“We’ve always had to be creative and we’ve always had to be very close negotiators,” she explains. Osheaga, as “the smallest of the big festivals,” boasts a 55,000 person capacity, compared to Coachella or Lollapalooza’s 120,000. Those numbers affect everything — less tickets sold means less money for musicians, and the weak Canadian dollar spreads budgets even thinner. To compete with international festivals, her team has always had to think outside the box by offering exceptional artist hospitality and pitching Montreal as an incredible destination to visit. 

“Now that things have gone up – the fees, the expenses for artists to travel, the expenses for the festivals to be built, the stages, the infrastructure,” she continues, “Because we’ve always worked this way, we can still make it work.” 

The biggest factor working in Osheaga and ÎleSoniq’s favour, however, lies beyond the organisers’ control: the crowds. “Montreal’s foremost strength is its people, the way that they enjoy music, the way that they’re open,” says Côté. The moment performers step off stage, they gush to her about the fans. “When you hear the artist really telling you with the stars in their eyes, like, ‘Wow, this was the most energetic, crazy crowd I’ve ever played,’ it really says something about how people receive live performances. And it makes artists want to come back, it makes them want to play smaller clubs, bigger arenas, play festivals in different ways that challenge them, that make them have a different connection to the audience.” 

This year’s Osheaga line-up, which runs this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, features a slate of superstars and a talented cast of up-and-comers across genres, including Sleater-Kinney, Arlo Parks, Mannequin Pussy, Brittany Howard, New West, Nonso Amadi, Hozier, Alvvays, Amyl and the Sniffers, DIIV, Cadence Weapon, Romy, Overmono, and DVTR.

ÎleSoniq, Osheaga’s electronic music counterpart that takes place the following weekend on August 10 and 11, shares the same appreciation for acts big and small, with Tiesto and DJ Snake pulling up as the program’s heavyweights. The fests, each a RANGE Best Canadian Music Festival of the Year, take place in the magical Parc Jean-Drapeau, continuing Montreal’s storied past of music festivals held in the heart of the city. 

Côte has had boots on the ground in the music scene going on two decades, with a career in music journalism preceding her start with Osheaga in 2011. Just two years later she was heading the team building îleSoniq from scratch. Her perspective from the engine room of the music industry has provided a unique perspective on the industry landscape as it’s altered from editorial monolithism to streaming saturation. 

The way people consume music has changed, and those shifts pose new obstacles when planning a festival line-up. Whereas a few publications used to shape listening trends around a relatively small number of popular artists, digital platforms have splintered consumer groups into the individual, who has access to a near infinite selection of songs. That overwhelming volume also means people aren’t able to engage with music as meaningfully. 

“We’re trying to be unifying in a world that’s more and more fragmented,” says Côte. “But what’s really cool about music festivals is that as a programmer, you see the crowds — this is real life. You can see them reacting, you can feel the energy going up, you can see the crowds moving as a horde from one place to another. There’s something very anchored in reality in what we do.”

Music festivals have a shot at longevity in this precarious climate thanks to that special energy generated by people gathering together. It’s a rare experience, and one especially needed as our society recovers from the years of isolation wrought by the pandemic. 

“It’s a primal need to be dancing and expressing yourself in that way so I don’t see it going anywhere,” Côte says. “It is hedonism, of course, because it’s fun and it’s pleasurable, but it also has meaning, right? To be with other people. To look into other people’s eyes and smiles and all that and feel like a unity. There’s a very meaningful experience there. It’s not just the fun, it’s the being together that also matters.”

Osheaga takes place Aug 2 to 4, 2024 | TICKETS & INFO

ÎleSoniq takes place August 10 & 11, 2024 | TICKETS & INFO