For 11 days every July, Québec City emits a panoply of sounds thanks to Festival d’ete de Quebec (FEQ), the city’s 52-year-old music festival. Melodies emanate from stages located throughout the city, including in the UNESCO designated Vieux-Québec and on the verdant Plaines d’Abraham. While FEQ definitely has the corner on location — it doesn’t get more charming than Québec City, the 411-year-old French settlement that exists a bend on the St. Lawrence River — it also offers top-notch musical acts that include established groups as well as up-and-comers.
What sets FEQ apart from the myriad multi-day music feasts offered stateside is not only its duration, but also the array of genres on offer, which include metal, folk, chanson, EMD, pop, DJs, and hip hop. With more than 150 artists, it’s an exhaustive roster and one that takes FEQ artistic director Louis Bellavance all year (and then some) to put together. “It's often discussions that have been taking place for a long time, often times several years,” explained Bellavance of the lineup process. “Someone like Imagine Dragons, I was trying [to get] the year before; when I realized it would not work for 2018 we switched to 2019.…So, I knew before last year’s festival that they would be headlining the next one.”
Bellavance also takes calculated gambles, frequently
booking musicians who may be little-known but are generating a buzz. By
the time they play FEQ, however, their popularity has often skyrocketed. “I
remember when we booked Bruno Mars back in 2013, [which] was pre-Super Bowl,
pre-lots of big songs,” Bellavance recalled. “By the time he got here it looked
like a very smart move.”