You may not have heard, there's a new country music festival in town, called Capital Hoedown. No, it's not us. We're in the process of trying to sort the mess out so that there's no confusion about which festival is which. There's a nice write-up in the Ottawa Citizen about this issue - it expresses pretty much all O-Town Hoedown has to say on the subject - you can read that below.

But before shit gets out of control, let's make one thing perfectly clear: we at O-Town Hoedown LOVE the fact that there's a new country music festival in town. We can't cover every single type of country music out there, and it's great that the more mainstream stuff gets a home in Ottawa too. Our only issue right now is the similar-sounding names, which might eventually lead to O-Town Hoedown having to send a rejection letter to Taylor Swift because her agent googled the wrong Hoedown - and trust us, you don't want to piss off Taylor Swift.

If you want to show your support for O-Town Hoedown, let your voice be heard by sending a nice message to the Capital Hoedown organizers. Be polite and friendly or I'll send Mrs. Lefty after you.

CAPITAL HOEDOWN EMAIL ADDRESSES
denis@concertinternational.com
info@capitalhoedown.com


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Hoedown showdown
Big new country festival arrives with a familiar-sounding name
By Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen May 11, 2010

A showdown is brewing between organizers of the Capital Hoedown, a major new country music festival that's presenting Nashville superstars Alan Jackson, Dwight Yoakum and Vince Gill in Ottawa this summer, and the fourth annual O-Town Hoedown, a smaller-scale event that celebrates Ottawa's grassroots alt-country scene.

Announced Monday, the Capital Hoedown will take place Aug. 5 to 7 at Rideau Carleton Entertainment Centre (raceway). Grammy-winning country star Alan Jackson is the opening night headliner, with support from Lorrie Morgan and Emerson Drive. Dwight Yoakum, Jo Dee Messina and Canada's Tara Oram perform on Aug. 6, while Vince Gill, Phil Vassar and former American Idol contender Bucky Covington play Aug. 7. Up to 20,000 people are expected each day.

"We feel there's a void in the Ottawa market for a multi-day, multi-band country music festival for country fans," said organizer Denis Benoit, president of the Cornwall-based concert promotion company Concert International. After promoting the Randy Travis concert at the Ottawa Civic Centre in 2008, Benoit recognized the potential of the market and started working on the Hoedown idea.

At the other end of the corral is the O-Town Hoedown, scheduled for Sept. 24 to Oct. 2. As in previous years, concerts will take place in various club venues, including the Elmdale Tavern, Irene's Pub, Black Sheep Inn and Rainbow Bistro.

Past performers have represented the cream of the crop of Ottawa's alt-country scene, including Lynne Hanson, Prescott, Trevor Alguire and Brothers Chaffey.

At issue is the use of the word "hoedown" in both event names. While Greg Harris, founder of the O-Town Hoedown, isn't concerned about losing fans to the new festival, he does fear alienating the audience he has built. One of his reasons for starting the O-Town Hoedown in the first place was to show there's more diversity to country music than the slick fare that comes out of Nashville.

"This was partly to build a musical scene but also partly an awareness campaign to show the public that hey, there's actually some really good stuff out there," said Harris. A musician who performs under the name Lefty McRighty, Harris dismisses new country as "pop music with a fiddle."

"I know the Capital and the O-Town have very different demographics for our target audience, but because of the negative stereotype that these Nashville new-country artists have, it's just a matter of association. People won't know the difference between the two hoedowns. My hoedown is going to start being associated with new country, which is the kind of thing I've been fighting the whole time."

Harris, along with some of his festivalgoers and fellow musicians, has sent letters to organizers of the Capital Hoedown demanding its organizers change the name of their event. But Benoit made it clear that it's too late.

"The contracts are signed," Benoit said in an interview with the Citizen. "It's definitely too late to change the name."

Benoit said he has offered to help with marketing the O-Town Hoedown at the Capital event, but Harris isn't interested. "I appreciated the offer, but because of our completely non-overlapping demographics, I can't really see the use of it," said Harris.

For now, the two men have come to what Harris described as a "gentlemen's agreement."

"I feel I'm more entitled to use the name because I've got an established thing, so I feel I'm entitled to pursue him and ask him to please stop. But I've decided not to do that this year because of how late in the game he is," Harris said.

Benoit is planning the Capital Hoedown to be an annual event, but he said it's too early to decide whether he'll consider changing the name next year.

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