We joined lots of folks from all around North America at Parc Jean Drapeau in Montreal Saturday and Sunday for the Fifth Annual Osheaga Festival of Music & Arts.  Headliners included Arcade Fire, Weezer, Metric, Devo (!) and Keane, but we tended to look for something different…a new favorite singer or group to adopt.  Last year, that was K’naan, who this year moved from the smaller stages to one of the two main stages and who was fresh from busting out globally , having penned this year’s FIFA World Cup Soccer anthem.

The first act we caught was the lady from Staten Island whose career began when she was discovered on YouTube, Ingrid Michaelson:

Ariel plays “black candy” rock.  I have no idea what that means.  Ariel Coloumbe is a Montreal singer/songwriter/performer who wears skinny pink pants that are hidden by his guitar:

Vancouver‘s Hannah Georgas represented the female indie rock singer/songwriters.  You have heard her sing this summer’s Walmart commercial and if you make it to Lilith Fair, you’ll see her there:

The one-man branding/marketing machine known as Snoop Dogg did an hour long set on early Sunday evening that featured misogynistic lyrics, pleas for everyone to smoke weed and more blurts of the “f word” (editor: “fuck”) than I’ve ever heard before:

Here’s who I fell in love with:  The Cat Empire, an amazing litrock (think:  The Decembrists) band from Australia, featuring drums, horns, dark lyrics and a strong love of funk, reggae and Brazilian music.  The lead singer, Felix Reibl, (that’s him below in the blue plaid shirt) bears a striking resemblance to Jon Hamm, who portrays Don Draper on AMC’s ‘Mad Men.’   We have already added their music here at VermontMornings.com:

This year’s crowd:  Close to 53,000:

Amarula is a blend of cream and wild marula fruit, indigenous to subtropical Africa.  Try this stuff and you may not buy any more Bailey’s.  They were one of the booze sponsors this year, and you didn’t even have to walk to the booth…there were young ladies with bottles in both ‘holsters’ sellings shots for $4:

As always, one of the great things to do in Montreal…is to people watch:

See you next year!