Angine de Poitrine Moved to Bigger Stages at Ottawa Bluesfest and Hillside Festival to Meet Demand

Festival stages can't contain Angine de Poitrine.

Following a record-breaking performance at the Montreal International Jazz Fest last Saturday (June 27), Angine de Poitrine are moving to bigger stages for their scheduled performances at Ottawa Bluesfest on July 17 and Hillside Festival in Guelph on July 19.

The band is has moved up to the main stage at Ottawa Bluesfest. Now, they will now play a 6 pm set ahead of famed singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow and rising country star Ella Langley, who's currently leading the Billboard Canadian Hot 100. The lineup change is meant to ensure safety for all festivalgoers while meeting the red-hot demand for the polka-dotted Quebec duo, who show no signs of slowing down.

“Obviously the problem is that when people buy tickets to one day, we don’t know exactly who they’re coming to see,” Mark Monahan, Bluesfest's executive director, told the Ottawa Citizen. “But the popularity of Angine de Poitrine is phenomenal, and we are trying to avoid a situation where people buy a ticket and can’t see them because the stage is too small.”

The band has also been upgraded to play a "grand set" at Guelph's Hillside Festival, playing the main stage at 10 pm on Sunday, July 19, the final act of the festival.

"Join us for one final gathering on the Island as we celebrate another unforgettable weekend of music, community, and connection," the event shared in an Instagram post announcing the lineup change.

Angine de Poitrine has witnessed a meteoric rise in just a few months. From playing to small crowds of 2,000 people at last year's Montreal Jazz Fest, the band drew a record crowd to Place des Arts this year with an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 people, possibly more, spanning across three blocks. It's the largest audience the festival has witnessed since Stevie Wonder headlined for 200,000 fans in 2009.

First, the demand for the band's club-sized headline shows spread across Canada, and then the world, following their breakthrough performance on KEXP. They've since scaled even more to reach global headliner status, and festivals are adapting quickly.

“You always book hoping a couple of artists might suddenly do some kind of break for you, but I don’t know if we’ve ever experienced this with such an indie band before,” says Bluesfest spokesperson Joe Reilly. “It’s kind of astonishing.”

Angine de Poitrine fever will land in Toronto ahead of both festival dates, the band playing their hat trick of shows at the Mod Club on July 14, 15 and 18, the first of which will be preceded by an opening set for Jack White at RBC Amphitheatre in front of 16,000 fans. The band is already set to return for a bigger solo headline at History on Nov. 5.