Keepin' it Country Media & Radio » Capital Hoedown

Boots & Hearts To Honor Capital Hoedown Tickets

Lydia Picknell — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:39:04 +0000

In an unprecedented, fan-centric gesture, Boots and Hearts Music Festival has announced that they will be honoring all general admission tickets that had been purchased for rival festival Capital Hoedown, which was to take place in Ottawa on the same weekend this year. Starting today, country music fans wanting to exchange their Capital Hoedown tickets for Boots & Hearts tickets can visit http://www.bootsandhearts.com/ticket-exchange to complete the process. A one-day pass from Capital Hoedown will be valid for a one-day pass at Boots and Hearts, and a three-day pass at Capital Hoedown will be valid for a three-day wristband at Boots and Hearts.

“It’s disappointing to invest time and money in anticipation of an exciting weekend of country music and not have a festival to attend,” said Shannon McNevan, partner and executive director at Republic Live, the producers behind Boots and Hearts. “A cancellation of this nature negatively affects the entire Ontario country music market, from the fans confidence to buy tickets in advance to the agents of global superstars being afraid to book their artists at our festivals in the future. We believe it’s in the best interest of everyone involved, and for the future of country music festivals in this market, to ensure that if you’ve already invested your money, you have a chance to enjoy what you paid for. For this reason, we’re happy to give all Hoedown ticket holders that have not received refunds the opportunity to come and experience Boots and Hearts with us this year.”

Fans will need to provide four items for the exchange to work: ticket order number, first and last name of original ticket purchaser, e-mail address, and a phone number. Fans have until August 3rd at 5 pm EST to apply for the ticket exchange so that organizers can help prepare the festival for the new influx of crowds. A small service fee will apply to ticket exchanges. VIP tickets purchased for the Capital Hoedown can be upgraded to VIP tickets for Boots & Hearts at a nominal fee.

Boots and Hearts Music Festival will be taking place in Bowmanville, Ontario on August 10th to the 12th and will feature performances by some of the biggest names in country music, including: Carrie Underwood, Lionel Richie, Tim McGraw, Lauren Alaina, Terri Clark, Kevin Costner, Big & Rich and many more. For more information visit bootsandhearts.com.

The Day The Music Died in Ottawa

Lydia Picknell — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:57:33 +0000

Dear readers,

When we first started this country music blog, we started out as a site for fans by fans. We listen to what our fans and readers are wanting to hear from us, what features they’d want to see, and even which artists they’d love to see interviewed. The first music festival Jessica and I ever covered together was Capital Hoedown last year, which featured acts like Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, and Miranda Lambert among many talented acts. We were the first ones reporting the Carrie-Miranda live duet/mash-up of “Before He Cheats” with “Gunpowder & Lead” at the festival which helped propel us into being one of Canada’s leading resources for all things country music. Since that August weekend, Capital Hoedown has always been one of the highlights of our brand and we always put an extra shout-out to the festival when discussing artists this year.

This year’s line-up for Capital Hoedown was to be even bigger: with promises of Taylor Swift, Reba McEntire, Ronnie Dunn, Sheryl Crow and Brad Paisley. When I was at the line-up announcement I was more than excited over the line-up organizers had made. We interviewed Concert International CEO, and Capital Hoedown organizer, Denis Benoit back in December before the Christmas rush and he promised in the interview that tickets would be sold-out by Christmas so fans needed to get them asap for this fantastic line-up, saying that they were selling “extremely well.” Tickets weren’t sold-out, and were still on-sale throughout this year. Read our interview with Denis right here on Keepin’ it Country.

Being a fan-first site, we read every Tweet, Facebook message, wall post, and e-mail sent in to us by readers. When we started to get a few mentions and messages from fans asking us what was going on with the Capital Hoedown as some artists had removed the date from their website’s tour pages, we reached out to our friends in those artist teams to inquire about the missing dates. Once we started to receive confirmations that those artists were out, with the okay to post the news, we did so. What happened next is a sea of press interviews, camera time, and paper mentions for our site with Canadian, and American, media and radio stations as we were the first ones to even realize that something was up. We received a “seize and desist” (sic – not ‘cease’) from Denis quickly after our confirmation from artist teams that they were pulling out with promises of “serious legal action” against our site for posting the information. Nothing else ever came from that e-mail as everything we’ve posted has been factual and 100% confirmed, and after speaking with American and Canadian attorneys, we were perfectly fine to post the information.

Capital Hoedown Still On

Lydia Picknell — Thu, 24 May 2012 21:51:12 +0000

After rumors were circulating around Ottawa the last week, we have exclusively confirmed with the City of Ottawa that the Capital Hoedown is still on. Organizers of Capital Hoedown Country Music Festival in Ottawa were unable to meet their payment deadline with the City of Ottawa last week, and were given an extension until 4 pm EST today to pay the $150,000 owed to the City for usage of city-owned property during the festival.

We reached Dan Chenier, Manager of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Services with the City of Ottawa about the deadline the festival had to meet today, and he confirmed that organizers were able to make the $150,000 payment this afternoon. In a statement by Dan Chenier, he says:

The City of Ottawa works with all festival and event organizations to assist in the logistics of staging such events. We work with these organizations while, at the same time, protecting the interest of taxpayers. The City granted an extension to organizers of Capital Hoedown to meet financial obligations. The deadline was end of day today.

Organizers have met current financial obligations ($150,000), which is in addition to money already provided in March ($72,000). Hoedown has confirmed the wire transfer of $150,000 was made this afternoon to the city.

Rumors began circulating when fans noticed that headliners Brad Paisley, Ronnie Dunn and Sheryl Crow had removed Ottawa from their tour date pages. As reported in the Ottawa Sun yesterday, organizers were granted an extension until today to pay for the rental space for the Hoedown which left many fans questioning on Twitter and Facebook if the festival was still on.

This year’s line-up includes the only North American date for Taylor Swift, as well as The Band Perry, and Reba McEntire. Single day tickets are sold-out but 3-day passes are still available on capitalhoedown.net.

Capital Hoedown Showdown Returns

Lydia Picknell — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:58:31 +0000

Returning for a second year to Ottawa’s Capital Hoedown is a competition that any independent artist and their band will be looking forward to. Festival organizers and ourstage.com are teaming up for the second consecutive year to give an undiscovered country artist the chance to open up for some of the biggest names in country music when they come to Canada in August. Capital Hoedown is a three-day country music festival taking place in Ottawa, Canada through August 10th to the 13th, and features headliners Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley, and Taylor Swift.

The 2011 edition of Capital Hoedown Showdown gathered over 192,000 judging battles for 101 Canadian artists. Thanks to last year’s popularity, for the first time the competition will be opened to artists both in Canada and the United States. The winning act will open up for Taylor Swift on August 11th – which is her only North American date this year! Anyone interested in competing, or judging, can visit ourstage’s competition website for this festival.

“Capital Hoedown Showdown is a fun, friendly competition giving aspiring country artists the chance to play at Canada’s biggest country music festival,” said Denis Benoit, President and CEO of Concert International Inc. “Last year’s winner, WYATT, received international exposure for their participation and they had the privilege to perform on the same stage as Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Rascal Flatts and Carrie Underwood.”

Artists and bands can submit their original country music from now on through June 25th, 2012 through Ourstage.com. Judging will begin on the website starting on May 17th. At the end of the first round on July 2nd, the top 100 entries will move on to the semi-finals in round 2. The top 40 entries will then move on to round 3 after July 16th with continued voting from fans on the competition website. The grand prize winner will be selected from the top 40 entries by a judging panel. The winning band or artist will receive a set during the festival before Taylor Swift’s show. Entries will be judged on originality and creativity, presentation, melody, vocal ability, lyrics, and music, and, entertainment value.

20,000 Reasons To Love Capital Hoedown

Lydia Picknell — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:44:59 +0000

Canada’s Capital Hoedown has now been recognized as the largest country music festival in the country, and Ottawa’s Biggest Summer Party. Now entering its third successful season, Capital Hoedown has hit an impressive milestone: 20,000 Facebook fans! It’s quickly outpaced all other country music festivals in Canada, and with headliners like Taylor Swift, Reba McEntire and Brad Paisley its easy to see why.

Sales for this year’s Hoedown have followed the fans.. all single day tickets are now officially sold out for the festival which runs August 10th through to the 12th in Kanata’s Walter Baker Park, just 0utside the capital region. Organizers are expecting to see 40,000 people a day at the festival.

Organizers have also launched a brand new contest for fans to design the official t-shirts for this year’s festival. Through their Facebook page, Capital Hoedown has invited fans to submit their entries to help get involved in the creation of concert merchandise. The winner will be given an early t-shirt to celebrate their design and four three-day admission passports to the festival. Oh, yeah, and bragging rights! While this contest is ending pretty soon, on March 30th, there will be an exciting The Band Perry contest launching soon!

3-day passports are still available at capitalhoedown.net, but hurry! Once they’re sold out, they’re sold out.

Capital Hoedown Popularity Leads To Additional Single Day Tickets

Lydia Picknell — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:57:57 +0000

With some of country music’s brightest stars coming to Canada next for for the Capital Hoedown, the music festival has released a new block of single day tickets for sale due to overwhelming fan demand. With strong ticket sales already, it’s living up to its name as Ottawa’s Biggest Summer Party.

The 2012 Capital Hoedown line-up features headlining acts like Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift and Reba McEntire along with Ronnie Dunn, Sheryl Crow, The Band Perry, and Terri Clark. Additional artists will be announced as the date comes closer. It’s the first announced North American date for Taylor in 2012.

The 2012 festival found a new home at Walter Baker Park in Ottawa, and Capital Hoedown is estimating an average of 40,000 fans per day at the festival. The 3-day Crazy Horse VIP Corral, 3-day Front And Centre VIP, and 3-day General Admission Passport tickets are still available but are expected to sell out. To get your tickets before it’s too late, visit capitalhoedown.net.

EXCLUSIVE: Interview With Capital Hoedown CEO Denis Benoit

Lydia Picknell — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:30:12 +0000

Capital Hoedown Country Music Festival added an all-genre superstar to its line-up this week. Nine-time GRAMMY award winner Sheryl Crow will be opening for Brad Paisley on August 12th, 2012 at Ottawa’s Biggest Summer Party. She joins an already incredible line-up that features Reba McEntire, Ronnie Dunn, The Band Perry, Terri Clark, and Taylor Swift. Concert International CEO Denis Benoit spoke to us over the phone this afternoon to answer some popular questions sent in by fans including what to expect from the venue change in 2012. Read our exclusive interview below and get ready for one of the biggest country music festivals in North America:

What can fans expect from the venue change in 2012?

Fans can expect a much less crowded environment. Walter Baker Park is a much larger than Lebreton Flats park where we held the event this year. Parking will be much simpler and we will have a great transit system in place for people who want to use public transit. In terms of the overall site itself, it’s probably one of the most beautiful and well-kept parks that I’ve ever seen. It’s gorgeous. It’s really a beautiful venue.

How have ticket sales been going this year?

They have been going incredibly well. We’ve surpassed what our preliminary estimations were. You know, the ones we do right out of the gate. Tickets are selling extremely well.

One of the big questions I’ve been seeing, and been asked about, is about the VIP sections in 2012. Will they be different than this year’s layout?

Yes. The VIP areas have changed. We basically have two VIP sections. The VIP Front-And-Centre zone is located directly in front of the stage. It has a very limited capacity. There is private restroom facilities, private food and beverage concessions, a private VIP entrance. It’s quite similar to what the VIP C zone was last year. The most notable change to the VIP sections is that there is no longer a VIP A or B on stage left or right; they’ve been meshed into one VIP area which is the Crazy Horse VIP Corral – sponsored by Crazy Horse out in Kanata. It’ll provide a much more relaxed atmosphere. People can bring a chair, sit down; they’re going to have their own private food and beverage concessions, their own private restrooms, and, again their own private VIP entrance to the festival.

Capital Hoedown is the first North American date for Taylor Swift in 2012. How has the reception been for her?

It’s been overwhelming. Taylor’s not only the biggest country artist – she’s the biggest artist in the world period in any genre of music. She won Entertainer of the Year at the CMA awards a few weeks back, she won Entertainer of the Year again at the American Music Awards which is basically the awards for everyone in all genres of music – not just country. She played 98 shows this year on her world tour, and every one of them sold out in minutes. Nothing really ever gets bigger than Taylor.

You just added Sheryl Crow to the line-up, how has the reception for her been and can fans expect more additions to the Hoedown soon?

Yes, there will be some more additions. We still have to announce the opening artist for Taylor Swift. That’ll be happening in the next couple of months. We’re super, super excited about Sheryl Crow. She’s one of the most influential music artists of our generation. She’s a nine-time GRAMMY award winner, and everybody knows who she is. She might not be a stereotypical ‘country’ artist, but she is going to be releasing a country album later on in 2012. She’s had all kinds of country songs throughout her career – one with Kid Rock for “Picture.” That was one of the biggest hits of recent memory.

What would you consider to be the number one thing you’ve learned coming from the last two years?

We asked the fans who they wanted to see, and what we could do to make it more an enjoyable experience. We read every mail that comes in and we try to accommodate every request that we can. This year, I think it’ll be much more polished. We’re gonna pay close attention to what we do on site in terms of on-site activities. We want people to want to go out there so that they could enjoy the whole day; not just stay there for a concert. We want to provide fans with other areas of excitement as well. I just think that we had a great year this year, the line-up was fabulous, Lebreton Flats park was full, you’re gonna see a lot of the same stuff this year, but overall I think it’s going to be a much more enjoyable experience overall. I think the new venue is key.

You have a lot of Canadian acts once again this year. How important is it to you to continue to promote Canadian talent?

It’s very important to promote Canadian acts! We’re a Canadian company, it’s a Canadian country music festival, and we definitely want to support as many Canadian country music artists that we can.

Anything else fans should know about the festival this time around?

If you want to attend Capital Hoedown 2012 get your tickets now. They’re selling fast and I can’t really make a prediction on when we will sell out, but I will go on the record to say that the festival will sell-out this year. If you don’t want to miss your opportunity visit capitalhoedown.net and get your tickets today.

The 2012 edition of Capital Hoedown takes place in Walter Baker Park in Ottawa, Ontario Canada. Named “Ottawa’s Biggest Summer Party,” next year’s takes place August 10th through to the 12th. See the full line-up at capitalhoedown.net, with additional acts to be announced in the coming months. Which act are you most excited to see? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, or even right here!

Taylor Swift Is The Woman Of The Year

Lydia Picknell — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:17:53 +0000

Billboard magazine has just named it’s Woman Of The Year for 2011, and it’s none other than Taylor Swift. Taylor accepted the award today in New York City at Billboard’s Women of the Year event at Capitale. Taylor, only 21 years old, is the youngest woman to ever receive the honor from the magazine. The annual award celebrates the achievements of a female artist who raised the bar that year, and it aims to acknowledge her overall success and leadership in the music industry.

On the role models who she feels has influenced her career the most, Taylor had to say:

“I have a lot of role models. Faith Hill is a big role model. Reese Witherspoon is a role model of mine-she’s not in music, but I love everything she stands for. Shawn Colvin is a huge model for me. Her writing has been consistently great and thoughtful and wistful and beautiful. And also-[he's] not a girl-but Kris Kristofferson has been a big role model for me. When I look at people who I feel have really lived their lives and recorded their lives in music so beautifully, those are my role models. They’ve all taught me lessons just by example.”

Taylor just finished up her “Speak Now World Tour,” but she has already started announcing tour dates for next year. One of the North American dates will be at Ottawa, Canada’s “Capital Hoedown Country Music Festival,” where she will headline. Tickets for the Capital Hoedown are already on sale.

Ronnie Dunn Teaches Dr. Phil The Cost Of Livin’

Lydia Picknell — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:11:46 +0000

Ronnie Dunn has brought his emotional single “Cost Of Livin’” to the Dr. Phil show. Ronnie recently taped a special feature with daytime talk show host Dr. Phil and the Doctors themed around his single. The Doctors episode, titled “Cost Of Livin’” after the single, will air on December 5th. His special with Dr. Phil will air December 13th.

“Cost Of Livin’” is a co-write by Ronnie and Philip Coleman about the human side of the economic problems in the world, not just the United States.The second release from Ronnie’s self-titled solo album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, and #5 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums Chart earlier this year.

“The feedback on the song is overwhelming,” Ronnie remarked. “I’ve never had a song that’s seemingly as relevant to the times and spot on to what’s going on in America and the world right now.”

Ronnie Dunn will be performing at the Capital Hoedown Music Festival in Ottawa, Canada next year along-side Reba McEntire.

Capital Hoedown Tickets On-Sale Tomorrow!

Lydia Picknell — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:30:58 +0000

Things are heating up in Ottawa, even with the temperatures dropping. Ottawa’s Biggest Summer Party, the Capital Hoedown, will have public on-sale for its tickets tomorrow on capitalhoedown.net. The 3-day Crazy Horse VIP Corral, 3-day Front-And-Centre, and now single-day tickets will all be available starting at 10 am EST tomorrow.

Next year’s line-up is as follows:

Friday, August 10 – Reba, Ronnie Dunn, Gord Bamford, and Marshall Dane

Saturday, August 11 – Taylor Swift, Dean Brody, Tara Oram, Chad Brownlee, and others TBA

Sunday, August 12 – Brad Paisley, The Band Perry, Terri Clark, High Valley and others TBA

To keep up to date on all artist and line-up updates, stay tuned to Keepin’ it Country and capitalhoedown.net. We will be interviewing Marshall Dane, who is opening the Hoedown, in a few minutes. Watch for that interview tonight!