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Concerts

Avril Lavigne and Simple Plan to Play Ontario Pop-Punk Festival All Your Friends Fest 2025

The festival booked by Republic Live will return to Burl's Creek, Ontario, for a second year on June 28 and 29, 2025, with the first two acts bringing some serious 2002 energy.

Avril Lavigne
Avril Lavigne
Tyler Kenney

Avril Lavigne and Simple Plan will play the second edition of Canadian pop-punk festival All Your Friends Fest.

After an inaugural year headlined by Billy Talent and Fall Out Boy, the festival will return to Ontario's Burl's Creek on June 28 and 29, 2025 — and its coming with two Canadian heavyweights.


Lavigne will headline the second night of the festival, with Quebec pop-rockers Simple Plan as direct support.

Those announcements cap off a big year for Lavigne, who released her first greatest hits album and earned serious buzz for her Glastonbury set (where some complained she should have been a headliner), as well as being appointed to the Order of Canada.

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The news comes as Lavigne announces a 2025 extension of her Greatest Hits tour, which saw her playing classics like "Sk8r Boi" and "Complicated" across the continent. The 2025 tour will feature 19 dates, with Simple Plan joining as support as well as Fefe Dobson (who played 2024's inaugural All Your Friends Fest). That includes dates at London, Ontario's Canada Life Place on June 3 and Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls, Ontario on June 5. More info here.

“I can’t wait to play All Your Friends Fest at Burl’s Creek," says Avril Lavigne in a statement. "It’s going to be a blast playing with so many of my friends at a festival so close to home and I hope to see you all there."

Lavigne and Simple Plan will bring some serious 2002 nostalgia to the stage — both acts released their debut record that year — while the headliner for the festival's first night is still to come.

All Your Friends Fest debuted this year as a new initiative from Republic Live, the Canadian company that also puts on Boots & Hearts country festival. In its first year, legacy names like Jimmy Eat World and All-American Rejects played alongside a handful of rising artists like Grandson and LØLØ. Lavigne appeared at this year's Boots & Hearts to perform a surprise duet with Nate Smith, which makes her the rare Canadian act to cross over at both Burl's Creek genre fests.

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"We are thrilled to have Canadian icon and global pop-punk superstar Avril Lavigne headline our Sunday night, kicking off the first weekend of summer in unforgettable style," says Republic Live Co-Founder Eva Dunford.

Simple Plan are also celebrating a monumental year, with an upcoming Prime Video documentary commemorating the band's 25th anniversary.

It's not an easy landscape to be launching a new festival, as many arts organizations face rising overhead costs and lost sponsorships, but All Your Friends seems to have had success tapping into the ongoing pop-punk revival, as well as a surge in nostalgia-focused festivals like Las Vegas' emo-pop festival When We Were Young. Acts like My Chemical Romance, Blink-182, Sum 41 and Green Day have also been among the most popular arena and festival acts this year.

With a headliner like Avril Lavigne for the second edition just before Canada Day, it seems like All Your Friends is well-poised to keep making noise.

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Tickets and camping passes go on sale December 5 at 10 a.m. here.

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Arcángel at RBC Amphitheatre in Toronto
Gabriel Di Sante / Billboard Canada

Arcángel at RBC Amphitheatre in Toronto

Concerts

Arcángel Celebrates His 20th Anniversary With Big Outdoor Shows in Toronto and Montreal

The Puerto Rican urban music star brought his global La 8va Maravilla tour to Montreal's Beachclub and Toronto's RBC Amphitheatre on July 11-12 for its first two stops of the summer, performing over an hour and a half of hits spanning two decades.

Arcángel is celebrating 20 years of success. The Latin urban music legend kicked off his global trek, the La 8va Maravilla tour, with two Canadian stops, playing Montreal's Beachclub on July 11 and Toronto's RBC Amphitheatre on July 12. The Puerto Rican hitmaker treated the audience to over an hour and a half of hits including 2000s classics and recent party-starters.

Kicking off the show, Lunay delivered a charismatic opening set, showcasing his knack for melodies through tracks like "Fantasías" and "Soltera," which reached the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019 thanks to its hit remix with Bad Bunny and Daddy Yankee. The track received a vibrant roar from the crowd upon its first note, and Lunay delivered all three verses as fans sang every word.

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