About: Darren Boucher

Tim Horton’s Dragon Boat Festival is an acclaimed sporting and family-friendly event held annually in Ottawa.The Dragon Boat races are the largest in North America, and coupled with the free concerts and activities hosted each day, Mooney’s Bay Park sees an influx of locals and visitors to enjoy the event. This year, the Festival was held June 20th to 23rd, and talent from across Canada were slotted to play four evenings on the Hillside stage.

For more than a quarter century, the month of June brings the Tim Horton’s Dragon Boat Festival to Ottawa.This year’s event takes place from June 20th through 23rd. The annual event hosts 200 teams from across North America who participate in the community, corporate, and competitive races. As the sun sets music fills the air and this summer the first half of the fest was kicked off with Half Moon Run and Alan Doyle.

This past weekend was the 3rd edition of the Ottawa Ice Dragon Boat Festival, a winter spin on their extremely popular summer event. Similar to the summer occurrence, this festival raises money for various local charities while providing a fun experience for all.  In tandem with the competitions and charitable endeavour, both seasonal iterations of this festival have become widely popular for the free concert series the public can attend. Through the years, the stage has been headlined by some of the hottest acts in Canadian music. This year’s featured artists were electro-rock energized Dear Rouge and the reggae and ska sensation Bedouin Soundclash. Both are Juno Award winners for Breakthrough Group of the Year in 2016 and 2006, respectively.

Barney Bentall recently played the Azrieli Studio as part of the NAC Presents program, an initiative aimed at bringing Canadian talent, emerging or established, to the national stage. Donning his harmonica, guitar and hat, he was joined by two talented musicians, Eric Reed on mandolin/guitar and Anne Lindsay on violin.