These moments that marked the Festive!

The Festive! de Baie-Saint-Paul ended on Sunday, after four intense days of shows. A look back at some musical moments that marked the weekend.

Marissa Groguhe
The Press

The audience on stage with Matt Holubowski

He wasn’t even initially on the lineup, yet Matt Holubowski gave us our favorite moment of the weekend. In fact, 24 hours before going on stage, he didn’t know he would be playing at the Festif! Safia Nolin being sick, Matt Holubowski was called in for reinforcement. In acoustic mode, alone on stage in the middle of a field, he played after months without giving a show. His soft music and the decor complemented each other wonderfully. The rain (the deluge, in fact) got involved, however. The musician reacted spontaneously by inviting his audience to come on stage with him for the time to perform his latest songs. To complete this magical moment, a rainbow formed behind the stage as he finished his show — you can’t make it up! Matt Holubowski finally summed up the feeling well: “I will remember that one! »

Ouri and his cello in the courtyard at Johanne

The Festive! allows festival-goers to listen to intimate concerts in the backyards of residents of Baie-Saint-Paul. On Friday, in the yard at Johanne, near the center of town, white sheets and clothes were stretched out on lines all over the place. On a small stage, Ouri, his cello, his bass and his machine loop. In front of her, a few hundred people, on chairs or seated on the ground. In the air, soaring music, perfect for this most intimate setting. Ouri herself sat on the floor for most of the show, as if she was telling us a secret. The singer-songwriter and her minimalist, airy vocals were received in total calm, the audience attentive, absorbed. A moment of perfect passibility.

Martha’s Stories on the Wharf

Martha Wainwright lives her music intensely when she is on stage. This energy passes through us when we look at it and listen to it. Her voice is exceptionally beautiful, just as inaccurate as it is beautifully inaccurate. Above all, Martha Wainwright makes for a complete experience. On the Baie-Saint-Paul wharf where she appeared on Sunday morning, the decor was the one we needed to better appreciate the moment: the port, the water (some watched the show while bathing or on their paddle board), the breeze, the horizon… Martha Wainwright tells us stories, with her music, but also between the songs. She always has the right word to make us laugh and to interest us in her anecdotes. She is not afraid of making mistakes, resumes a song when it does not start on the note, without apologizing. She warns that the next song could be “a disaster, but that’s okay”. She takes over a piece by Tom Waits by reading the lyrics, again without apologizing. Everything is raw in Martha Wainwright’s proposal. Everything goes straight to the heart.

Geoffroy jumps into the water during his show on the river

Imagine the scene: hundreds of people in the water (on buoys or not), on the shore or on the bridge above, facing the floating stage of Le Festif! surmounted by a giant octopus. On this stage, Friday, played Geoffroy and his musicians. The sun burned our skin, the water from the Gouffre River helped keep us cool in these 30 degrees. Geoffroy himself ended up jumping into the water from the stage before finishing his show. The atmosphere was ideal. The organization of the festival knows how to properly place its guest artists on the various stages of its site. People were dancing, creating waves to the rhythm of the groove of the interpreter sleeping on my own.

Playing in the sandbox of Death From Above 1979

It took a shuttle ride (or drive) out in the middle of nowhere to get to where the Canadiens Death From Above 1979 show was being held on Saturday at midnight. The rock duo was fantastic, caustic, for nearly two hours. Nothing wrong with the music. The venue made the experience all the more memorable. A huge pity of sand has been laid out for this show and that of Gros Mené, the day before. Once there, we had to walk for a few minutes on a path lined with campfires guiding the road. Once in front of the stage, a setting to die for had us dreaming of the moment to come before the music even started. Behind the band, stacked cars created that post-apocalyptic effect that DFA’s songs also evoked. The lighting work completed the ambiance for a night where the mosh pit never stopped.

Crowdsurfing In Orderly Disorder by Hubert Lenoir

On the biggest stage of the festival, rue Ambroise-Fafard, Hubert Lenoir was expected by several thousand festival-goers. The author of these lines has seen the show he presented several times, however, there is no doubt that this moment of music must be included in the best evenings of this edition of the Festif! Even knowing what was going to happen – Hubert Lenoir is a beast of the stage, capable of feigning disorder like no other – we are fully aware of the fact that we have witnessed a strong moment. Unleashed, he sang and shouted, threw himself into the crowd several times, made us dance. Even if the chaos is calculated (between the interruptions or the moments of “improvisation”), it is nonetheless convincing and, above all, entertaining. The enfant terrible never disappoints.

Sunrise, alley rock and pouring rain

Beyond the great highlights, a weekend at the Festif! is punctuated by several shows that fill our heads with memories. Sunday morning, at dawn, Saratoga offered a gentle awakening to festival-goers, as the sun broke through the horizon. Later in the day, when the clouds became more and more threatening, Elliot Maginot did everything to keep the moment bright. When the rain started to fall, and we knew the show was going to end, the audience gathered closer to the stage, as if to find refuge in the soft music that was offered to us. The day before, it was the trio zouz who gave their audience everything they needed by playing their progressive rock in an alley in Baie-Saint-Paul. Fabulous instrumentalists, zouz were another favorite of the weekend. For the closing show of the Festif!, Loud shared a moment with his guests (Imposs, Lary Kidd, Tizzo, Rymz, Raccoon and 20Some) and the last remaining festival-goers. Those who braved the rain (again) and who came on this Sunday evening for a very last dance. A nice final.

The accommodation costs for this report were paid by the Festif!