No cowboy boots or gas masks this year, but Bluesfest lost and found has a warning

Volunteer manager of lost and found Kathryn Carruthers poses for a portrait on the sidelines of Bluesfest at LeBreton Flats on Friday, July 17, 2026. Photo by Spencer Colby /POSTMEDIA

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Ottawa Bluesfest lost and found resembled a textbook hangover last summer. The collection held a single cowboy boot and — memorably, regrettably — a zippered bag of vomit. Volunteers also took custody of abandoned underwear, lawn chairs and an old-fashioned gas mask whose purpose at a July music festival remains unexplained.

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By comparison, the bin this year is a portrait of restraint.

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“We have had a lot fewer things turned in to lost and found,” says Kathryn Carruthers, a Bluesfest volunteer of more than 15 years who manages the operation. What has come in is almost aggressively sensible, save for a sneaker separated from its owner in a Limp Bizkit mosh pit.

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Otherwise, it’s small bags containing what the festival tells people to bring, like an ID, a payment card and a few phones, and the usual scattering of hats and sunglasses shed as the sun goes down over LeBreton Flats.

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Behind the scenes, the lost and found has undergone a glow-up. Volunteers can track items that have been reported lost but not yet turned in, so when a phone does surface from under a tent, they contact the owner, rather than the owner having to reach out to them every half hour in escalating despair.

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“Last year I had a bank of phones, trying to keep them charged up in case the owner called them,” said Carruthers. “And this year they’re going out as fast as they’re dropped off. People notice instantly now that they’ve lost their phone.”

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The recording system, how volunteers log each item as it comes in, has also been digitized, making it faster to locate items in the collection. Attendees can phone ahead to 613-247-1188 to confirm an item has been turned in, head into the Canadian War Museum for pick-up and walk back into the crowd speedily with their belongings and evening intact.

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“It’s a very satisfying part of our job,” Carruthers says, “to take all the calls and make an effort to restore people’s belongings so they can carry on enjoying Bluesfest.”

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Lost items are pictured in the Lost and Found section of Bluesfest on Friday, July 17, 2026. Photo by Spencer Colby /POSTMEDIA

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There is one trend heading in a less positive direction. Carruthers says thefts of loosely attended bags seem to be on the rise. Bags have been stolen after being left on the back of a chair or placed aside while their owners made purchases at a beer tent.

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And even gravity can be an enemy. Volunteers heard from a patron whose pouch had flipped upside down, spilling his phone, driver’s licence and credit card somewhere on the grounds. Only the licence made its way back to lost and found.

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The festival’s advice, worth repeating before the final acts take the stage, is to bring only what you need.

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Their guide encourages carrying only what fits on your person. It’s faster at the gates, where bag checks are the main slowdown for lines. And a zipped fanny pack with secure card slots, worn on your body, beats a bag slung on a chair.

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And if you spot something on the ground, pick it up and hand it to a nearby volunteer — Carruthers says there is always a volunteer nearby — and they’ll get it to lost and found.

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She notes people often assume a lost item is gone for good, that human nature won’t come through for them. Staff can’t say how many finders keep what they come across, but Carruthers says in her experience, most turn items in.

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