Ottawa’s Westfest opens the 2017 festival season

After a weekend of hip-hop, blues, drag, and just about every genre of music you could possibly fit onto a small festival stage, Westfest 2017 has come to a close.

Keeping true to it’s insistence of being completely free, diverse and inclusive, the festival rocked Laroche Park in Ottawa’s Mechanicsville neighbourhood with music, artisans, food and children’s activities. A portion of the field was dedicated to Indigenous artists, and several performance art pieces were performed during the weekend; including a demonstration by drag queen PomponMinoune, as she transformed from male to female presenting.

The artists that took the stage were proudly Ottawa based. Beginning Friday night, Ian Campeau, AKA DeeJay NDN of A Tribe Called Red, headlined a powerful opening night; which also included Ottawa’s Neeco Poster Boy and Cody Coyote. You can see photos from Friday night here.

Saturday night was dedicated to the blues, as Juno Award winners MonkeyJunk took the stage. Their performances were complimented by a variety of fellow blues and folk artists, including River City Junction and Lyle Odjick and The Northern Steam. Check out our photos of MonkeyJunk here.

In an attempt to make up for a completely rained out afternoon in 2016, a slightly rainy Sunday was made up of artists who were forced to postpone their performances at last year’s Westfest, including headlining rockers Lemon Cash.

Always free, always, Westfest provides Ottawa artists with a stage to perform and patrons a place to feel welcome and safe.

You can see the full album from the whole weekend on our Facebook page!

Duo D’accords

Voices of Praise Gospel Choir

Pop Culture Icons

Susan O

Brad Sucks

John Punch Band

The Backroadies

Bella Straight

Troubadours

Jungle Jane

Kimberly Sunstrum

Nine of Nine

Lemon Cash

Emily Plunkett

Born and raised with thoughts and aspirations of becoming a famous bassist in Sarnia, ON; Emily Plunkett now lives in Gatineau, QC, and considers National Capital Region home sweet home. A product of the Beatles, MuchMusic and the Southwestern Ontario summer festival circuit (circa 2000), her interest and love in concert photography came almost completely by accident when her journalism program at Algonquin College required courses in photojournalism (and she quickly realized that photos taken at concerts using a DSLR are enormously better than ones she was taking on a point-and-shoot she bought for a trip to England). She is extremely proud of the fact she has seen Sloan in some form or another 25 times.