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Foo Fighters, Shawn Mendes to headline Ottawa Bluesfest 2018

Bluesfest 2018 will feature headliners like the Foo Fighters and Shawn Mendes, as well as local acts like The Town Cryers and The Bank Street Bonbons.

Lineup also includes Beck, Three Days Grace, Bryan Adams

CBC News ·
RBC Bluesfest organizers announced Tuesday that the Foo Fighters would be headlining the 2018 festival. (consequenceofsound.com)

Bluesfest 2018 will feature headliners Foo Fighters and Shawn Mendes, as well as local acts like The Town Cryers and The Bank Street Bonbons. 

Tickets for the annual festival, which will take place at Lebreton Flats Park from July 5 to 15, go on sale Friday, Feb. 16, with pre-sale tickets available starting the day before at 10 a.m.

Attendance options include day passes, three or five-show passes, full-festival wristbands and VIP tickets. 

Head to their website for the day-by-day schedule, with more acts still to be announced.

Sturgill Simpson performs during the Forecastle Music Festival in Louisville, Ky., last year. Simpson is one of Ottawa Bluesfest executive director Mark Monahan's picks for this year's festival, with his performance set for July 13. (The Associated Press)

Bluesfest executive director Mark Monahan told CBC's Ottawa Morning the goal every year is to give people a lot of different genres and choices and hopefully some big names.

"That's what I think we've achieved," he said. 

For him, the biggest get is the Foo Fighters, but he said he's also pleased that the lineup includes alt-rocker Beck — who has never played Ottawa — and country singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson, who Monahan called the "real deal."

Violence and security issues on the night of hip hop trio Migos' performance last year wasn't far from the minds of organizers when looking for talent for the 2018 edition of the music festival.

'They're promoting a positive message'

8 years ago
Duration 0:56
Bluesfest executive director Mark Monahan explains how the festival went about choosing hip hop acts for this year's festival.

Monahan said festival organizers were trying not to be censors — they're embracing hip hop because of its popularity and because of the artists doing great things in the genre — but making more of a conscious effort to be aware of the acts performing. 

"I would say we're being careful about the messages that the people we're bringing in are [conveying]," he said. 

Hip-hop acts this year include Rae Sremmurd, Machine Gun Kelly, Naughty by Nature and Brockhampton.

Slim Jxmmi, left, and Swae Lee, of Rae Sremmurd at the American Music Awards on Nov. 19, 2017, in Los Angeles. They play Ottawa Bluesfest July 14. (The Associated Press)

Here are the artists expected to take the stage this year:

  • Foo Fighters
  • Dave Matthews Band
  • Shawn Mendes
  • Bryan Adams
  • Beck
  • Rae Sremmurd
  • Rise Against
  • Brett Eldredge
  • Three Days Grace
  • Sturgill Simpson
  • Jethro Tull
  • Zeds Dead
  • The War on Drugs
  • Shaggy
  • Colin James
  • Passenger
  • Machine Gun Kelly
  • The Strumbellas
  • Hanson
  • Kimbra
  • A.J. Croce
  • Jessie Reyez
  • Courtney Barnett
  • Brockhampton
  • Chromeo
  • St. Paul & The Broken Bones
  • Oh Wonder
  • Ghostface Killah
  • Lighthouse
  • Naughty By Nature
  • M. Ward
  • Greta Van Fleet
  • Keys N Krates
  • Grandtheft
  • Yaeji
  • Benjamin Booker
  • Noname
  • Dear Rouge
  • Kodie Shane
  • Lauv
  • Beth Hart
  • The Spencer Lee Band
  • Chelsea Cutler
  • Nick Lowe with Los Straitjackets
  • Larkin Poe
  • RL Boyce
  • The Julian Taylor Band
  • Fortunate Ones
  • Jupiter & Okwess
  • Andrew "Jr. Boy" Jones
  • Molly Tuttle
  • The Suitcase Junket
  • Sweet Crude
  • John Németh
  • Hat Fitz & Cara
  • Steve Hill
  • The Texas Horns
  • The Split
  • MonkeyJunk
  • Red Young
  • Liza Anne
  • Mr. Sipp
  • Bob Long III
  • The Lachy Doley Group
  • Anthony Geraci
  • Alanna Sterling & The Silvers
  • Amos the Transparent
  • Andrew Cassara
  • Andrew Waines
  • Animal Confession
  • Aspects & Rita Carter
  • Black Irish
  • Brock Zeman
  • Catriona Sturton
  • City Fidelia
  • Cody Coyote
  • Graven
  • Her Harbour
  • Hevve
  • Joe McDonald & The Walkin' Hawks
  • Jw-Jones
  • Kimberly Sunstrum
  • Krystal Jyl and the Jacks
  • leMeow
  • Morris Obgowu
  • Okies
  • Ray Montford Group
  • River City Junction
  • Stone Age Man
  • TAPAS
  • Tara Shannon
  • The Angelina Hunter Trio
  • The Bank Street Bonbons
  • The PepTides
  • The Town Cryers
  • Vicki Brittle

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