It's been five years since Chris and I volunteered at Ottawa Bluesfest. 2020 and 2021 were wiped out by the pandemic. When the festival returned in 2022, we signed up to volunteer, but Chris got COVID just as the festival began, and I was afraid that I would be contagious or that I would shortly come down with the illness myself, so we bowed out. In 2023, we signed up once again, but my bilateral mastectomy was scheduled for day 2 of the festival, so we withdrew for a second year in a row. In 2024, we signed up once again, even though I feared that my breast reconstruction surgery might conflict with Bluesfest. Fortunately, that operation has yet to be scheduled. So today, we returned to Bluesfest for opening day of the 30th anniversary edition of the festival.

We work in Volunteer Check-in—a busy place with many returning volunteers and the same area leaders who have been there from the first year we joined, in 2015. We work with lovely people, who are helpful, kind and appreciative.

Although we've volunteered for many festivals between 2021 and today, including CityFolk and Nostalgia, there's something special about Bluesfest. In many ways, we enjoy the volunteering as much as the music.

It's good to be back at Bluesfest...at last.