Additional Information
After a little over 15 years at the helm of the Quebec City Summer Festival programming, Louis Bellavance is back with a new festival with a young and refreshing concept that has taken up residence in the neighborhoods of Laval University: the FONO festival, which will take place from September 11 to 13. In its second edition, and although primarily aimed at young students, FONO can also attract older students and children. We took the time to speak with Louis Bellavance at BLEUFEU headquarters to learn more about the festival’s programming and the atmosphere to expect.
PAN M 360: How did you develop the idea for the FONO festival? Did the idea come from a specific impetus?
Louis Bellavance: BLEUFEU wanted to diversify, after St-Roch XP and Tobogan, so that our portfolio would be versatile and each event would be different, so that we could maintain a dialogue with the industry. This way, we have more opportunities to reach artists, regardless of the stage of their career. The FONO festival is our latest, and we needed another event in Quebec City to welcome impactful names. We searched for a long time, years in fact, until, in consultation with Université Laval, we discovered that it had the space and the desire to energize its campus and host a festival there.
PAN M 360: How would you define FONO’s artistic direction?
Louis Bellavance: The FONO Festival is the most “classic” of our products in our portfolio. It’s a festival that is in the vein of, if we can take the alpha in this range, Coachella, which generated Osheaga under the 3-day formula. So it’s not a niche metal or electro festival but it remains a popular, urban (pop, indie pop, indie rock, rock) and contemporary program (nostalgia is limited to 15-20 years back for FONO). We wanted to give an event to 18-24 year olds.
PAN M 360: As you have been at the helm of FEQ programming since 2011, how have you distinguished FONO?
Louis Bellavance: We have a much more directed orientation, compared to the FEQ with which we go as far as possible and in all directions haha! The changeovers are much longer (45 minutes) because we want people to walk around and see the other stages around since we have a classic/closed perimeter, which we don’t have at the FEQ. FONO is made to be in motion and there is a lot of attention paid to the event aspect. We want people from general admission to have the VIP treatment: we build structures, areas and experiences that would usually be reserved and we make them accessible to everyone. The artistic direction is a big bag, the FEQ when you look at it, it can seem like anything (Mariah Carey with Slipknot) with counter-programming which means we have a mini festival, a route for each person and there is no possible confusion since we have great oppositions like Rod Stewart and Alicia Cara haha!
PAN M 360: How did you develop this passion for musical programming, which you have specialized in for over twenty years?
Louis Bellavance: It will be thirty years in two years haha! Before the FEQ, I programmed the Francos, the Nuits d’Afrique, the International Jazz Festival in Montreal and I helped create the music department at Stingray! Before that, being a native of Rimouski, I started at Festi Jazz there in the late 90s. It was still a rather “atypical” path to get into music programming, there were only a few people and organizations working there! I always loved music, I make it myself and I come from a family where it was business, so I went to study administration. And my father, who was a big music lover, supported the administration of Festi Jazz so I started there as an administrator but along the way, we lost our programmer so I had to grab the ball and that’s what opened the door to music programming for me. It was destiny haha! Then I think it was my keen understanding of the business part of the word show business that made me stand out.
PAM M 360: The choices for your programming for this second edition are free and inspired: LOUD, Qualité Motel but also Kaya Hoax, Mint Simon and Been Stellar. Some names we know and others less so. What was your motto for 2025?
Louis Bellavance: At FONO, we want you to be excited by this lineup, even if you’re from New York or Paris. We’re really looking for artists who have strong credibility in their niche but who aren’t necessarily known here yet. Like, for example, the Irish band Amble, who just sold out a stadium in Dublin and are super popular in Europe. We also have Alice Merton; what she does is truly extraordinary, but it hasn’t completely landed here yet. I saw Been Stellar at a festival in Europe this summer and it was extraordinary, but not many people are talking about their coming to Quebec City haha! So it’s a bit daring, if I dare say so, and that’s why we also have well-known Quebecers to reassure people about their purchase. We balance the lineup between headliners, like Alex Warren, whose song Ordinary became one of the most streamed of the year, and discoveries!
PAN M 360: The festival takes place on the Laval University campus, but we’re not just targeting students, are we?
Louis Bellavance: Yes, the venues are huge and we have the opportunity to bring back alumni, students, international students and of course, people from Quebec who, via the bridges, can come and rediscover and reclaim the magnificent campus spaces. The challenge for this event is for the students to make it their own, but at the same time, we want people who are not from the university to think that it’s also for them. Last year, my kids LOVED it: they told me it was their favorite festival haha! So we’re going for both, hoping to reach as many people as possible!
PAN M 360: Are you already thinking about the third edition?
Louis Bellavance: Yes, absolutely! We already have offers for headliners, so we’re definitely there next year! We’re really excited about this project. It takes time to set up a festival and schedule several, haha, but it’s really a big and beautiful project!
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT FONO’S PROGRAMMING, CLICK HERE!
