the day before (Young MA, Freddie Gibbs), attracted record crowds.
The situation was caused by the accumulated delays in the renovation of the Georges V park, just opposite the Francophonie park, the reopening of which had initially been planned for this summer; by installing one stage per park, this large site would have had a capacity of 25,000 spectators. Without posters at the Impéral in lower town, without concerts in Place d’Youville or street entertainment in Saint-Jean, the FEQ now concentrates its activities on Grande Allée, near the Plains of Abraham.
“My dream for the Festival d’été de Québec would be that one day we have a single site: people validate their pass once, they enter” and access all the paying stages, says Louis Bellavance. “I’m far from thinking that it will be for tomorrow, but I dream of it! »