Please don’t stop the music: keeping the Festival d'été de Québec playing for more than 350,000 fans

“Before we announced the 2022 program and released tickets, we asked Bell to give us a hand reviewing our cloud security. On the day we announce the lineup and start selling tickets, traffic is crazy. It's my most stressful day of the year.”

For 11 days in July, the music world tunes in to Quebec City, where hundreds of thousands of festival-goers come to the Vieille Capitale to hear famous artists from Quebec and around the world, including Cypress Hill, Lana Del Rey, Robert Charlebois, Cœur de pirate and more.

Organizing such an international event is a huge logistical and technological challenge. And the public profile makes it a natural target for cybercriminals worldwide. It takes tried-and-tested solutions and vigilant monitoring to ensure safe, smooth operations – including ticket sales, running multiple stages, and facilitating everything from emergency services to catering to sanitation.

The virtual box office

Cloud computing is essential to the behind-the-scenes success of the festival – and to the box office in particular: online ordering is responsible for the sale of over 125,000 general admission passes and other ticketing products. Accessible through feq.ca, the box office relies on cloud computing to support traffic and data needs.

In 2022, the Festival d'été de Québec (FEQ) returned to the "normal" festival format after two years of pandemic cancellations and accommodations – and the organizers predicted a spike in online orders. Patrick Bouchard is the IT Team Lead at BLEUFEU, the organization that oversees the FEQ and other cultural events and concert venues. In preparation for 2022 ticket sales, he turned to Bell to ensure that their platform was secure and could handle the high levels of traffic expected to come through.

Bouchard was confident that the site's cloud architecture was robust enough to handle the surge in traffic, but in light of recent international cyber-attacks, he thought it best to bring in certified cloud security professionals to take a look at the configuration.

Preventing skips and scratches with exhaustive testing

To get started, Bell specialists recommended an initial in-house security analysis before engaging Palo Alto Networks to assess and test the level of security in place. Over two and a half weeks, a small team of experts from Bell, the FEQ and Palo Alto Networks tested the limits of the cloud platform, identifying potential vulnerabilities. Bell collected the data and presented a detailed cloud security posture assessment, highlighting system strengths as well as certain vulnerabilities.

The assessment also confirmed a number of improvements that the FEQ was already planning to make to its systems. "We had confidence in our systems and we felt ready to tackle the big day of the announcement," he added.

A few weeks later, the site and cloud services were able to cope with the demand of thousands of festival-goers efficiently and securely. "We sold all 125,000 general admission passes in 16 days, a sales record," explained Bouchard. "The website and our social media platforms held up well. There were no cybersecurity issues and everything went smoothly.” Satisfied with the results, he intends to repeat the evaluation of the cloud security posture on a regular basis.

The FEQ and Bell: teamwork in harmony

The collaboration between Bell and the FEQ doesn't stop there. Every year, the FEQ team works closely with Bell to install network and computer equipment on the festival sites. In 2023, the FEQ had several hundred network connections and Wi-Fi antennas installed. They are essential to the smooth running of the festival’s technological aspects, from security cameras to payment terminals and on-site communications.