UKaccents was launched in June 1998 "with traffic-stopping performances" (Paul Gessell, the Ottawa Citizen, 1 July 1998). Natural Theatre Company performers made front page news with their performance on Elgin Street and the Scottish band Shooglenifty played on the steps of the British High Commission, a venue previously unfamiliar to most Ottawans. This outrageous street performance and the first (but not the last) larger- than-life banners to appear on an embassy building kept UKaccents in full public view from the day it launched until the last strains of contemporary British Jazz musicians wafted on summer winds the following year.