Soul Fest Review

With respect to the music, I'm not really a big fan of much of what was played, however, most of the bands were local, young or new artists and I like the idea of supporting them. In my experience of attending I noticed a few single people attending, usually they would arrive early in the shows when there are more spots available; and in a few cases I noticed they simply stay at their table for all of the subsequent shows and it doesn't appear that any staff or management really cares about that. So, if I am to attend again next year and I am in a better place financialy, I can get a table, order a Coke and get some food; and repeat one or both of those at every one hour intermission. By having a seat and getting a table, my stamina for being at the event for an extended period will go much better.

An additional thought I had was to let the hostess know that as a solo diner, once the restaurant is full, if there are any new single diners that arrive, I would be happy to have them share my table.

There is one day (today) of no free shows, and then tomorrow Nuits D'Afrique begins, well, it has begun already, but the free shows only happen from July 14 to 19.

Soul Fest day four

Before the first show started I chatted very briefly with the MC as he was standing in a shaded area just inside the fence that surrounds the restaurant part of the event area and I was standing just outside of the fence. I asked him what his favourite performance was of the event, and he said it was the previous night's show - the one I had skipped. 

This is reminiscent of what happened at the Jazz Festival, I had lost my stamina and left, only to miss the Angine de Poitrine show.

The first performer today was Sajaa who did a lot of explaining about her songs between the songs and she tried to get audience participation but only partially succeeded.

She finished her set about ten minutes earlier than her one hour time slot allowed, and I walked a little bit east on Ste-Catherine and found a bench I could sit at, which I did until 18h, at which time I went back to the Soul Fest grounds to catch the next show at 18h30, it was Mighty Real Gospel X, and they were really good; they got the whole crowd involved and were powerful as a group, and powerful as individual singers when for most of the songs, one of them would move to the front and take a solo position.

I went home after this show; it wasn't clear to me - the schedule on their site shows that it would be a second performance of Mighty Real Gospel X, however, the photo showed a different act. In any case, Soul Fest is over now.

Soul Fest day three

The only day with four consecutive free outdoor shows, my stamina didn't get me to the last one, though it seems likely I'd have preferred act number four as compared to act number three that I left before it was over.

First was Mely Walide, she was by herself on stage, she had full on music recordings playing behind her singing. She had great dance moves through her performance. She sounded a little what I suspect Whitney Houston must have sounded like in her young twenties; or at least, the two sing similar sounding songs.

I attended the full hour of her set, I thought she was pretty good. With the next show an hour later I went for a walk, I went to Place de Cathedrale and found the bathroom there.

I returned with 35 minutes to spare before Annabel Oreste and her band. She sang a medly of slow songs and more upbeat ones, not too dissimilar from what Walide had done earlier. Incidentally, I saw Walide in the audience for this show.

I left this set with about 15 minutes remaining in it as I had heard enough of Whitney Houston style songs and headed over to A&W for supper. I returned after that to catch the next show, Sympa César. I actually wasn't too impressed with this group, I ended staying only for the first four songs to see if it would get any better. You can see Mely Walide in the foreground in the photo below with César being the guy just to the left of the central pillar. The two girls on the right were backup singers.

Tonight is the last night and I will be heading out soon to attend two shows.

Soul Fest Day two

I arrived a little later than I would have liked, but I caught the last half hour of the second performing artist today, Papi Jay. He has a strong voice, sings songs in both English and French, and often engaged the audience by both voice, and by moving off the stage and into the lounging area where the tables, chairs and attendees were seated.

I found a bench a little further east on Ste-Catherine street and sat for 25 minutes as there is an hour gap between shows so as to take down the music equipment of the finished performer, and to set up and sound check the next one.

The next one was Naïka Champaïgne. She has a powerful voice and used it quite a few times to sing out very long extended notes. During this performance I was surrounded by women, the one to my right dancing in such a way that her left arm was very close to battering me in the head. I ended up leaving this show after about 35 minutes of the hour long set as I didn't want to be next to this excited dancing person and I had had enough.

Soul Fest Day One

Even though it was raining last night, and even though it was forecast to rain, sometimes hard, for the duration of my stay, I still went to catch the first two free shows of this small festival, in its third year. Soul Fest brings together new and established artists in R&B, Funk and Disco. They have a single outdoor stage for free shows, and a single indoor venue (Le Balcon) for paid shows. The outdoor staging area is at the front of a church on Ste-Catherine street near address 463 West, where a cordoned off area has become a restaurant which I imagine is what helps to fund the festival. The sidewalk, however, is free to enter and to stand and watch the show, so that is what I did.

During the first show, where Mary Grace and her band sang an Etta James Tribute, there was a thick crowd of people on her left that were all just talking with each other, not hardly paying attention to her. On Grace's right were perhaps a dozen small groups at least half of which were avidly following Grace. There were perhaps ten of us standing in the free zone.

She was super animated as a singer, with a lovely voice and she tried to get participation occasionally.

Grace finished at just before 20h and the next show was to start at 21h and I was pretty drenched from the nonstop rain, so I walked to the Place des Arts metro station, went down to the platform level, and ended up sitting there to escape the rain, dry out a little, and watch trains and people pass by. I resurfaced at 20h50 to walk back to the venue to watch the next show, and at this time it was raining even harder.

Jules has become somewhat well known here in Quebec for his appearances on La Voix and Star Académie; he is a French language singer with his own original songs and he has two albums. Accompanying him on stage were two musicians, one of whom curiously had a bass drum foot pedal; so when there was a rhythm requirement, he provided it by simply tapping his foot.

I did not stay for his whole set as I had had enough of being in the rain.