Osheaga Get Together offers festival-esque fun at Parc Jean-Drapeau

“Osheaga!” shouted Montreal indie-pop singer-songwriter Soran on Friday afternoon. “C’est mon premier show dans genre deux ans.”

He wasn’t the only one.

Truth be told, it wasn’t the 15th edition of the Osheaga Music and Arts Festival that kicked off Friday at Parc Jean-Drapeau, but Day 1 of the vastly pared down, yet entirely welcome three-day Osheaga Get Together.

Goodbye (for now) jam-packed, hot, sweaty summer throngs of 45,000 people per day to check out the cream of the international music crop. Hello cool fall weather, 7,500 people (max) per day and an all-Canadian lineup that on Friday was headlined by hometown electro-pop sensation Charlotte Cardin.

Soran did his best to keep spirits up with his catchy mix of R&B, folk and hip-hop, as the sun set slowly behind a canvas of scattered clouds. Music fans filtered in, slowly but surely, after getting their vaccine passport checked and temperature taken, and made their way to one of around a dozen subdivided “quais” — a grid of separate areas each holding up to 500, dotted with small, equidistant rectangles of turf to keep people at a safe distance, which were sometimes used, but often ignored.

Lined with food trucks, portable toilets, bars and a whole lotta fencing, the site felt lonely and sparse. If there was a silver lining — which there was — it was the music, after a year and a half of festival and live-show purgatory.

For this nostalgic Osheaga veteran, it brought back memories of the first year of the festival, in 2006, which struggled to crack 10,000 people per day but boasted a lineup including Ben Harper, Sonic Youth, the Flaming Lips, Damian Marley, Patrick Watson, Kid Koala and Metric.

This weekend’s co-headliners are Toronto R&B phenom Jessie Reyez on Saturday and popular Montreal folk-rockers Half Moon Run on Sunday.

“Osheaga, how we doing?” exclaimed an exuberant Jessia to start off her set on Friday, just before 6 p.m. “Oh my god, this is insane!”

That may have been an overstatement, but it was hard not to smile in appreciation as the platinum-blond Vancouver pop artist bounded about the stage in a black jacket and red-and-black plaid leggings, injecting her funky rock hybrid sound with overflowing enthusiasm.

It felt more intimate as darkness set in and the Osheaga marquee atop the hill at the back of the site lit up, but evening brought a chill.

“Come closer — it’s kind of cold. We need to get warm here,” said Toronto-born, Bay Area-raised rapper Odie.

People obliged, as much as the fences in their respective zones would allow, and Odie’s head-bobbing musicality almost made it feel like a party.

In the end, Osheaga organizers were smart to brand this a get-together, so as to avoid any confusion with the festival proper. But nobody was complaining. Everyone in attendance appeared to be down for whatever. Smiles abounded as attendees soaked up the day’s vibes, getting their fix of festival-esque fun for one of the first times in a long time.

Montreal’s Franklin Electric brought a touch of epic roots rock grandeur to its mid-soirée slot.

And Cardin saved the day with some much-needed star power. She emerged to the tune of Passive Aggressive, off her long-awaited full-length debut Phoenix, released earlier this year.

She was greeted by well-deserved cheers of adulation, as her voice soared into the night. Cardin has come a long way since making her Osheaga debut on a back stage, filling in for Coeur de Pirate a half-decade or so ago.

She’s set to take on the world, and Friday night’s top slot performance was the monumental moment this day needed, setting the bar for a festive weekend.

tdunlevy@postmedia.com

twitter.com/TChaDunlevy

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