SoundScape festival shines light on Ottawa's unassuming Plaza Bridge

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Like many residents of Ottawa, I was unaware of the Plaza Bridge until I heard it would be the home of a new festival called SoundScape.

Asking around, it appeared none of my downtown-dwelling friends knew where it was, either, although it turned out we had all walked over and under it countless times.

The Plaza Bridge, in case you don’t know, is at the heart of downtown Ottawa, a y-shaped expanse of concrete that spans the Rideau Canal and forms a hub connecting Rideau, Wellington and Elgin streets. It was built more than a century ago to replace two old bridges over the canal, Sappers and Dufferin, which were demolished.

Standing at the top of the staircase that leads below the historic bridge, you’re surrounded by important landmarks, including the Fairmont Château Laurier, the National Arts Centre, the National War Memorial and the Senate of Canada building, and within sight of the Parliament Buildings and the Rideau Centre.

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From morning until night, the broad plaza of the Plaza Bridge is a non-stop hotbed of activity as tourists, students, office workers, shoppers and political types go about their business.

It’s a different story under the bridge. While the dark, damp creepiness of the past was cleaned up during a major renovation years ago, it still feels cooler, quieter and slightly mysterious beneath the concrete and stone arches of the 114-year-old structure. You almost expect a goblin to jump out.

Instead, on Aug. 27, the underbelly of the bridge was transformed into a joyful party, full of reverberating sound, swirling lights and a few hundred people. It was the first event in SoundScape, a new series of immersive performances designed for the cave-like space.

The festival is the brainchild of Jordan Foster, the former Ottawan who’s back in town as global creative director for a U.K.-based global company called Immersive International. Their mission is to create location-based entertainment by combining immersive technology and digital storytelling. Installations have been completed in cities around the world.

The company opened an Ottawa office in 2024 to serve as its North American headquarters, with Foster, a Canterbury High School grad, in charge. Some of their first projects in the nation’s capital were the big O art installation in the ByWard Market over the summer and the Lantern Grove that was set up in Confederation Park during Winterlude.