Ottawa’s new music venue History Ottawa already has a slate of events planned from September onward, although an opening date has yet to be confirmed. Speaking at an Ottawa Board of Trade event on Thursday, Ali Shafaee, regional vice-president for Live Nation Canada, said History Ottawa will be “a world-class venue” when it opens later this summer.
“In my opinion, it’s going to be one of the top five venues across the country, and it’ll be right here in Ottawa,” Shafaee said, speaking on a panel on arts and culture in the downtown core. With construction ongoing at the Rideau Street site, Shafaee said the venue has already garnered interest from artists.
“We’re super-excited to be able to bring it to life later this summer, which is even more exciting that we now have a target date. We’ve got a full calendar lined up in September right through the fall, with special events and concerts.” OBJ reached out Friday to ask about a specific opening date, but did not hear back. History Ottawa will open in the city at a time when interest in live music is growing, Shafaee said, and mid-sized venues like History will fill a gap in the local market.
“We tend to see an artist in London or Windsor. They’ll go to Toronto, Buffalo and Syracuse and then they’ll hop back on the 401 and go to Montreal. They’ll always just drive through Ottawa and skip it,” he explained. “They want to play markets that they’re able to build themselves in … and when you lose that in Ottawa by not having this room, the artist doesn’t resonate with the city. “We thought that the only way to be able to do that is to build a mid-size venue in Ottawa. We’re the only market in Canada that doesn’t have this kind of space,” Shafaee said.
When a property became available at "arguably the most important corner” in the city at Rideau Street and Sussex Drive, “we had to jump on it,” Shafaee said.
Once complete, the venue will not only bring sought-after artists to the ByWard Market, but solid production as well.
“What we've found is it's created an experience, because it's evolved from just being about a singer. It's gone into production. It’s all about visuals, lighting, pyrotechnics and things like that. Being able to bring History, where we’ll bring not only world-class talent, but world-class production to the space. This will also elevate the vibrancy of Ottawa and what it’s bringing to the downtown core.” Shafaee was cautious about using the word “revitalization” when referring to the Live Nation project on Rideau.
“We’ve thrown around the term ‘revitalization.’ We look at our location in Ottawa almost as a reimagination of the ByWard Market. A revitalization, to me, is trying to bring something back from the past. We need to look at the ByWard Market and the downtown core (and ask), ‘What is it that we need it to be now?’” Shafaee said. The venue is expected to bring about 150 events throughout the year, he said, attracting about 300,000 people to the area annually. The venue will also employ 300 full- and part-time employees.
“Those staff need to be able to live close to work, so it means bringing more people that are going to be staying in the downtown core or the ByWard Market. For that matter, 300,000 people are going to come downtown … to go for dinner before and drinks after. They’re maybe going to the Rideau Centre for shopping … The idea is not only is it going to draw local tourism, but also out-of-town tourism (and) they’re going to stay in hotel rooms,” he said.
History Ottawa will be the second History location in Canada, with the first opening in the Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto. Shafaee said the Toronto flagship location energized the area and he thinks the Ottawa location will be no different.
“When we opened (in Toronto), people thought there’s no way it’s going to be a success. The Beaches, at the time, wasn’t the best area in Toronto. Now, five or six years later, there’s condos going up everywhere. There are restaurants thriving. There’s a whole new audience that’s moved to the area and it’s totally revitalized the Beaches.” All in all, Shafaee said he’s optimistic about where the Ottawa live music scene is going.
“It’s not only about the mark that History Ottawa is going to make, but it’s really the mark that we can make in the live music sector in Ottawa. We’re (a) very vibrant music community. We have shows that happen on a daily basis (in) small, medium- and large-sized venues across Ottawa.
“The Canadian Tire Centre had a record (number) of shows in 2025. The Hard Rock just opened up and has excellent shows in the south end of Ottawa. The transformation of Lansdowne Park is going to bring a new mid-sized arena, which is going to be able to bring in a lot more tours that we haven’t been able to bring into the market. Hopefully, in five to seven years, we have a new arena at LeBreton Flats. When you look long-term, Ottawa is shaping up to be a perfect market from a music perspective.”
When the conversation turned to the proposed LeBreton Flats sports arena project, Shafaee said it would also bring people to the downtown core.
“It would be a huge boost for what we’re talking about here, which is the downtown core. Even though it isn’t in the downtown core, it still brings people here … From a boost perspective, I think that that project will increase what we’re talking about, which is revitalizing and reimagining what our core looks like from our sector,” he said.
And if the proposed arena doesn’t pan out, Shafaee said Live Nation “would be a big proponent of pushing forward a new development at some point in the downtown core.”
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