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Bluesfest tickets have been on sale for almost two months, and director Mark Monahan said they’re selling well. Late additions to the lineup are a regular occurrence. This year, the extra acts are intended to boost the festival’s appeal during a summer brimming with sesquicentennial celebrations.

“Ticket (sales) are very similar to last year, which was a record year,” Monahan said. “It’s obviously going to be a big summer for Ottawa so we anticipate that we will have a lot of people coming in just because they’re in town.”

Bluesfest will leave the all-Canadian programming to other events, such as the National Arts Centre’s Canada Scene festival, which runs June 15-July 23. Bluesfest headliners already announced include Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, 50 Cent, Muse, Toby Keith, LCD Soundsystem and more.

“With everything around with the 150th, our hope is that there’d be such a focus on Ottawa that (the city) would be in the forefront of people’s minds,” Monahan said. “We didn’t feel we had to bring in Canadian names but we did feel that we had to have a huge impact in terms of the artist lineup, make it the best we can.”

Other recent additions to the Bluesfest lineup include: classic rockers The Zombies, Canadian DJ REZZ, New York singer-songwriter Arum Rae, country dude Tim Hicks, Saskatchewan’s Jack Semple Band, psychedelic riffmaker Delicate Steve, dance-funk party band Busty and the Bass, Australian blues-rocker Hamish Anderson, Toronto’s melodic indie rocker Taylor Knox, brilliant New York guitarist Yonatan Gat, Austin piano man Red Young, and the Joplinesque blues wailer Sari Schorr.

A slate of Ottawa-area acts have also been added to the festivities, including Pony Girl, Taylor Angus, Anna Ludlow, Townes, Jessica Pearson & the East Wind, How Far To Mexico, The Riot Police, Blast From The Sun, and Blues and Company.

Tickets are on sale at frontgatetickets.com. Full passes are available, as well as single-day tickets, pick-three packages and new this year, four-day weekend packages.

lsaxberg@postmedia.com

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