FEQ boss Racine ‘can’t wait for next year’ after smash success
Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
peterblack@qctonline.com
With crews briskly taking down the massive and sprawling infrastructure of the 56th Festival d’été (FEQ), president and director-general Nicolas Racine declared the 11-day event a smashing success.
“The weather was nice and that makes a difference, but it’s the people who create the event,” Racine said in an interview in the aftermath of the finale of the festival on July 14, with a show by rock veterans Mötley Crüe on the giant stage on the Plains of Abraham.
The people were there en masse, with all 125,000 passes to the festival sold within minutes back in March, and the July 12 show by superstar Post Malone drawing a beyond- capacity crowd.
Racine said he was particularly pleased that measures put in place for this year’s festival, his second at the controls, helped improve the comfort and safety of the huge crowds.
The area in front of the Bell stage on the Plains was moved back several feet, which made space for some 10,000 more fans. “Our goal was to create more comfort.”
He said, “We don’t want to change the business model that we have and we will try to accommodate as many as we can safely. Security is our first priority.” Officials reported a low incidence of medical interventions at this year’s event. Racine said the goal is for first responders to take a maximum of four minutes to get aid to someone in distress.
One of the crowd-pleasing innovations this year was the installation of gigantic panoramic screens on both sides of the Plains stage, a project done in collaboration with Montreal-based stage specialists Stageline.
The screens were nearly double the size of the previous ones and reduced by one week the time required to put up the enormous stage. The project was an example, Racine said, of FEQ’s mission to collaborate with Quebec businesses whenever it can. “The fans loved it, and the artists used [the screens] on many occasions” to complement their shows, he said.
Another element fans liked, Racine said, was the return of Place D’Youville as a festival venue for a program of free concerts. Long a popular site for FEQ shows, it was abandoned after the pandemic years of 2020-22 before being brought back. “It’s a great spot, with Le Diamant and the Porte Saint-Jean.”
This year also had a treat for performers, the “artists’ village,” located behind the Armoury building, where the talent could hang out, dip their toes in an inflatable pool, or, as Post Malone did according to reports, sample some delicious sushi.
Besides Post Malone and Mötley Crüe, other big name acts at this year’s FEQ included Nickelback, 50 Cent, the Zac Brown Band, the Jonas Broth- ers, The Offspring and an instrumental evening headed by Alexandra Stréliski. There was also, for the first time, a program of eclectic shows at the Grand Théâtre.
Taken together, Racine said, FEQ 2024 proved “that we need to keep investing in our prod- uct because FEQ is something really special that we have in Quebec City, one of the nicest cities in the world. We can’t take anything for granted.”
Racine also praised the city’s contribution to the festival, particularly for transportation. He said a friend of his from Montreal, not normally one to take public transit, took a city bus to the FEQ site and raved about the experience, especially the singing bus driver.
Even with teardown still in progress, Racine said work is well underway on next year’s edition. He said most contracts with artists and suppliers need to be signed by October; some acts have already been locked up for the 2025 edition, but FEQ maintains tight secrecy among a small group of staff until the lineup is revealed next year.
Racine applauded the work of the FEQ team in the “incredibly complicated” task of putting together the festival.
“The team that I have is really, really efficient and really engaged, passionate,” Racine said. As for running the show, “it’s a privilege. I love it and I can’t wait for next year because I already know where we’re going to improve.”
Prior to joining FEQ as president in November 2022, Racine owned and operated a tourism company in Quebec, as well as being involved in the administration of the Le Massif resort in the Charlevoix.