Osheaga Festival

Osheaga Festival musique et arts
Crowd in 2012 and Montreal skyline in the background
Genre	Music festival, arts festival
Dates	July 29–31 (2016 Dates)
Location(s)	Parc Jean-Drapeau, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Years active	2006–present
Founded by	Nick Farkas
Website
Official website

The Osheaga Music and Arts Festival (French: Festival de la musique et des arts Osheaga) is a multi-day indie music festival in Montreal, Quebec, that is held annually at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Sainte-Hélène every summer. The festival takes place on six stages with various audience capacities. Translated from their French equivalents, they are called "River Stage," "Mountain Stage," "Green Stage," "Trees Stage," "Valley Stage," and "Zone Picnik Electronik." Each performance area is paired with a sponsor. Band set times fluctuate based on the status of the performer within the festival. Emerging artists play 30-minute sets, and headliners conclude each day with 90-minute plus sets. The 2006 festival attracted a crowd of around 25,000 people. The 2012 festival reached its 40,000 attendance capacity each day.

Since 2006, the Osheaga Music and Arts festival has established itself as the most important festival of its genre in Canada. With its numerous outdoor stages located at parc Jean-Drapeau on Montreal’s Saint Helen’s Island, Osheaga attracted 120 000 music lovers from North America and Europe last year. A huge celebration dedicated to music and visual arts, Osheaga has given itself the objective of discovering local and national emerging talent offering them the opportunity to play alongside some of the biggest international artists in the business including: Coldplay, The Killers, Iggy & The Stooges, Sonic Youth, The Roots, Rufus Wainwright, Arcade Fire, Weezer and Eminem. Over the course of several days, approximately 100 bands will take to the various stages at parc Jean-Drapeau and across the city in the festive ambiance that only a Montreal summer can provide. Osheaga also holds a series of concerts and exhibitions in several locations around the city during the week leading up to the main event. For its ninth edition, the Osheaga Music and Arts festival, presented by Virgin Mobile, promises an exhilarating experience with, among others: Jack White, Outkast and Skrillex.

In the past 2 editions the festival has introduced "Osheaga Play", an interactive play area and social media integrated photo system. The "play zone" features carnival games where festival goers can play games and accumulate points to cash in for prizes. Osheaga Play also features roaming photographers who can scan participants RFID bracelets so the photos will be directly uploaded to their social medias.