Music/Festivals

Who: Noah Kahan, Melanie Martinez, Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins, Chappell Roan, SZA, Hozier and more
Where: Parc Jean-Drapeau
When: Aug. 2 – 4, 2024
Vibe: A hot festival weekend sees fans take it easy and enjoy the performances with careful enthusiasm
Highlight: Chappell Roan steals the show from the official headliners, and Green Day prove they are one of the most legendary rock acts ever
Next: Osheaga 2025
Rating: NNNN (out of 5)

MONTREAL — It’s a hot weekend in Montreal. It seems to be all anyone can talk about, whether it’s the artists on stage or fans in the crowd at Osheaga. Despite the heat, festivalgoers are still showing up in their fabulous ’fits, determined not to let a bit of humidity stop them from wearing the outfit they’ve been meticulously planning for months. I spy a hot pink tulle skirt adorned with actual rubber ducks, bedazzled bucket hats and colourful cowboy boots — cowboy boots everywhere. Die-hard fans can be identified easily for some artists: little pink bows and crybaby tears makeup for Melanie Martinez and hot pink cowboy hats with sparkles or a feathered trim for Chappell Roan.

The whole weekend runs pretty seamlessly with only a few minutes of technical difficulties and late start times, and a short storm delay on Sunday that momentarily pauses Raye’s set before bringing out a rainbow behind the giant OSHEAGA sign. Honestly, the rain at that point was a welcome break from the heat all weekend. Security and staff did a good job of keeping everyone cool with recurring water hose spray-offs in the crowd and giving out ice water at the barricade, though there were frequent complaints from returning fans that there were fewer free water refill stations than in the previous year. It was also disappointing that there weren’t very many places to get some shade.

It was interesting to see which artists Osheaga had predicted would pull a big crowd and which artists actually ended up pulling in that many fans. Of course, no one could have prepared for the meteoric rise of Chappell Roan, who played a humble 45-minute set at 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. Even aside from Chappell, artists like The Japanese House, Teddy Swims and Briston Maroney were among some of the sets that generated a lot of excitement and then saw fans leave for other stages when they finished, leaving the next performers with a smaller crowd.

The first of Friday’s headliners, Melanie Martinez, had an impressive concept show filled with nonstop dancing. Noah Kahan had a dedicated audience, with one of the loudest singalongs of the weekend. He reminisced about visiting Osheaga as a fan in the past, sneaking in alcohol by taping it to his leg. Kahan proudly comments on stage that for the first time he gets to perform at the festival, he gets to play it as a headliner.

For Saturday’s sold-out show day, Toronto indie band New West are first to take to the main stage, taking advantage of being able to play to all the devoted fans who are eagerly waiting for Chappell Roan and Reneé Rapp to play later in the afternoon, and they pull it off. Luckily, the crowd doesn’t have to wait too long in the heat before Chappell arrives right on time. Her all-girl band steps out in puffy blue dresses and Chappell wears a pink bodysuit, adorned by crystalline fairy wings. She wears a detailed overskirt for only a moment, singing the first few lines of Femininomenon before a stagehand tries to remove it so she can have some movement. There is a bit of a hiccup when the stagehand fails to take it off, and Chappell herself fumbles to shed it so she can get back to high kicking and dancing. The wardrobe malfunction seems to have slightly thrown her off her game, but ever the professional, she continues the show with grace. With just a short 45-minute set, she quickly runs through all the hits — everyone is excited to dance along to HOT TO GO! and Good Luck, Babe! She addresses the camera near the end of the set, sending a message to her ex in French: “Tu es stupide!”

Later that night, the entire lineup from Green Day’s current Saviors tour rolled into Osheaga, including the Smashing Pumpkins. You can’t help but feel that the Pumpkins’ set is a little lacklustre when Green Day’s epic two-hour set follows directly after. Their show opens with an homage to iconic rock songs like Bohemian Rhapsody and Blitzkrieg Bop — when they start interspersing their own music in the montage, it just feels right that Green Day are there together with some of the greatest rock acts of all time. Billie Joe Armstrong is an energetic frontman, running all across the stage and pumping up the crowd with clapping and arm waving. There’s pyro, confetti, and fireworks — you can tell that there are so many thoughtful details that add to the show, and they still work incredibly hard to put on a show that their fans will enjoy. It may be an anniversary tour for their albums Dookie and American Idiot, but this is not a simple nostalgia cash-grab tour. With a festival set, Green Day do have to sacrifice some of their setlist and cut out some of the songs from the Dookie full album playthrough, but they make fans old and new happy by sticking with the hits.

For the last day of the festival, Sunday is a bit of a slow start with festivalgoers taking it easy and staying out of the heat. After a brief storm delay, some of the shows get compressed but get to go on as planned. During Hozier’s set, he plays a new song, Nobody’s Soldier, an anti-war song. Only played once earlier that week at Lollapalooza in Chicago, he later expands on the sentiment and calls for a ceasefire in Gaza before ending with his powerful hit, Take Me to Church. SZA is the performer to close out the entire festival, and she immediately dazzles the crowd with the reveal of her intricate stage design. Even as some fans leave early after a satisfying long weekend, you can hear the audience singing along passionately all the way home.

Osheaga reinforces its reputation as one of Canada’s premier music festivals with 2024’s iteration. The lineup always stands out as one with a genuine focus on featuring women in music, a good mix of performers from multiple musical genres and a combination of Canadian and international acts. It’s a great festival to keep an eye on every year, and it brings in some of the best up-and-coming and highly acclaimed artists in the world.