The 17th edition of Montreal's Osheaga music festival was a hot ticket.
With 147,000 music fans packing into Parc Jean-Drapeau across three days, the festival recorded its second-highest attendance ever, thanks to rising star Chappell Roan, elusive R&B icon SZA and the nostalgic rock of Green Day.
It was also hampered by the later revelation of a tragedy, with one festival-goer found drowned in the Olympic Basin at Parc Jean-Drapeau after leaving the Osheaga grounds. An investigation into the death is underway.
Billboard Canada attended the festival's two sold-out days, Saturday, August 3 and Sunday, August 4. Chappell Roan may have been the weekend's clear star, but she wasn't the only performer who stood out from the crowd. Here are the highlights.
TalkTim Snow
Talk Kicked Crocs, Brittany Howard Belted To The Sky
Chappell Roan was no easy act to follow, but Ottawa's Talk brought strong energy to the stage Saturday afternoon. Clearly having fun, the Juno winner — who FEQ artistic director Louis Bellavance tells us is especially popular in Quebec — performed his breakthrough hit "Runaway To Mars" and told the audience he had a special bond with La Belle Province. "Me and Quebec, we've become best friends," he explained, before later kicking off his croc to a crowd of thousands.
While Talk was on the central Mountain Stage, a Quebec musician was getting the crowd moving at the Island Stage. Producer and DJ CRi played mellow dance music to a warm — literally and figuratively — crowd, a palate-cleansing set for festivalgoers moving through Parc Jean-Drapeau.
Over on the Valley Stage, further east on Jean-Drapeau's Île Sainte-Hélène, Brittany Howard launched into a rousing set, accompanied by an excellent full band and backup singers. Howard, best-known as the singer from Grammy-winning rock group Alabama Shakes, released her second solo record, What Now, this year.
The crowd for her may have been smaller, but she gave a performance that could have satisfied tens of thousands, serving as frontperson, bandleader and motivational speaker all in one. Howard's blend of soul, blues and electronic music took on a moving intensity through her dynamite performance, as she belted to the thick skies, acted out the drum hits and danced across the stage.
"I wrote this song when I was on the wrong side of an 80/20 relationship," she explained before launching into "Baby," a song from her first solo album about earning love and letting go of someone who won't work for it. Her performance was a testament to the fact that love and work can be one and the same — and that loving ourselves is part of how we love others. "Be good to each other, be good to yourselves," Howard told the crowd before her final number.
Green DayTim Snow
Green Day Lit Up The Night
Saturday evening headliners Green Day showed off their skills as veteran rockers. They played two full albums to a sold-out crowd, as part of their Saviors Tour, celebrating 30 years of 1994's Dookie and 20 years of 2004's No. 1 record American Idiot. Though the band has been going for over 30 years, they hardly wore their age on stage, keeping the energy going and the crowd engaged with recurring call-and-response.
They peppered the nostalgia trip with a couple songs off of 2024's Saviorsand invited up an excited fan to scream into the mic during 21st Century Breakdown's "Know Your Enemy." The banter was mostly kept to a minimum, which meant the performance sometimes felt a bit generic. The most authentic moment of the set might have been when Billie Joe Armstrong scoffed at all the Coors Light branding around the festival grounds. "Coors? That's not a f--cking beer!"
If the set was a touch one-size-fits-all, that's also what playing to 50,000 people demands. Green Day were more than up to the challenge of entertaining, completely unphased by blasts of fire that punctuated their set as they blazed through hits like "Basket Case" and "Holiday." After they finished the anthemic "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," though, the sound seemed to drop by about 50% in the back half of the festival grounds. When it didn't come back, audience members started streaming out — though the band played on.
RAYETim Snow
RAYE Powered Through The Storm, Tyla Made It Rain
On Sunday, the show briefly came to a halt due to lightning. A severe weather warning blared throughout the festival grounds and U.K. pop singer RAYE told the crowd she was heartbroken to have to leave the stage. But after 20 minutes, she was cleared to get back out there, and she gave the audience a performance worth waiting for.
"I was so worried you were gonna disappear," she told the audience. In an elegant red gown and performing with a live horn section, RAYE channelled jazz and soul cabaret singers for a withering cover of James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World," showing off an impressive combo of vocal power and control. She spoke openly about sexual assault as she introduced her song "Ice Cream Man" and then switched into party mode for songs like "Black Mascara." and her 2023 hit "Escapism."
She seemed genuinely thrilled to be there, showing a vulnerability that made her as endearing as she was compelling. "You Are My Headliner," read one sign in the crowd, in a potential vision of the future.
The packed mainstage crowd thinned out after RAYE left the stage. Seemingly every festivalgoer was making their way over to the side stage where Tyla was scheduled to come out next. The South African Amapiano singer has had a major breakout year, winning the first-ever Grammy for best African music performance with her song "Water."
Like Chappell Roan's afternoon time slot, Tyla's relegation to the side stage undersold her popularity; the ten-minute walk to the Valley Stage felt much longer, packed in amidst a dense throng in the sticky humidity. She took the stage with a massive tiger and a group of energetic backup dancers, but sound troubles hampered the set.
Still, Tyla's charisma shone through. At one point, she stopped the performance because she couldn't hear herself, laughing to the crowd: "I'm just serving you guys vibes right now." The heat broke during her set — prepared fans pulled out umbrellas and ponchos — and it was a beautiful relief to sing along to "Water" as the rain drizzled off and on.
HozierTim Snow
Hozier Called For A Ceasefire, SZA Thanked A Rapt Audience
Back in the mainstage zone, Irish songwriter Hozier performed hits like "Too Sweet" and "Take Me To Church," and urged fans to contact their representatives about a ceasefire in Gaza. "Of course, peace and safety and security would mean a Palestine free from occupation," he told the crowd, to a round of cheers.
R&B icon SZA followed with the final headline performance of the festival, and it was a true production, complete with massive props, an ever-changing backdrop and a live band that ramped up her often low-key songs.
She came out with confidence, hyping up tracks like "Go Gina" and "Love Galore" from her 2017 album CTRL. But she seemed to lose certainty at certain points, dropping some of the lyrics on a stripped-back "Supermodel" and telling the crowd: "I'm having a bad day today, guys. I'm grateful for your presence."
Fans were grateful in return, belting all the words to hitslike "Kill Bill" and "Saturn" and getting especially riled up during Drake's "Rich Baby Daddy." Guitarist Ari O'Neal helped elevate a standout version of "Garden (Say It Like Dat)" which SZA performed while perched on a giant ant.
SZA first appeared at Osheaga in 2015, before CTRL came out. The success of 2022's SOS cemented her as one of the industry's biggest stars, but the confessional nature of her songwriting still makes her feel like a friend, as well as an icon. Even on a bad day, she can command a crowd, and her fluid voice sounded fantastic.
After Osheaga, she announced that she'll be taking a break from performing — Montreal was lucky to have her.
Osheaga 2024Tim Snow
The Future of Festival-Going
As the climate crisis worsens, the future of major festivals looks potentially hazy. They'll have to be more prepared and preventative than ever when it comes to safety and security. This year's edition could have used more misting and water refill stations, as well as shade access.
Events like Osheaga are already a feat to undertake, with high risks. Both RAYE and SZA had to call security into the crowd to assist attendees during their sets.
But it doesn't look like attendance is slowing down. Even with a heat warning, fans turned out in droves this weekend.
Though families and aging rock fans were also in attendance, the crowd was mostly made up of teenagers and 20-somethings in their best festival fits (boots, sheer skirts, and glittering makeup). That's a good sign for Osheaga. Nostalgia sells tickets, but it's zeitgeist acts like Chappell, Tyla and SZA that keep a major festival relevant.
Osheaga could remain a festival of choice for young Canadians well into the next decade — if it can stay cool, in more ways than one.
