City and Colour closes out record breaking 2016 RBC Bluesfest

After 8 amazing days of music, Sunday was the grand finale of one of the biggest years for RBC Bluesfest in its 22 year history. 

The weather was perfect and the crowds were ready for one last party at Lebreton Flats. We managed to make it down to the venue just in time to catch Amos The Transparent on the Claridge Homes stage before making our way around to the other stages. Of course our daily festival routine involved a trip to the Monster Energy Stage for a slice of RBC Bluesfest pizza which we decided to eat in the RBC #SomeDay Zone watching more giant Jenga, some amazing air guitar competitions and our friend Rory Gardiner doing his best to keep the crowd engaged and entertained, the #Someday Zone was by far one of the daily highlights during the event.

Every year there are bands I was hoping to see that I didn’t manage to see so they get added to my next time list. From Sunday the bands that I have to add to that list include: Mark Fossen, The PepTides, Lindsey Stirling and Bombino.

Sunday was another day that my festival sidekick joined me for the event so I thought it would be fun to let him take over my personal Instagram account seeing as he enjoyed taking pictures at some of the previous events we had attended. The first show we took in after our dinner was the Zola’s on the City Stage. I really enjoyed their set, definitely a group that I will checkout again.

 

After the Zolas we made our way down to the Monster Energy Stage for Brock Zeman, little did we know that we (more specifically Keenan) had caught the eye of the RBC Bluesfest social media rep who was intrigued in Keenan’s festival interest and invited him to “takeover” the RBC Bluesfest Instagram account from backstage during Brock Zeman’s show.  I want to personally thank the RBC Bluesfest team for doing this, it was most definitely a highlight for Keenan at this year’s event.

After Keenan’s Brock Zeman takeover we were just about to leave the backstage area when Sean Sisk called us back to introduce us to members of another local band, The Power Goats. I want to give these guys a special shout out for being super cool. They took to Keenan right away, most people do, and really made him feel extra special backstage. Jamie Douglas and co. you guys can count on seeing me, and my sidekick (if you play an all ages event), sometime in the near future. Thanks for making the last day of RBC Bluesfest a memorable one.

After chillin’ with The Power Goats for a while it was back to the main bowl for Bryan Ferry. Bryan crooned his way into the hearts of a building crowd at the Claridge Homes stage setting the tone perfectly for the headliner to come, City and Colour.

City and Colour, led by frontman, and former lead singer for Alexis on Fire, Dallas Green, was one of the highly anticipated Canadian headliners to grace the City Stage during this summer’s RBC Bluesfest. Dallas didn’t waste anytime grabbing the crowd’s attention which he kept for the duration of his performance. All day long anytime I would ask someone who they were coming to see on Sunday night the answer would be City and Colour. Dallas put on an incredible performance with an equally impressive light show.

 

We capped off the evening with a trip back to the Monster Stage for another festival must, a Beaver Tail. While there we took in a few songs of James McMurtry’s set. This Texas based singer/songwriter put on an impressive performance for a decent sized crowd given it was the last show of the Festival and the fact that he was up against a popular Canadian artist on the City Stage only a few hundred meters away.

And that wraps up another incredible two weeks of music. RBC Bluesfest 2016 is in the history books. Big thanks, as always, to Sean Sisk. Sean was at Lebreton Flats daily when the gates opened, or shortly there-after, and provided us with some incredible images over the past two weeks. Please check out his website and remember that Sean does this for a living so please support his work!

My favourites of this past year were undoubtedly: The Cult, Thomas Rhett, Brad Paisley, Duran Duran and John Fogerty tie for best performance of the year.

One thing that I learned this year is that I can’t do RBC Bluesfest any justice with just one writer on hand. They book incredible music every year and pack 4 stages with bands so that there’s always someone performing somewhere and seeing as I can’t be everywhere it makes sense to add a writer. So I guess that means I have my work cut out for me over the next 9 or 10 months before we need to submit again for RBC Bluesfest 2017.

Of course thanks to the RBC Bluesfest team for having us again for our 4th straight year. We’ll see you again at City Folk this fall.

 

Some of out favourite Images from Sunday night!

Dallas Green of City and Colour, Photo – Sean Sisk