By Michael Raine
THE 8 TH ANNUAL OVO FEST
Imagine a “ Best of Rap / R & B ” playlist on Apple Music . Now imagine bringing it to life , and having the genre ’ s biggest star emcee the show . That is OVO Fest .
For eight years , the self-declared Six God has bestowed on his city one of the most unique concert events in modern music . It ’ s a labour of love for rap / R & B superstar Drake , who envisioned and funds this annual gift to his hometown fans . And it ’ s a gift that keeps on giving , growing bigger year-over-year to where it ’ s now much more than a typical concert or music festival . Held this year at the 16,000-capacity outdoor Budweiser Stage ( formerly the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre ) on Lake Ontario near downtown Toronto , OVO Fest is regularly the hottest ticket in the city . It ’ s a relatively intimate setting for an event of this magnitude , as organizers could surely pack a bigger venue if desired , so it ’ s no surprise that tickets to this year ’ s event sold out in minutes while resellers were fetching well over $ 1,000 per ticket on the secondary market .
What makes that stunning is that aside from Drake himself and the opening acts taken from the roster of his OVO Sound imprint , the people paying big money for tickets don ’ t even know who they ’ re going to see on stage . Unlike a typical festival that unveils its lineup well ahead of time , OVO Fest is all about the element of surprise , as every year , Drake brings out the who ’ s who of rap and R & B hit makers for surprise sets .
“ For me , this is my eighth one , and I ’ m amazed every year . Whether it ’ s the guest artists , the set , it ’ s something that you ’ ve never seen ,” enthuses Drake ’ s longtime FOH engineer , Demetrius Moore .
The event began with a bang in 2010 when , for its first year , Drake brought out Jay-Z , Eminem , and Rick Ross , among others . Seriously , how do you top that ? Well , how about in OVO Fest ’ s second year , when Stevie Wonder made a surprise appearance and played for a half hour , overshadowing other surprises from the likes of Nas and Lil ’ Wayne . Then there was OVO Fest ’ s fourth year when Drake brought out TLC , Puff Daddy , Mase , J . Cole , A $ AP Rocky , The Weeknd , and Kanye West .
“ It ’ s just one of those things where you never know what you ’ re going to get . Are you going to get an R & B singer , are you going to get a rapper , are you going to get
Rihanna , are you going to get Kanye ? You never know . It ’ s just one of those things . You buy a ticket to come see a Drake show , but with a twist . Whether you see one guest artist , two guest artists , or 10 , you never know ,” says Moore . “ The thing about OVO Fest is it is run like an awards show . The only person that does any mixing is myself . [ Guest artists ’] engineers might come and say a thing or two , like ‘ Can you do this ?’ but other than that , it ’ s like I get to mix people that I never thought I ’ d get to mix . For OVO Fest , I have mixed Nas , Jay-Z , Eminem , Puff Daddy , TLC , Stevie Wonder , Kanye West … Anyone who has touched that stage , whether it ’ s for one song or whether it ’ s a mini set , we mix them all .”
When Professional Sound had the first of two conversations with Moore , it was only two days before the show and he still didn ’ t know what the final lineup would be . “ This is the thing ; sometimes people don ’ t make their flights [ or get added last-minute ], so you just never , ever know ,” he laughed , though assured Professional Sound this year was going to be a big one . And he was right . The eighth annual OVO Fest was one of the biggest yet in terms of the sheer number of guest artists , and also stage spectacle .
On the spectacle side , Drake ’ s stunningly detailed CN Tower replica made headlines and set social media abuzz around the world . The craziest part of this crazy set piece ? It was only commissioned three weeks before the show . Drake told the crowd that he called 19 companies with the idea who all turned him down because of the ultra-tight deadline until Show Group Production Services ( SGPS ) in Las Vegas accepted the challenge .
In a moment that fans aren ’ t soon to forget , when the curtain came down to start the main event , Drake was perched atop the CN Tower , recreating the cover image of his 2016 album Views . “ As of now , it was created only for OVO Fest . Will we ever see it again ? Who knows ,” says Moore , emphasizing Drake wants to make OVO Fest something special .
When it came to the music , when all was said and done , Drake had brought out and made peace with one-time rival Tory Lanez , while Nelly stormed through his modern classics “ Ride Wit Me ,” “ Country Grammar ,” “ E . I .,” and “ Hot in Herre .” The rap trio Migos played “ Bad and Boujee ” and “ T-Shirt ,” two of the biggest songs of 2017 , while Rae Sremmurd was not to be outdone by performing “ Black Beatles ,” another of this year ’ s hottest tracks . Cardi B showed why she is one of rap ’ s most hyped new arrivals , and then there were the likes Playboi Carti , French Montana , Baka , and PartyNextDoor . The climax , though , was Drake ’ s fellow Toronto-bred superstar , The Weeknd .
In between and sometimes with the guest artists , the star of the show performed recent hits like “ One Dance ,” “ Jumpman ,” “ Controlla ,” “ Passionfruit ,” and “ Know Yourself .”
“ Midnight the night before was the final rollcall ,” Moore tells Professional Sound a few days after the Aug . 7 th show . “ I wasn ’ t worried about any of them technically . Migos and Travis Scott , you know , we don ’ t rehearse any of the guest artists , so when I get to their snapshots , the only thing that can be programmed is the EQed microphone and that ’ s about it . I ’ m adjusting gains on the microphones on the fly , I ’ m adjusting gains on the tracks on the fly , and Migos and Travis Scott , they both use Auto-Tune , so not only am I adjusting the gains and getting their mics right , whether it ’ s going up or down – up because it ’ s not loud enough and down because they ’ re clipping – plus I ’ m routing it to Auto-Tune and sending Auto-Tune back to the stage . It does become a lot .”
A show like this needs big sound to match the big spectacle and lineup . For this , Eighth Day Sound , which is headquartered in Cleveland , OH with offices in LA , London , and Sydney , supplied a massive Adamson Systems Engineering system . Moore says going with the Adamson PA was an obvious choice after his experience with it the last time OVO Fest was held at the amphitheatre in 2015 ( last year ’ s event was at the Air Canada Centre ). “ The last time I was at [ Budweiser Stage ] I used Adamson and it was the first time I ’ d ever used the E119 subs . When I say I was blown away by the low-end of the subs , and the mixture of the E15 [ three-way , true line source arrays ] and the E119 together , I mean , it was so powerful and so punchy , yet the vocal was so clear . So it was a no brainer for this year .”
The Adamson rig that was used at OVO Fest , though , was significantly bigger than one would expect for an amphitheatre of this size . “ OVO Fest seems to be louder than a typical Drake show because , I mean , it ’ s a very loud crowd at OVO Fest and you have to compete with that . Our motto is : ‘ Be loud but be clean .’
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