Rita Baga & Friends At Canada Day

Much like the Fête Nationale holiday the week before, Mother Nature turned up the thermostat to have a hot Canada Day.  Despite the heat, the fine folks turned out in larger numbers for the annual celebrations in Greenfield Park.  Headlining the entertainment for the evening was the entertainment tour de force known as Rita Baga.  Her star has been on the rise these last several years as she was a runner up on the very first edition of Canada's Drag Race and then finished 3rd a few years later in Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs The World.  In more local terms, it was only a few years ago that Rita Baga was a guest performer at Greenfield Park but now here she was headlining the biggest local show of the Summer.  And with good reason.  Rita Baga really doe do it all.  Comedy, singing, dancing, you name it, Rita Baga not only does it, but excels.  On this night, she promised an evening of fun stories and some of her personal favourite songs, but done with a little bit of Rita Baga pizazz.  For instance, the lyric from Corey Hart's sunglasses at night became "Don't masquerade with the gay in shades, oh no".  All done tongue in cheek while her band, The Fireballs, were rocking out behind her.  Never has Celine Dion's hit "My Heart Will Go On" been played with such a blazing guitar solo.  Before Rita Baga hit the scene, the crowd were entertained with a DJ set from another of Montreal's top Drag Queens, DJ Barbada.  She got in to the fun of the day by wearing a huge maple leaf on her head.  In between sets, the crowd was treated to some awesome juggling from Monsieur Poï.  He would juggle light beams, which made it a little difficult to photograph, but the added degree of difficulty was a fun little bonus.  His performance was terrific as the beams would change colour and for the red maple leaf from time to time.  It was a really fun to experience.  After a quick wardrobe change, Rita Baga returned to the stage to finish of the evening that she had started, and to give the people of Greenfield Park, and those of us who came from elsewhere, a Canada Day performance that even a couple of brief periods of rain could not dampen.  All of the photographs were take at f/3.2 while using various different shutter speeds, ISO settings and focal lengths.  Here are the rest of the photographs of Rita Baga, DJ Barbada and Monsieur Poï as they performed on Canada Day in Greenfield Park.

If you would like to find out more about Rita Baga, DJ Barbada or Monsieur Poï, you can do so by following the links to their websites.  A big thank you to Marie-France Rouleau for allowing me to photograph the concert, as well as the Ville de Longueuil and Longueuil Est Culture for putting everything together.  Rita Baga has several appearances lined up well in to 2026.  In these, for lack of a better term, interesting times, I figured we'd end things with her own words.  "Difference should never divide us, only unite us."  Be sure to check Rita Baga out when she appears in a town near you.