For more than three decades, Mark Monahan has been the chief architect of
Ottawa Bluesfest
.
The impresario was one of the original founders of the event in 1994, and has served as its executive and artistic director ever since, steadily building a team and shepherding them through the myriad of challenges that accompany throwing a massive party in a government town ruled by three levels of bureaucracy.
Over the years, the festival grew from a weekend shindig for a few thousand blues fans to a
juggernaut of live music
that takes over the city for more than a week, attracts hundreds of thousands of people every year, and generates an estimated $40 million in direct economic impact.
Hotels are full, restaurants are busy and every sound tech in the city is up to their eyeballs in work.
In fact, the last two years have seen attendance rebound fully after the pandemic, with some 300,000 people flocking to the 2024 and ‘25 editions of the fest.
The trend is expected to continue this year, too. Tickets and passes are selling well for the 33rd edition of Bluesfest, which will bring us another
nine days of entertainment
on four stages.
It runs July 9-19
in its usual site on the grounds of the Canadian War Museum at LeBreton Flats Park.
Once again,
the headliners are an eclectic bunch
, ranging from country stars Hardy, Cody Johnson and Ella Langley, to 1990s chart-toppers Limp Bizkit and Gwen Stefani, to crowd faves like The Lumineers, Lord Huron and Conan Gray.
Behind the scenes is a major operation that involves hundreds of paid workers, including security teams, food vendors, beverage purveyors, corporate sponsors, first responders, production techs and more, as well as an army of 2,000 volunteers.
The advance work required to pull off a festival of this magnitude takes place in the offices of Festival House, the repurposed church on Churchill Avenue that was acquired by Bluesfest more than a decade ago. The same team also operates Ottawa’s CityFolk festival, the Ontario Festival of Small Halls and the charitable music-education programs, Blues in the Schools and Be in the Band.
It all adds up to a sustainable, year-round career for not only Monahan, who raised a family of four daughters (with his wife, Reine) while running the festivals, but also the 16 other full-time staffers in the office.
But what would happen if Monahan wanted to step away? Would the empire he built collapse?
A few weeks after this summer’s Bluesfest, the festival mogul will turn 64, quickly approaching the golden age at which many Ottawans target their retirement. He and Reine have one grandchild they adore, with a second on the way, and a family cottage.
So we asked the question.
First off, Monahan made it clear he’s not considering retirement. When the time comes, though, there is a succession plan for the leadership of the festival. He said it starts with the expertise of the management team, full-time staff members and board of directors.
“We have a staff of 17 full-time people, and it’s a strong group,” Monahan said. “Many have been with the organization for 10 to 20 years. They have a lot to contribute and they will eventually take over in the way that organizations carry on. They’re very capable of continuing on with it. It’s not just me.”
Among the Bluesfest staffers with the most experience are Nathalie Laperriere, director of sponsorship (for 25 years), Mike Rouleau, operations manager (20 years), and programming assistant Catherine Cote (15 years).
As for the notion that someone younger might be more in touch with the current music scene, Monahan reminds me of his group approach to curating a festival, where several voices representing different generations have input on the acts they want to see.
Networking is also a key part of the programming process. Monahan said he often hears about hot new acts from industry contacts, such as booking agents or organizers of other festivals.
In the case of Angine de Poitrine, the masked Quebec rock duo that’s been burning up the internet since February, a Toronto agent known for cutting-edge acts brought them to Monahan’s attention.
“They said ‘You’ve got to listen to this band. They are breaking, they’re very unusual, and it’s blowing up,’” Monahan said, adding that he and Cote were on the same page when they tuned into the band’s experimental style of microtonal prog-rock, performed on double-neck guitar and drums by two men in polka-dot costumes with contrasting papier-mâche masks.
“It was amazing,” he said. “Cool. Very fresh. It reminded me initially of the early White Stripes.”
He and Cote jumped on the booking, scheduling them for July 17, and proving that you don’t have to be a teenager to have a finger on the pulse of new music.
“I think that I still have something to contribute,” Monahan said. “I enjoy what I’m doing and I think it’s a great thing that is happening, and I’ll be here as long as I can.”
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