Day seven of Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ) was a rainy one. Luckily, no storms halted the performances and festival goers braved the wet weather to see their favorite EDM artists. We saw some local legends and got to hop onstage to photograph a DJ duo from behind their DJ soundboard, seeing the festival from the performer’s perspective.
We started our evening by seeing Montreal native Mike Demero on the Bell Stage. The Plains of Abraham were pretty packed for this local celebrity. Demero began as a music producer, sharing his remixes and beats on TikTok. His passion for music led him to start creating his own music, and he soon became the top streaming artist on Canadian radio charts. He’s come far since 2020, from making TikToks to performing on some of the biggest festival stages.
Over on the SiriusXM Stage at 20h00/8 p.m, Ontario rock band Silverstein performed some of their popular post-hardcore songs. Shrouded under blue and yellow lights, lead vocalist Shane Told delivered his aggressive vocals alongside his band members Josh Bradford, Paul Koehler, Billy Hamilton, and Paul Marc Rousseau. The group rocked out to twelve songs and even included a two-song encore when fans screamed for more. This was a must-see act for me as a fan at the festival because I had never seen the band perform live.
Next up on the main Bell Stage was Loud Luxury, who we had a blast photographing from their deck onstage. This Canadian DJ duo consisting of Andrew Fedyk and Joe Depace now operates out of Los Angeles, but has stayed true to their Canadian roots. Up on the stage, the duo mixed some of their most popular beats with energy that was off the charts. Fedyk and Depace jumped up and down, pumped their arms in the air, and stood up on the DJ soundboard as fans went wild. The band closed out their set in proper Canadian fashion playing a Celine Dion remix.
The wildly popular American rock band All Time Low hit the Loto-Québec Stage at 21h15/9:15 p.m. where fans screamed along to every word of their songs. The band is currently on their Forever Tour, a celebration of 20 years of music together. Lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Alex Gaskarth wore a white tank top, khaki pants, a red bandana and matching red shoes as he hyped up the crowd and sang out some rock tunes. The band opened with “Weightless” for a total of 19 songs including the popular “Therapy” and ending with the famous “Dear Maria, Count Me In.”
The headliner for the evening on the Bell Stage was Norwegian DJ and record producer Alan Walker. The 26-year old has performed thousands of shows since his first single “Fade” released in 2016. His set was full of energetic and electronic sounds accompanied by trippy visuals that engulfed the Bell Stage LED screens. As the beats built up to their climaxes, strobe lights flashed and columns of fire rose from the stage. During his final song of the night, a series of fireworks shot off with plumes of smoke shooting from the stage as a grand finale.
Stay tuned for more updates on the happenings at FEQ as the festival continues out its last four days!
Words by Emily Cigan @emily.cigan and Amy Harris @thetraveladdictig