Ottawa musician/producer Dean Watson knows what it’s like to be skipped over by Ottawa Bluesfest.
“If you’re a band and you do everything they ask for, and then you’re just passed over, it’s disheartening,” said Watson, who’s been part of the Ottawa-Gatineau music scene for more than 20 years.
Bluesfest, Ottawa’s biggest music festival, runs from July 9-19 at LeBreton Flats Park on the grounds of the Canadian War Museum, with a multi-genre roster of headliners that includes Limp Bizkit, The Lumineers, The Guess Who, Ella Langley and more, along with dozens of other acts on multiple stages.
About 15 bands and five DJs from Ottawa-Gatineau are also part of the fun this year.
Watson happens to be playing the festival as a sideman, but he’s been around long enough to see hard-working musicians feel snubbed when their Bluesfest dreams are dashed.
“It plays into people’s sense of self-worth,” he observed. “It’s a validating thing to be booked at a big festival, and when it’s your local festival and you’re doing all the hard work, you feel a bit heartbroken.”
But it’s important to consider the scope of the challenge. While it’s not quite Hunger Games, the competition for spots gets more intense every year.
Emma Francis, Bluesfest’s manager of regional programming and director of strategic initiatives, said the festival received a record-setting 890 submissions from local and regional acts vying for about 40 available slots on the 2026 program.
OTTAWA – July 7, 2025 — Emma Francis is Bluesfest’s director of regional programming.
To make it even more competitive, the battle is open to contenders far and wide. Instead of drawing from a zone limited to 100 kilometres from Parliament Hill, the field expanded in 2018, casting a net from Ottawa to Montreal, Toronto and surrounding regions. The parameters now go as far north as Sault Ste. Marie and Maniwaki, too.
As for the submission process itself, there are forms to fill out and questions to answer, usually months in advance. The acts are asked about their level of community involvement, and to list their last five performances, as well as the next five.
“We’ve always asked about community initiatives, and we still weigh that as an important part of the application,” Emma said. “But we have also tried to make the (performance) questions more specific and relevant to help with assessments. Like, not just where the performances are but who else is on the bill and other contextual pieces of information that can really help position someone within our music community.”
The first people to review the submissions are Ottawa’s Angelique Francis, a Carleton music grad and Juno-winning bandleader, and her drum-playing dad, Kiran Francis. (No relation to Bluesfest’s Emma Francis.) Their trained ears come up with a shortlist to send to the programming team.
In the final cut, diversity is a priority. “We do live in a very multicultural and multi-genre music ecology here between Ottawa and Gatineau, so it sort of happens naturally,” Emma said. “It’s our job in programming to make sure the Ottawa community is reflected back on stage.”
This year, for example, efforts were made to showcase the vibrant francophone music scene of the Ottawa-Gatineau area, to the delight of rapper LeFlofranco.
“Ottawa Bluesfest is the biggest festival we have in the region every summer, and so many big artists have graced the stage,” said the Paris-born, Orleans-raised musician. “To be part of the massive lineup is a big deal for sure. It’s a major milestone.”
Francophone artist LeFLOFRANCO
The 40-year-old francophone has been to Bluesfest as a fan many times over the years, catching hip-hop acts like Drake, Sean Paul, Kanye West and the Black-Eyed Peas.
He even performed on the big stage during a pandemic edition of the festival, but it was for an audience ensconced in their cars, not busting moves in the summer heat. “It was a totally different vibe,” Flo remembered of the 2020 drive-in concert series.
He will get the full Bluesfest experience this summer, enhanced by the fact that many of his French-speaking musical compadres are also on the program, Others on the bill include folk-rockers Les Rats d’Swompe, singer-songwriter Joly and pop/R&B chanteuse Mely Walide, plus Gatineau’s alt-pop sensation Mehdi Cayenne.
“We’re excited, we’re grateful and we hope to represent well for the francophones of Ottawa — and also for those that love the French language and make it a point of tuning to French music,” Flo said. “I can’t wait.”
Meanwhile, Watson is performing at the festival this summer, but not with his own musical project.
This time, he’s one of the band members backing his friends in Ottawa’s Satellite Birdhouse, a folk-rock outfit formed by the duo of Troy Huizinga and Stacy DuBois, who are also life partners. Watson has been producing their music at his Buckingham Palace studio in Buckingham, Que.
For the couple, part of the appeal of a Bluesfest gig is playing for a different, all-ages crowd.
“It’s an interesting opportunity to play for an audience that isn’t necessarily going out to the clubs in Ottawa,” Huizinga said. “You get to get in the ears of people who didn’t know that we were here.”
He said the booking also comes with greater “brand recognition,” a boon for any new act. DuBois just started writing songs during the pandemic, and one of her first, the harmonious October, became their recording debut in 2024.
“Having our name up there with, you know, Cody Johnson and Sheryl Crow and some of the other massive acts that are coming, is really great,” Huizinga said.
“Every spring people from all over the city are looking for the lineup. It’s the talk of the town, and our band name gets to be up there.”
Satellite Birdhouse members Troy and Stacy look forward to playing for different audiences at Bluesfest.
In the end, the acts that end up playing the festival are some of the city’s best. Here’s who made it to the program in 2026:
Satellite Birdhouse
July 9, Barney Danson Theatre
6:30-7:30 p.m.
Alicia Kayley
July 10, Barney Danson Theatre
6:30-7:30 p.m.
F!TH
July 10, RBC Stage
6-7 p.m.
Aspects
July 11, RBC Stage
6-7 p.m.
Mikhail Laxton
July 11, LeBreton Stage
5:45-6:30 p.m.
Mehdi Cayenne
July 12, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Ottawa Stage
6:15-7:15 p.m.
summersets
July 12, RBC Stage
6-7 p.m.
Les Rats d’Swompe
July 12, LeBreton Stage
5:45-6:30 p.m.
Joly
July 12, Barney Danson Theatre
6:30-7:30 p.m.
Mecca of Stank
July 15, LeBreton Stage
5:45-6:30 p.m.
Nayana
July 17, RBC Stage
6-7 p.m.
Bridge Music
July 18, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Ottawa Stage
6:15-7:15 p.m.
LeFlofranco
July 19, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Stage
6:55-7:45 p.m.
Banggz
July 19, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Ottawa Stage
5:45-6:35 p.m.
Rebelle
July 19, RBC Stage
6-7 p.m.
DJs
Tyr One
July 17-19, Spin Stage
DJ Karyen
July 12, 15-16, Spin Stage
DJ Kwane
July 10-11, 16-17, Crazy Horse Saloon
DJ Mace
July 9-11, Spin Stage
DJMC
July 9, 12, 15, 18-19, Crazy Horse Saloon
lsaxberg@postmedia.com