Sweaty Rain Dancing at Osheaga

Osheaga may be described as Coachella’s little indie brother, but the little tyke is growing and it surpassed everyone’s expectations this year with their first ever sold out show at 120, 000 attendees. The three day outdoor festival in Montreal was incredible, with personal highlights including Snoop Dogg’s Lion debut, Santigold’s mid-way performance costume change into a bejewelled black dress, Common introducing young hipsters in the crowd to hip hop with an old school freestyle and lastly, Buraka Som Sistema’s booty-shaking sweaty dance party.

It wouldn’t be a festival without rain and on Day 3, the on-and-off torrential downpours vastly improved the vibe and got everyone riled up for an amazing day ahead. The rain did anything but dampen anyone’s spirits with a call and response of “Rain?” “What Rain??”  being chanted throughout the day.  As we headed towards the Piknic Électronik Stage for Buraka Som Sistema, it started to pour. Having no rain gear, our only choice was to go with it.  By far one of my favorite acts at Osheaga, the electronic dance music project  from Lisbon, Portugal rocked the rain-soaked crowd with their kuduro sound and a whole lot of bump-and-grinding; think tribal dance hall with the fierce Portugese rapping of my new girl crush MC Blaya overtop. It was the perfect soundtrack for a sweaty rain dance that was so powerful it caused a power outage – a fitting end to one of the most high energy performances I’ve ever been to.

Here’s a taste of what to expect with their newest banger Peaches available for download.