Local Artists At The 2017 Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival

Thursday, June 01, 2017

The Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival has a long history of supporting local talent, in previous years such nationally renowned bands and artists as: A Tribe Called Red, Hollerado, The Balconies, Jeremy Fisher, and Jim Bryson have all graced the Time Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival stage. The cornucopia of locally harvested talent has always found a prominent place at North America’s largest dragon boat festival and this year is no different.

Be sure to check out these amazing acts coming to you from the 613:

Kalle Mattson Kalle is no stranger to the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival lineup, having played here in 2015. This time around though, he’ll be returning to his hometown crowd as a Juno nominated artist. His year off from the Dragon Boat Festival would prove to be a very busy and fruitful year for Mattson as he was not only nominated for a Juno Award for Best Video for his single, Avalanche. The song’s video would also net Kalle a nomination for best director at the Much Music Video Awards and win him a Prism Prize award for which the video beat out the likes of: Death From Above 1979, A Tribe Called Red, and everyone’s favourite Degrassi High alum, Drake. Not a bad list of names to rise above, and three pretty demanding reasons to check out the video and Kalle Mattson’s performance Friday, June 23 at the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival.

Twin Flames Bringing the scorching heat, and starting the fire the rest of the night’s acts will have to follow is Twin Flames. The puns are vey much intended but very much earned as well. Twin Flames combines the musical talents of Chelsea June and Jaaji, both of which were already well established folk artists in their own right before meeting during the filming of a song writing television series for APTN back in 2014. Since then their combination of Jaaji’s Inuit influenced musical stylings, mixed with June’s Metis inspired storytelling, has earned the Ottawa based duo much recognition and acclaim throughout both Canada and the United States.

Kasador Effortlessly nurturing a sound evoking a 70s feel yet somehow still grounded in today’s musical landscape, Kasador returns to Canada after spending a good portion of the previous year doing what frightens most up and coming Canadian bands. Touring the big bad United States. They even spent last Canada Day in Brooklyn, NY rather than seeking the warm July 1 st comfort of a Canadian venue.

Half Moon Run Although you can see them headlining Saturday night’s Festival stage, you may also spot the band touring Ottawa landmarks lead by band frontman, and Ottawa native, Devon Portielje. This band’s percussion driven sounds forms such a perfect union with Devon’s haunting vocals that is it no wonder their song, ‘Full Circle’ was used in the trailer soundtrack for an instalment of the Canadian-crafted Assassin’s Creed videogame franchise.