As the summer music festival lineups continue to roll out every week or so, Festival D’Ete De Quebec has managed to stand out from the pack by having fewer indie rock and rap groups and more Francophone and world music acts alongside some of the biggest superstars in the biz.
The initial lineup, announced Wednesday (April 8) at noon, includes tons of dad rock The Rolling Stones, Boston, Deep Purple, the Doobie Brothers, the Tragically Hip and a handful of bands we all love to hate Nickelback, Foo Fighters, Iggy Azalea, Skrillex (as part of Full Flex Express with Zeds Dead, A$AP Ferg, Tycho & Kiesza, which also comes to Toronto on July 11).
But there’s also plenty of smaller-font critical indie darlings, hip-hop and soul legends, Quebec stars, and buzz bands with cool cachet: Patrick Watson, De La Soul, Run the Jewels, Charles Bradley, METZ, Future Islands, Black Lips, Owen Pallett, Vincent Vallieres, Valerie Carpentier.
Other notables include Viet Cong clearly the fest isn’t scared of the Calgarians band name controversy Argentinian-born, Vancouver-raised R&B-electro newbie Tei Shi, Acadian Americana singer/songwriter Lisa LeBlanc, Toronto party-punk upstarts the OBGMs and Primus, who provide a satisfying WTF moment.
Festival D’Ete runs for 11 nights on outdoor stages throughout Quebec City, including on the Plains of Abraham, Place D’Youville, Parc de la Francophonie, Petit Imperial and venues throughout the lower town. Pre-sale passes go on sale tomorrow (Thursday, April 9) till Friday for $78. Passes go up by $10 on April 11, and by another $10 on June 9.
See the full programming and ticketing details at infofestival.com/Program/Schedule/.
carlag@nowtoronto.com | @carlagillis
