Programming a Tournament, Not an Event
Tennis Canada runs the National Bank Open at Sobeys Stadium, a professional tournament that draws a public audience across every day of play. The programming brief was not a single evening. It was twelve consecutive days of live entertainment and guest activation running alongside competition, from the opening weekend through to the finals.
The Idea Hunter was engaged to curate and deliver that programming end to end. Scope covered concept development, sourcing and contracting all talent, vendor management and contract oversight across every partner, and on-site event leadership through the full run. Tennis Canada retained a small number of acts under its own contracts. Everything else on the Main Stage, in the VIP Lounge and roaming the grounds came through TIH.
The tournament calendar set the creative direction. Each day carried its own character: an opening weekend built for families, an all-female programming day, a tropical night, a retro weekend and a championship week in the VIP Lounge. Programming had to match the day rather than run as a uniform block across two weeks.
A Live Venue That Never Goes Dark
A private event gives a production team an empty room and a load-in window. A professional tournament gives neither. Sobeys Stadium was open to the public every day of the engagement, so every performer arrived into a live site with active security, controlled access and a shuttle-only route from the parking lot to the stage. Accreditation was required for every individual, technicians included.
The grounds are not intuitive to navigate during a live tournament, and most of the performers booked for 2026 had never worked the site. Anyone who could not find their way in would surface as a problem at the client's feet within minutes of a scheduled set.
The Main Stage is outdoors. Rain threatened across multiple days of the run, and the VIP Lounge was the only reliable covered backup, available only when other programming was not already using it. Every weather call had to be made in-day, with enough lead time for a performer to strike and rebuild in a second space.
The lineup itself also had to hold up over twelve days without repeating. Fifteen separate stage engagements needed to be sourced, matched to a specific tournament day and theme, and secured against the availability of working performers in peak summer season.
Three Programming Zones Across Two Weeks
TIH programming ran in three places: the Main Stage on the tournament grounds, the VIP Lounge during championship week, and the grounds themselves during the retro weekend. Every musical act performed the same format, two forty-five-minute sets with a fifteen-minute break, with arrival, load-in and sound check scheduled individually ahead of each.
Week One, August 2 to 9: Opening Weekend Through the Retro Weekend
Week one opened with a solo vocalist performing Canadian covers on family weekend, followed by solo acts on the Main Stage through the early rounds. The all-female programming day moved to an afternoon slot with a solo female vocalist and her technician. Tropical night brought a Caribbean steel drum duo to the Main Stage.
The first weekend was the heaviest stretch of the run. Saturday carried a daytime DJ, the first day of the Paint & Sip activation, a nineties DJ for the evening and two stilt walkers roaming the grounds in retro tennis wardrobe. Sunday repeated the Paint & Sip format with a second DJ. TIH had two team members on site through the Saturday.
Week Two, August 10 to 13: Championship Week
Championship week paired a Main Stage act with a VIP Lounge saxophonist on each of the quarter-final and semi-final nights. The saxophonist closed the engagement in the VIP Lounge on championship day, moved to an earlier slot so the set sat ahead of the finals.
Removing Problems Before They Reached the Client
TIH ran a pre-event site visit on the Friday before the tournament opened. Three team members walked the space, confirmed what had changed since the prior year and recorded video of the routes performers would use: entrance to Main Stage, Main Stage to green room, and the path into the green room area. Those videos went out to performers in advance alongside photographs of the accreditation office and the parking and shuttle point. Every performer received a recap email with arrival time, parking code, shuttle window and meal time before they left home.
On-site coverage was concentrated where it mattered rather than spread evenly across twelve days. TIH staffed the days carrying performers new to the grounds and the first day of the Paint & Sip activation, and managed the remaining days virtually. Several performers had difficulty locating the site and were talked in by phone. None of it reached the client.
Weather was handled day by day, with the VIP Lounge held as the covered backup and early communication running in both directions. Tennis Canada made decisions quickly, which is what allowed each call to be absorbed without disruption. Across twelve days of outdoor programming, one act was shortened by twenty minutes. Nothing was cancelled.
Sourcing opened in May against the tournament's themed calendar rather than against a generic brief. Each slot was matched to its day: Canadian covers for the opening weekend, a female vocalist for the all-female programming day, steel drums for tropical night, a nineties DJ and retro tennis wardrobe for the retro weekend, and a saxophonist for the VIP Lounge through championship week. Wardrobe for the stilt walkers was selected from a full list in advance, so the final look matched the creative intent rather than approximating it.
What the Fans Actually Saw
The Paint & Sip activation was the strongest guest moment of the tournament. All four sessions across the two days ran at capacity, with roughly 160 guests taking part. On a hot tournament it gave fans a shaded, low-intensity option, and every participant left with something they had made themselves, painted from an image designed specifically for the 2026 season. Tennis Canada volunteers ran setup and changeover throughout, and the activation could not have run at that pace without them.
The retro weekend put two stilt walkers on the grounds in tennis wardrobe built to match the night. Fans noticed them the moment they walked out and the act generated strong content. The performers also picked up an oversized tennis racket on the day, light enough to carry through a full two-hour set, which improved the act considerably.
Delivered in Full Across Twelve Days
The engagement was delivered on time, on budget and to the brief. Fifteen stage engagements ran across twelve consecutive days in two performance areas, alongside a two-day guest activation and a roaming act on the grounds. Four Paint & Sip sessions ran at capacity. One act was shortened by twenty minutes for weather, and nothing across the tournament was cancelled.
Meals arrived on schedule for every performer across both weeks. Credentials, parking and shuttle access were confirmed individually ahead of each day, and the one credential question that surfaced at the accreditation desk was resolved on site with no impact on the performance.
Tennis Canada and The Idea Hunter held a formal after action review on August 20, 2026. Both teams carry actions into 2027, the pre-event site visit is being repeated, and Tennis Canada has opened 2027 programming planning around both new concepts and the activations returning from this year.
“The Idea Hunter agency was a pleasure to work with throughout the 2026 National Bank Open presented by Rogers. The Idea Hunter provided an exceptional on-site experience for our fans in Toronto through events, activities, musical performances and entertainment. The National Bank Open is our Tennis Playground, and it's through partnerships like this that ensure we can continue to connect with fans of all ages, interests and demographics. We look forward to continuing this partnership and working with The Idea Hunter again in the future.”— Tennis Canada
