Bluesfest got skrillexed, as Gillian Welch might say.
The American singer-songwriter, who made a surprise appearance during the first week of RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest, last year found herself at the Austin City Limits festival, fighting to make herself heard over the bass-heavy sound of electro superstar Skrillex on a nearby stage.
That may have been the first time his name was used as a verb.
Conor Oberst used it again during his recent early-evening mainstage set at Bluesfest on July 6, opening for City and Colour. The singer-songwriter performed his sweet, sad songs as a duo with guitarist Dave Rawlings, battling the decibels that emanated from Canuck rockers Arkells on the River stage. Oberst said he felt like he was being skrillexed, and brought in reinforcement in the person of none other than Welch, who is Rawlings’ life partner and often travels with him. The trio played a few songs, resulting in one of the early high points of this year’s festival.
There were many other instances of artists being skrillexed over the long, hot days of Bluesfest 2012 before the real Skrillex obliterated what was left of people’s eardrums with his Saturday-night headlining mainstage performance on July 14, a concert that set a festival record for walk-up attendance. Organizers said more than 10,000 people bought tickets at the last minute, a wave that made up for a few slow nights early in the fest.
Festival boss Mark Monahan said Sunday that attendance over the 12-day festival is on track to match last year’s total crowd of 300,000. Although the throngs this year did not seem as thick in the main plaza, Monahan said the stage reconfiguration provided more space. The biggest nights of this year’s headliners were Skrillex, Iron Maiden, Snoop Dogg, Nickelback, LMFAO and Blue Rodeo. The underperformers were Bad Religion and Tiesto. In the middle were John Mellencamp, City and Colour, Norah Jones and Metric.
“I would say that Tiesto was probably not as big a crowd as I expected, and Skrillex was much bigger than I expected,” Monahan says, noting that he didn’t set out to put a DJ on the main stage. “It was just a function of what’s available.”
July 11, Bad Religion night, was particularly problematic, Monahan said, as the headliner changed several times. In the end, legendary punks Bad Religion stepped in with two weeks’ notice, and delivered a top-notch show for the few thousand in attendance.
Another challenging night was when LMFAO showed up with one man unable to perform. Redfoo carried the show without SkyBlu, and it was only a minor disappointment for the young crowd. More disappointing for older fans was the fact that John Mellencamp didn’t play an encore, although time allowed. His attitude was the opposite of Skrillex’s, who went eight minutes past curfew, continued the party until closing time at Ritual Nightclub, then transported it to his Full Flex Express train and took it all the way to Montreal.
Pleasant surprises came in discovering acts like rock goddess Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Willie Nelson’s guitar-slinging son, Lukas Nelson, Austin’s Bright Light Social Hour and New Orleans singer-songwriter Lynn Drury. Other outstanding performers I saw included Airborne Toxic Event, Hey Rosetta!, Good Old War, The Hold Steady, the Sheepdogs and Our Lady Peace.
As for the emphasis on electronic music, which divided music fans the moment the lineup was announced, it probably isn’t going away. The festival scored a big win with Skrillex, a loss with Tiesto, and a big win with the newly minted Electro stage, which was packed with sweaty dancing fans almost every night.
“In terms of the electro stage, I would say it’s been a resounding success in terms of attendance,” said Monahan. “People definitely responded to it, and it wasn’t really a teenage crowd. I’d say the bulk of the crowd was twentysomething. It did look like a big nightclub. When you came over the hill, looked like a big dance floor and people filtered up the hill.”
However, the electro content also brought a backlash from fans of blues, many of whom refused to buy tickets. Unfortunately, they missed fantastic performances by the many blues acts that were on the bill, including the Tedeschi-Trucks Band, Bettye Lavette and Johnny Sansone, who performed an incendiary set with Ottawa’s MonkeyJunk.
Monahan feels the festival’s marketing theme this year, Electro-fied, may have given the mistaken impression that Bluesfest had gone completely electronic. In fact, he says the business model guarantees that it will never be devoted to one style of music.
“We know there’s not enough blues fans or classic rock fans that would make this thing viable,” Monahan says. “So I’m trying to program this so that it will appeal to a certain audience, and bring them to the festival, whether it’s one night or 10 nights. My feeling is I’d rather be inclusive rather than exclusive. I hope that people don’t get offended because their kids want to go and see some shows.”
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Mark Monahan was frank in an interview. Bluesffest is a name and it is a music festival. I am not a DJ or Snoop fan but I got more than my monie’s worth at the smaller stages. I would like to see more Classic rock a la Moody Blues and Roger Hodgins from past years. It would bring up a lot of the older demographics. But I was , as always, surprised by acts I did not know. It is a major asset to the city. Rock on indeed thanks Mark and crew
The challenge with a diverse lineup is that there is nothing that really ties everything together and gives the “wow” factor. If you look at this year’s lineup as a whole, many people said “meh”. But, if you really look into it, you’ll find that each night featured one of the biggest acts in that perspective genre. Tiesto is the world’s #1 DJ, LMFAO the biggest name in top 40, Nickelback one of the biggest in commercial rock, Snoop is a king in hip hop, Skrillex is THE sound for the youth today, etc.
The format this year very much tried to appeal to targeted groups as apposed to a mass appeal lineup. I believe it was successful in it’s own way, but alienating to bluefest’s core audience. I expect next year a return to the standard format, but keeping the highly successful Electro stage.
Bigger isn’t always better! It seems Bluesfest is always judging success in terms of attendance – I think this is a mistake. When you keep pushing the envelope to get bigger and better than the year before something is bound to give. My advice is to decide on the optimal size and shoot for that every year – this will be a big step in ensuring Bluesfest remains a great music festival for many years to come.
it was the usual mix that has become bluesfest the past few years and I know they say attendance was close to last year but it didn’t seem as full at all, especially early on… beer lines save for a few nights were nonexistent as well, and that is a big moneymaker for the fest.
they were definitely targeting a new demographic but I wonder if it was wise considering there was a dedicated electronic music fest at lynx stadium the week before and most of that demo aren’t of legal drinking age to help the festivals bottom line.
a whole bunch of reasons could explain it; layoffs in the ps, stage collapse fallout, more competing festivals (fete d’ete in qc had a killer lineup for a lot less during the same period) but I think the biggest thing was the near 100 price increase for a festival pass unless you got in on the early bird. it would be one thing if the increase in talent reflected the price but IMO it didn’t, I don’t think I would have paid asking price for the pass.
also what happened to the whole moneyless thing? the bracelets were nice but I thought there was going to be a way to load money onto them and pay for stuff? I guess like presto it didn’t pan out in time and was shelved for this year. I think going cashless deterred some.
this years lineup was great, something for everyone. I’m over the hill (50+) with full festpass and I feel I really got my moneys worth. I couldn’t stand a one genre festival and probably wouldn’t go. media coverage (all media) was very poor and the event loses attendance and momentum because of that. happy the folkfest is moving in this direction too. congrats mark, well done!
It looked to me that they cheaped out big time this year. I went once on a day that I thought there might be something good, but what I saw I wouldn’t cross the street to see.So much for Bluesfest.
I had tickets from last year’s Cheap Trick debacle, so I could have seen any of the shows. This year’s line-up was mainly crap. The marketing and web page was so confusing and outright bad that I did miss acts that I might have gone to see, if I had known they were playing. The local media didn’t help. Their coverage was also quite shoddy, especially in terms of explaining upcoming shows. I think this festival is in trouble. I live near Bluesfest and the crowds seem to have been much, much smaller.
I was really apprehensive about this year’s line-up and in the end enjoyed the shows. Best show by far was Deltron 30 30, Skrillex was absolute garbage. I have to say that the line-up over the past few years has gotten lighter and lighter…… what happened to Thievery Corporation and the Offspring. If the BF is going to sell tickets based on a certain line-up they should deliver and I just feel as though they have announced big names that end up being replaced by mediocre second tier talent.
“The biggest nights of this year’s headliners were Skrillex, Iron Maiden, Snoop Dogg, Nickelback, LMFAO and Blue Rodeo.” Where is Tiesto in this sentence or Paul Okenfold?
Tiesto is a much bigger star then Skrillex. Maybe Skrillex will grow to some of Tiestos’ fame is 5-10 years, but for now Tiesto is still #1 Dj in the world.
And Paul Okenfold wasn’t even mentioned…
I totally agree! I think you have to look at what night each played. Obviously more people are ready to party on a Saturday night! Tiesto was much better and Oakenfold was the best. Cheers to a great Bluesfest!
Lana, Tiesto is mentioned in the very next sentence. The organizer isn’t naming the people he thinks are the best, he’s identifying who drew the biggest crowds in the headlining slot. The crowds were huge for Skrillex, Iron Maiden, and Snoop. Not so much for Tiesto (and Oakenfold wasn’t a mainstage headliner at all).
The reason Tiestowas not in that sentence is explained in the sentence immediately after… and then again later in the article. They’re talking about attendance here, not “fame”.
Sound bleed was an issue most nights that I attended. Blues performers were not stressed at all. Was there even a blues act playing every night? Why should people have to pay headline act prices to see a blues band on a side stage if that is what they want to see?
I don’t mind seeing different acts and am open to new and various styles of music. Yes Skrillex (as an example) was a tremendously high energy show that I enjoyed (and I am north of 50) but the overall the lineup was weak and once again I didn’t buy full festival passes. You can live and die by walk up but the risk is huge.
How about a Blues weekend or a couple of nights? If other communities can put on successful events that are exclusively Blues why can’t Ottawa? Alternately is it time for the Blues to once again have their own festival ala the Jazz fest and let Bluesfest be the pop festival it has become?
I am a thirty-something (late at that) who went to see Tiesto and was utterly blown away. It’s a shame attendance wasn’t higher that night as internationally speaking, he probably was the biggest act of the festival. Regardless as I don’t go to clubs any longer, the opening night was a very welcomed night of fantastic trance electronica music.
OK, this is going to sound really weird, but although I didn’t go to a single show (never have), I think they put up a good linekids
My HS kid really wanted to see skrillex. Resonates well for the new generation.