Bluesfest is rocking the capital again, and while it is one of the top 10 music festivals in North America, it has also become a leader in how to use the web.

All the social media tools help fans make concert plans, and then once on site there is free wi-fi, live Twitter posts, location-based cell phone apps and more to help you.

Bluesfest may be all about the music but delivering the whole festival package is very much a web and social media exercise.

Steve Marriner is lead singer for Ottawa's Monkey Junk band. He says running a band is a business, and you need to look after business.

That means being on YouTube, Facebook and other sites in order to reach as many fans as possible.

He loves what Bluesfest is doing.

"People are thirsty for information, and they want to make a connection with a band and its members, and so you have to be there to set up that link and do what you can to help develop your fan base."

Bluesfest music and executive director Mark Monahan – and Allan Isfan, CEO of Favequest –are the key players.

Monahan realized a couple of years ago that the world of music was changing, and his festival needed to meet the new reality.

"Everyone has a cell phone and can be streaming or taking pictures or tweeting, and we can't put enough security in place to seize everyone's mobile device. The world has changed, and the bands that realize that are doing.

"Some of the old-school bands are confused about what is going on, and the reality is if you don't embrace it you will be left behind."

Monahan thinks live streaming of concerts is not far off. The big success last year was links to videos of the artists who were to appear. 100,000 video views last year during the festival – this year 200,000 views after just a few days.

Lee Dunbar, spokesperson at the Ottawa Festivals Network, says, "Bluesfest is amazing, and what they are doing online is very impressive."

Dunbar's group represents more than 50 Ottawa festivals, and they are trying to bring them all into the Internet world. Studies show that when people are looking for event-related information, 70 per cent start that search online.

Overall, visits to the Bluesfest site are up sharply this year; tens of thousands of fans are using the virtual calendar feature to map out the concerts they want to catch.

There are links to Facebook and Twitter, and in fact there is now a five-person Twitter team on duty every night to capture what is happening.

Sarah PC – that is the name she goes by, as senior assistant to Monahan – did it informally last year, and she's still tweeting this year.

"We are followed all over the world. If you can't be here, you can go to the website, see the posts, the videos, and read our tweets. It's fantastic; it's like being in the middle of things while they are happening. "

Also new this year is an iPhone app. It provides everything that the website offers, plus once you are on site you can use the phone and a virtual map as a way to tell your friends where you are on the grounds.

Isfan says he is already thinking about next year, and as a fan he wants even more access. "More fan-to-fan interaction and more fan-to-artist interaction, more than just the autograph tent. A lot of the artists are already online, and I want to set something up where they can get together and talk to each other."