How Canada Wins: Ottawa is bullish on live music entertainment and it could change the city

When Barb Francisco first visited Ottawa to study, more than a decade ago, it didn’t take her long to fall in love with the local music scene.

There were so many talented musicians and places to play that the millennial from Brazil had a hard time keeping track. And she wasn’t the only one. After she moved to Ottawa, people in her circle were always asking each other who was performing where.

Francisco decided to create a social-media account to compile listings and posted them each week. She wanted to get the word out on where her musician friends were playing and let her music-loving friends know about those gigs.

“The musicians in Ottawa are amazingly talented,” she said, describing how live music is like therapy for her: It lets her forget about her troubles, dance and have fun. “I just wanted to support them.”

That was the start of Live Music Lovers Ottawa.

Seven years and a global pandemic later, Francisco is still volunteering her time to maintain two accounts, attracting a modest 5,000 followers on Facebook and more than 7,000 on Instagram.

The woman who works as a research scientist by day still goes out to see live music at least once a week, often in a bar or pub in the ByWard Market, and still champions the Ottawa music scene. There are more talented musicians than ever before, she will tell you, even though the number of venues to play in has dwindled since COVID-19.

Among the venues lost in recent years were Barrymore’s Music Hall, Babylon, Mavericks, Cafe Dekcuf, Pressed Cafe and the Mercury Lounge.

But things are beginning to grow again. New spots are starting to fill those properties and there are major plans in the works that observers say will not only mark a new era of live-music activity in Ottawa, but also revitalize the downtown core.

The multi-million dollar initiatives include a 2,000-capacity Live Nation club called History coming to the old Chapters store on Rideau Street, a new Lansdowne Park arena with a projected capacity of 8,000 and the Ottawa Senators’ hoped-for new home at LeBreton Flats, a hockey stadium that will hold some 20,000 fans.

Veteran Ottawa promoter Ken Craig looks at these endeavours with concert numbers in mind and finds it hard to imagine a better scenario.

“As a promoter who’s been doing shows here in my hometown for 45 years, what comes to mind for me right away is how exciting it’s going to be,” Craig said in an interview. “We can develop acts at Bronson Centre or History, then later bring them to the arena at TD Place and then three years after that they can play the brand-new arena at LeBreton Flats.”

“Just think,” he added, “in 10 years Ottawa is going to be one of the best entertainment markets outside Toronto.”

Few things are better for a city, or a nation, than a vibrant live-music scene, contends Erin Benjamin, the Ottawa-based president and CEO of the Canadian Live Music Association.

A study commissioned by her organization set out to demonstrate the economic impact of the live-music industry in Canada for the first time. Released in January, the Hear and Now survey revealed that live-music activity in 2023 — a year that Taylor Swift did not come to Canada — generated $10.92 billion in gross domestic product, creating the equivalent of 101,640 jobs and $5.8 billion in labour income.

“It’s clear that protecting and growing Canada’s live music infrastructure directly results in more jobs, major economic impact for cities and towns and more performance opportunities for Canadian artists,” the report said.

Both Benjamin and Craig believe Ottawa is poised for growth in the sector because it already has an array of venues and promoters and a strong fan base, from the student population at the universities and colleges to the salaried workers of the public service.

“I think that fans in Ottawa are amazing and they’ve helped to create this venue ladder that exists here in Ottawa, which ultimately means that we get to see a range of artists from developing to established,” Benjamin said. “You can hear a pin drop (during an intimate, 100-person show) at Redbird Live, or you can go to (the 900-capacity) Bronson Centre, which has been knocking it out of the park in terms of programming.

“I think it’s places like those which are really so responsible for the fire that’s been lit in the hearts of music fans.”

Another indicator of development potential in Ottawa was the addition of a nightlife commissioner position at City Hall, a sure sign the city was serious about nurturing economic activity after dark. The commissioner, Mathieu Grondin, has been working to smooth out the red tape, advocating for such things as longer opening hours and loading zones in front of clubs.

Coming from Montreal, Grondin was surprised at the fact that everyone in authority positions in Ottawa was keen to help, up to and including Mayor Mark Sutcliffe. “People are hungry (for nightlife) here, and this was a nice surprise,” Grondin said.

Meanwhile, anticipation is growing for next year’s launch of the History nightclub, which is expected to bring more people and new businesses to the ByWard Market area in the same way its big-sister venue in Toronto has brought new activity to the Beaches neighbourhood.

Toronto’s History has hosted a wide range of acts since it opened in 2022, from garage rocker Jack White to American jam band Goose, plus veteran acts like Devo and the Cult and a slew of Canadian rockers, including Mariana’s Trench, Tokyo Police Club and Dwayne Gretzky. It’s also becoming a popular venue for hip hop acts, and almost all shows are sellouts.

Although he isn’t promising any particular act will come to Ottawa, Live Nation Canada’s Ottawa-born president of music, Erik Hoffman, has high hopes for the Ottawa location. “The city has been starved for a venue of this size,” he said.

A spacious venue in Ottawa will also make a nice addition to the Toronto-Montreal circuit. In other words, any band that plays History in Toronto is a good candidate for the Ottawa location.

“This to me will be the perfect routing,” Hoffman said. “Ottawa has the advantage of being geographically located between Montreal and Toronto, and it just makes it that much easier to add it into the circuit.”

While an operation as big as History isn’t exactly the kind of venue Francisco is compelled to promote because it will have its own marketing budget, she does expect the extra foot traffic downtown will help revitalize the ByWard Market. It could also hire local musicians as support acts.

“It would be fantastic mainly if they also support the local bands,” she said. “But, if it is the case they don’t, when the event finishes and people still want to do something else, they could go around to the venues in the Market, still have fun and keep it going the whole night.”

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Editor’s note: This story is part of a Postmedia series called How Canada Wins. Stay tuned for more.