Canda’s Osheaga 2019 festival was a colorful and sunny affair. The festival takes place in Parc Jean-Drapeau, known by locals as “the island.” The green space overlooks the Montreal skyline and becomes a creative space filled with art installations, street vendors and festival tents. The location is far more spectacular than your average field and the sun held out all weekend.
This year, the festival stages saw the likes of Chemical Brothers, Childish Gambino, and Tame Impala take to the main stages. The smaller stages also hosted a range of phenomenal rap artists including Tierra Whack and Koffee. In terms of diversity, the lineup boasted enormously talented artists from all regions and genders.
Sunday was the real highlight of the weekend. By this point, everyone knew their way around the island and were all in full festival mode. The afternoon started off slow but by the time Hozier performed “Take Me To Church” on the main stage, everyone on the island had flooded to the field to see the headlining acts.
Tame Impala was superb. They played an array of tracks from their 2015 album Currents before playing their big hit “Elephant.” The track was accompanied by a spectacular light show and psychedelic videos. They proceeded to play “Feels Like I Only Go Backwards” before descending into a psychedelic jam and eventually closing with “The Less I Know The Better.” The sun was setting above their set and the atmosphere was something else.
Childish Gambino had a tough job following Tame Impala’s set but he rose to the challenge and concluded the festival with a bang. He arose from the crowd on a podium and had thousands of festival-goers screaming for more. He told the crowd that he had two rules. The first: to have a good time. The second? No phones. He explained that what he was making was for us right here and not for anyone else. Cue to the fireworks.
In addition to playing his big hits, Childish Gambino treated festival-goers with a new song he had been working on which had us headbanging and jumping up and down. When he played “This Is America”, the crowd went wild and “Redbone” was the perfect way to see a weekend of incredible talent and good vibes end.
Overall, despite the dust clouds and humidity, Osheaga 2019 was a magical affair and we’re already hyped for next year.
5/5
