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Originally Posted by Proof Sheet
I agree in many ways. There is also the ice sculpture area across from City Hall.
I also find Canada Day downtown to be a letdown. Just a lot of people walking back and forth in the heat and everybody wondering 'is this it? surely there is more to it than this'.
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Although Bluesfest has become huge and picked up some of the slack, there is clearly an overall decline in major events and their scale in Ottawa.
I hadn't thought about Canada Day but you're right about that as well. You used to have an all-day rock show at Lansdowne back in the day. This was a private thing, and not part of the government-sponsored stuff.
The Tulip Festival/Festival of Spring used to be a much bigger deal with large crowds for shows, etc. It's been downscaled as well.
The Festival Franco-Ontarien also used to be much bigger.
And of course there was SuperEx (Central Canadian Exhibition) at Lansdowne which may have been campy and grungy but it was a fun place to go as a teenager or young adult.
There also used to be an NCC-sponsored New Year's Eve bash on Parliament Hill.
I have no idea what is behind this downward evolution. In most places in the world established festivities have actually ramped up and gotten bigger.
(And I don't necessarily think these things are truly being replaced by other stuff like Riverside, Glowfest or Escapade...)
This had already started prior to COVID, BTW.