Van Morrison thrills the huge opening-night crowd of 35,000 that jammed LeBreton Flats last night to kick off Bluesfest. (Sean Kilpatrick/SUN)

Bluesfest kicked off the 14th annual festival of outdoor musical mayhem with Irish soulman Van Morrison last night, and 35,000 fans packed the new LeBreton Flats venue to hear the legend at work.

The last time the Belfast Cowboy was in Ottawa was 1969, when he played Le Hibou in the Market.

Nearly four decades later, little has changed about Morrison. Both he and his amazing repertoire of blue-eyed soul have grown.

Accompanied by a 10-piece band and wearing his elegantly funky straw fedora, the 61-year-old opened his date with destiny with the wry Talk Is Cheap, with Morrison himself blowing harmonica off bouncy Hammond organ.

Not surprisingly, the notoriously private star didn't say a word for the first hour, but kept the show rolling one song after another with All Work, No Play and a Tower of Power version of Moondance with brass horns giving it even more of a Motown feel.

Morrison methodically built a seductive setlist, with a superb flow of songs that had an almost narcotic effect on the fans who were crowded like sardines in front of the huge MBNA stage.

With one of the most incomprehensibly delicious voices in all music -- one that was once described as a tenor saxophone jammed down Morrison's throat -- the seemingly ageless crooner showed why he's been wowing crowds across Canada on his current tour.

At times, you could hear his singing penetrate inside the Canadian War Museum. His voice is an instrument that seems only to have improved and mellowed with 40 years of use.

Happily, he stayed in a funkadelic soulful groove with an irresistibly bouncy boogie-woogie playing of Cleaning Windows Bopping before Days Like This, with the legend himself on sax and backup singers reminding him there would be days like this, a snappy version of Have I Told You Lately That I Love You, Brown Eyed Girl and an inspired and raunchy version of Gloria.

If crowds this large keep filing in, this year's edition of Bluesfest could be on track to annihilate past attendance records.

Which will be wonderful on paper, but not so wonderful if you're one of hundreds of fans stuck in a sea of thousands.