Back by popular demand, outdoor concert tickets hot this summer
'People have never been more excited about going to a concert,' says Carson Becke
Back by popular demand, live outdoor concerts are the hottest ticket in and out of town, according to organizers in the Ottawa and Outaouais area.
Music presenters — lucky enough to have an outdoor stage and plenty of room for audience members to spread out — are back booking artists and hosting concerts.
Tickets are sold in advance to limit audience numbers and enable contact tracing, but those are hard to come by, say several concert organizers.
A show under meteor showers
Nestled beneath the cliffs of the Eardley Escarpment near Gatineau Park sits Venturing Hills Farm — home to Pontiac Enchanté, a classical music concert series, where pre-pandemic performances took place above the stables.
In the past 16 months, artistic director and pianist Carson Becke produced a series of online concerts from the farm, but now that the Quebec government has approved large outdoor concerts, he's preparing to host a concert under the stars in an open field.
"I feel like if the pandemic has done anything for the performing arts, [it] has made us realize that, yes, we do really need these events," said Becke. "Those live experiences really can't be replaced."
Becke said he never doubted that music lovers would jump at the chance to attend an outdoor concert.
"My barometer is how quickly tickets sold, and that barometer indicates that people have never been more excited about going to a concert," said Becke.
The sold-out concert on Aug. 14 is set to take place during a meteor shower. While the musicians perform Gustav Holst's orchestral suite The Planets, heavenly bodies are expected to entertain with their own spectacular display.
Becke has arranged a giant telescope to project celestial movements onto a big screen next to the stage.
Grassy field concert will be 'sheer joy'
"We are small and nimble," said Helen MacKinnon, one of the organizers of Musical Mondays, an outdoor concert series at Fairbairn House Heritage Centre in Wakefield, Que.
Since mid-July, Musical Mondays has been hosting musicians from a large post-and-beam wooden stage located in a grassy field.
"Lots of room for social distancing in a large site," said MacKinnon. "This is what is really enabled us to pivot and do this program during this pandemic."
MacKinnon said performers have been jumping at the chance to play before a real audience, and patrons are seizing the opportunity to attend the concerts. Concertgoers are required to wear masks until they are seated.
"It's been sheer joy ... for people to be able to listen to live music and also to gather in a public space, in a safe environment — something they have not been able to do for quite some time," said MacKinnon.
The next Musical Mondays takes place Aug. 9 with children's entertainer Derek McKinley, followed by singer Rebecca Noelle on Aug. 16, according to their website.
'Good for the soul' coffee and music
Neat Coffee House in Burnstown, Ont., is back in the concert business, hosting a string of sold-out shows featuring a stellar lineup of musicians including Whitehorse, The Sheepdogs, The Trews and the Skydiggers.
"Our big advantage out here is the amount of space we have," said owner Mark Enright. "We have so many tables and so much space to accommodate people. I feel sorry for the restaurants that have tiny little patios."
Located on two acres of land, it's easy for guests to fan out in lawn chairs and feel safe during the performance. The audience is limited to 100 people per show.
Enright said the return of live music is "good for the soul," and tickets are a hot commodity.
"It's the first thing they would ask me when they came by the restaurant," said Enright.
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