#OSHEAGA Day 1 recap
The August long weekend is one to look forward to all summer. With a bunch of different festivals going on the same weekend such as Lollapalooza, and VELD we at The Xtra Mile decided to attend the 10th anniversary of Osheaga!
Osheaga is a three-day music festival that takes place at Parc Jean-Drapeau in beautiful Montreal. With acts like The Black Keys, Weezer, Kendrick Lamar, and Florence + The Machine, it was no wonder why this festival sold out so fast.
Day One of the festival:
After taking the metro, and singing with thousands of festivalgoers in line, we ran to one of the main stages to watch the first of many bands playing this festival.
The first band we managed to catch was Catfish and The Bottlemen. This UK band had a pretty big crowd considering they were the first band to play this year. There upbeat and catchy songs like “Homesick” and “Kathleen” got the crowd moving. Considering I didn’t know too much about them before the festival, this performance made me a fan.
Following this performance I decided to explore the Osheaga festival grounds. Every year there are always different art installations, food trucks and activities for those attending the festival to see and get involved with. New for this year was the Osheaga play zone and the Perrier Greenhouse. Favorites like the free Coca-Cola station and the H&M D.I.Y. House made a comeback for yet another year.
After exploring the grounds for a bit the next act I decide to watch was George Ezra. As expected Ezra’s performance drew a large crowd. This low mellow voice seemed to echo throughout as the crowd sang along to every song. Playing songs like “Blame it on me” and fan favourite “Budapest” fans left his set with all smiles.
As I made my way to the other side of the park Toronto native Afie Jurvanen best know, as Bahamas was getting ready to play. By the time I reached the stage he was already well into his set. I was able to see him play a coupe of songs such as “All The Time”. From what I saw of his set I can see why so many people like him.
Directly after Bahamas on the same stage was Twenty One Pilots. Having seen them a few times before I was curious to see them preform songs from their newest album. Once the came out on stage the crowd went nuts everyone sang and jumped along to every song. This duo is AMAZING live. The are full of energy and a ton of surprises. They even played drums on top of the crowd! I can honestly say that his group gets better everytime I see them and this was one of the best is not the best performance I had seen the whole festival.
The next couple of bands I managed to watch were the Avett Brothers and Of Monsters And Men. Both these bands played all the fan favourites, and they put on an amazing performance that had everyone cheering for more.
Closing day one of the festival was Florence and The Machine. As always Florence came out looking like a mystical being. As she started to sing the crowd began to roar. This high-energy mystical performance had people in awe as Florence ran back and forth, up and down yet she didn’t seem out of breath. Florence and the Machine played a collection of songs from her new and old albums.
