Nick Farkas: The man behind Osheaga

Nick Farkas created the Osheaga music festival Nick Farkas is a music lover who created the Osheaga music festival in Montreal.

Nick Farkas is a busy man year-round. He's vice president of concerts and events at Evenko, but on this day, he's focused on his baby: Osheaga.

Nick's passion for music started long before he founded the festival.

"My mother was a violin teacher and my family was very musical and I was always like, you know, I played clarinet in high school and I took violin lessons and piano lessons," he reminisces.

His taste in music changed as he got older, and so did his career path.

"I was a bike messenger when I was in Concordia. For four winters. And I was also booking punk rock shows at the time. So it was the life of punk rock."

It's that love of punk rock that first got Nick into the business, booking the artists he wanted to see perform. He says the gig was far from glamorous.

"We did shows, but we also, like loaded in gear and we moved boxes and we did whatever it took to, you know, for the show must go on."

That hustle paid off. As his experience grew, so did his contacts.

"The agents we were dealing with also had all these other acts that were, you know, became grunge, I guess, whatever the grunge movement was. So all of that world started and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Like the music that we listened to and liked suddenly became popular."

That's how he was introduced to artists like Dave Grohl and Green Day, who were new on the scene at the time. It also inspired Nick's vision for Osheaga.

"Watching the career progression of some of these artists. It's amazing to be part of that."

Nick says it's amazing how his career has grown over the years but says he couldn't have done it alone.

"It's a team. I played basketball on a team and baseball on a team. You know, you can't win games on your own."

It's that team that has helped make Osheaga a reality.

"Never in a million years, did I think it would lead to a profession or a job."