Ottawa Winter Jazz Festival canceled
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Omicron strikes again, this time throwing a wrench into the plans for the Ottawa Winter Jazz Festival.
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As performers bow out and venues face capacity restrictions, festival organizers say they had no choice but to cancel the event, which was scheduled to take place the last weekend. end of January and the first weekend of February at two downtown locations: Arts Court and Carleton Center Dominion-Chalmers.
“We unplugged. We just couldn’t do it, ”festival director Catherine O’Grady said in an interview. “It’s one of those punch-in-the-gut things. Winter Jazz (festival) is about getting people out of the winter doldrums and it’s so sad we can’t do it, but we have to keep everyone safe.
The two-weekend program was to feature performances by Fred Hersch, OKAN, Holly Cole and the Blind Boys of Alabama, as well as local artists such as guitarist Roddy Ellias, singer Kellylee Evans and pianist Peter Hum.
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O’Grady said the uncertainty of the COVID-19 situation makes it impossible to postpone the winter festivities. His team will therefore change gears to focus on the programming of the main event in the summer, which will be held from June 23 to July 3 at Confederation Park. Several artists have already been rebooked for this.
Music fans who have purchased tickets for the Winter Concert Series will have the option to keep their tickets to use during the Summer Festival or get their money back.
In the meantime, the festival will offer paid broadcasts of some of last summer’s stripped-down in-person event performances over the coming winter jazz weekends.
“We have a lot of amazing gigs from last summer that haven’t had a lot of interest,” O’Grady said. “There are some amazing shows in the box that we want people to see.”
More information is available at ottawajazzfestival.com.