Some of the most amazing experiences that I’ve gotten to have so far in Canada are directly related to the Festival d’�t� de Qu�bec. In total, there were “300 spectacles 10 sc�nes, and 11 jours [days] de musique.”  Throughout the festival, I attempted to go to one concert a day, though it was exhausting to go into the city every night after classes and homework. 

The first one I had the opportunity to see was LMFAO at Sc�ne Bell. This state was the biggest of them all and as you can see in the photo, there were so many people. The newspapers said the next day that over 800,000 people were in attendance for LMFAO. Though their music isn’t my favorite jam, it was so amazing to experience the energy that such a huge, peaceful crowd gave off. Below is a picture of just a small chunk of the crowd.

I also got the chance to see Salom� Leclerc in concert. Though her songs are in French and were hard to understand, I enjoyed the concert as Sc�ne Loto-Qu�bec is a lovely place to have an open air concert. Many people brought blankets and the younger children amused themselves by running around. You can check out one of Salom�’s chansons ici: 

Le Vent Nous Portera 

My favorite band to see live (and by far, THE BEST concert I’ve ever been to) was 

Walk of the Earth.

I was afraid I would not get to see them since the venue they played at was very small, and the line had wrapped around the block. But after waiting over an hour and half, I was victorious! The Imp�ral venue was beautiful inside.. and shortly after I was admitted, they began to play. Never have I experienced a show quite like that. They played with so much energy and whipped the crowd into a joyous frenzy. Though I knew them mostly through their covers, they played a lot of their own music that night that was also incredible. Their new song, “Summer Vibe” was most excellent (the youtube version pales in comparison).  The crowd helped, singing the Eh-oh, eh-oh, eh-oh bop bop away-o in unison with the band’s prompting.

Walk off the Earth originally gained popularity through this video with the whole band playing the same guitar: Somebody that I Used to Know.

When they came back for their encore (after we hooted and hollered and sang Eh-oh, eh-oh, eh-oh bop bop away-o for at least three minutes straight), they came back to play a lengthy encore, including “Somebody that I Used to Know.”. (I have a video of it but was unable to successfully upload it to the blogging platform.) 

I also got to see Jah & I in concert at Sc�ne Hydro-Qu�bec, the stage thats free for anyone to come watch. I was so close to the stage for this one! I think the boy in the foreground of this photo traveled with the band.. 

One of the last concerts I had the pleasure of attending was The Wailers concert. As you can see in the photo, the venue was not large enough and the crowd spilled out onto the streets to hear. A couple of my friends and I climbed up onto the St Jean “castle” wall in order to enjoy this view of the concert and the familiar music of Bob Marley. His band captivated the audience and the sea of green, red, and yellow Rasta colors was so cool.

All in all I attended around 13 concerts including LMFAO, Deltron 3030, Delhi 2 Dublin, Salom� Leclerc, Walk off the Earth, Johnny Hallyday, Gnawa Diffuion, Sarah Mclachlan, Beirut, Caracol, Jah & I, The Wailers, and Donavon Frankenreiter.  It was amazing to experience so many different types of music and truly one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. I hadn’t realized how many people here love music… it seemed like everyone in the city came out for the festivities… from young (many children on the shoulders of their parents) to very old got to enjoy the festivities.

Location: Scène Bell, Scène Loto-Québec, Impéral de Québec, Scène Hydro-Québec