As the Senior Manager, Booking, Concerts and Events at evenko, Évelyne Côté is perpetually in the eye of the storm, creating artist lineups that live up to the reputation of the Osheaga and ÎleSoniq festivals. And that’s not counting the rest of the concerts, outside of the festival season, presented by evenko, where she’s worked since 2010.

Côté plays an important role on the Canadian festival scene. We meet with her shortly after she returns home from the Primavera Festival in Barcelona, where she gorged herself on music. “Attending that type of event all over the world is super-important,” she says. “I mostly target electronic music festivals such as ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event) and Pollstar Live!, which is more North American, because they’re destinations where you chat a lot. They include networking and planning events.”

All through the conferences of the Pro component of these festivals, and the backstage meetings, searching and finding new talent is her bread and butter. “evenko presents more than 1,000 events a year, so as a booker, you need to constantly look forward,” she says. “Apart from the business side of things, the budget, the planning, and the emotional aspects — and the price of music — you have to always be in the moment, because we have shows every day!”

Côté grew up in Laval, before leaving home to move into the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood of Montréal. Now happily in in her forties, and the mother of an eight-year-old boy, her dream job is the crown jewel of a very interesting career path.

She started out 20 years ago as a music journalist for the cultural weekly ICI. “I adored that job,” she says. “ICI called me for an interview when I was 27. I was shopping around for a plane ticket to Barcelona, maybe to write a book… I was wondering what I was going to do with my life. I was working for Nightlife magazine, then. It was a big gift life gave me. I had done a radio show at CISM, and on Saturdays and Sundays I’d go to the station’s library on my own, with my CD player; I knew I had a good ear for music.”

Her Bachelor’s degree in translation from Université de Montréal ended up not being very useful.

Osheaga Mon Amour

Daniel Glick, Évelyne Côté, Patrick Guay, Nick Farkas, Brighid Nielsen and Camille Guitton.The members of a small programming team under the guidance of boss Nick Farkas — “Your leader’s influence is super-important,” she says — are (from left to right in photo) Daniel Glick, Évelyne Côté, Patrick Guay, Nick Farkas, Brighid Nielsen, and Camille Guitton. “Our choices are always vetted by the whole team. Nick often says to not over-think things, but Osheaga is a real puzzle! Nick is my North Star, because he knows how to put things into perspective. I honestly don’t know if I could’ve lasted this long — 15 years! — without him.”

“We’re already sending out proposals to artists for 2025, just to set the table,” says Côté. It’s like several zones of your brain are working at the same time.” Her team takes care of the rest. Signing contracts, the production, logistics, transportation, and hospitality are all aspects that are managed internally. “It’s often linked to a production cost overrun, like an artist who wants to include a video wall, and in that case, we have to negotiate,” she says. “There can be a lot of haggling to get them [the headliners] booked, because, obviously, the big names get a lot of offers. This whole process can take two to three months—it’s not true that headliners confirm their presence at the festival in two weeks.

“With an emerging artist, beyond the music, we’re mainly assessing whether the “Instragram” crowd, who are there for the festival experience rather than as music lovers, will also be able to get carried away by the performance. We’re constantly fraught with doubt. But once the talent is confirmed, we get a rush, and there are decisions to be made: who’s going to play before who else, at what time, and where. We strive to created schedules that allow people to move from one stage to another.”

Several Canadian artists and SOCAN members will be part of the event, including Cri, Clay and Friends, Alvvays, Léonie Gray, TALK, Planet Giza, ALIAS, DVTR, MINOE, and Ya Cetidon, to name just a few. “Obviously, at Osheaga, we strive to catch as many shows as possible, to welcome the artists, shake hands, see the audience’s reaction — it’s about human connection as well,” says Côté.

Energizing ÎleSoniq

“ÎleSoniq is the following weekend,” she continues. “There’s only two of us [out of the team of six], so obviously it takes up some of our time during Osheaga.” The event is undergoing incredible growth, thanks to a host of fans eager to enjoy electronic music, DJ performances, and accelerated beats per minute.

“I’m the one who negotiates with the agents of Tiësto and DJ Snake [2024 edition], that’s truly my specialty,” Côté explains. Complimenting her many good instincts, we mention that in 2019, the superstar Bad Bunny — who now sells out 20,000-seat arenas — was part of her audacious lineup. Our interviewee flashes her best smile of the interview, noting the preparation of this Paroles & Musique journalist.

“We think about people,” she says. “It’s important that we make them come out and see us. Your reaction is important!”

Osheaga: August 2–4
ÎleSoniq: August 9–11