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Concerts

Rise Against Join Avril Lavigne As  2025 All Your Friends Fest Headliners: Canadian Music Festival News

The Chicago punk group will close out the first night of the two-day pop-punk festival. P.E.I.'s Cavendish Beach Music Festival also revealed its mainstage lineup this week, and Calgary's Sled Island dropped a first wave of artists.

Rise Against

Rise Against

Courtesy Photo

Festival announcements are starting to tumble in, to keep music fans going through the slow winter months.

Ontario's All Your Friends Fest added Chicago punk stars Rise Against as headliners this week, joining previously announced headliner Avril Lavigne and Simple Plan. Rise Against will close out the Saturday night of the pop-punk festival, which pairs legacy acts with up and coming artists in the genre.


Australian sister duo The Veronicas, Floridian rock group Underoath, and emerging singer Taylor Acorn have also been added to the lineup for the festival's second edition.

The Republic Live-booked festival saw a sold-out inaugural year in 2024 at its Burl's Creek grounds, tapping into a pop-punk revival and a strong appetite for nostalgia. Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, State Champs, Faber Drive, Relient K will all play this year, too, with more acts to come. Canadian acts include IllScarlett, the often-reuniting Moneen and more.

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All Your Friends Fest takes place June 28 and 29. Tickets are on sale now.

For music lovers looking for some sand this summer, P.E.I.'s Cavendish Beach Music Festival has also revealed its mainstage lineup. Shania Twain, Tyler Hubbard and Lainey Wilson are set to headline, bringing country boots to the beach. Supporting acts include this year's leading Juno nominee Josh Ross, 2024 chart breakthrough Bayker Blankenship, and southern Indiana songwriter Stephen Wilson Jr.

Billed as Atlantic Canada's largest multi-day festival, Cavendish takes place July 10-12. Tickets are on sale now.

And for the grassroots and experimental heads, as reported in today's Billboard Canada FYI Music News Digest, Calgary's Sled Island has announced a wonderfully left-field lineup for 2024. Japanese punk group Otoboke Beaver are this year's guest curator for the alternative festival, selecting California garage group The Mummies and Tawainese indie punks BB Bomb for the lineup, among others. Also appearing are R&B star Yaya Bey, Montreal sophisti-pop icons TOPS, slowcore trio Horse Jumper of Love, and ambient harpist Mary Lattimore.

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Sled Island runs June 18-22. Passes are on sale now.

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From left: Gracie Abrams and Aaron Dessner photographed by Wesley Mann on September 1, 2023 at Long Pond Studio near Hudson, NY.
Wesley Mann

From left: Gracie Abrams and Aaron Dessner photographed by Wesley Mann on September 1, 2023 at Long Pond Studio near Hudson, NY.

Music News

Aaron Dessner Sets the Record Straight on Gracie Abrams’ ‘Death Wish’: It’s ‘Definitely Not’ About Taylor Swift

The producer also shared how he ended up performing with Noah Kahan over the weekend.

Aaron Dessner and Gracie Abrams have now made three albums together, with the pop star’s third studio effort, Daughter From Hell, arriving July 17. But one song in particular has stirred up a few misconceptions, and in a recent conversation with Billboard, the producer cleared them up.

Hopping on a Zoom call on Tuesday (July 21) — just days after joining Noah Kahan on stage in New York to perform one of The Great Divide songs he produced, a cameo that severe weather almost ruined — Dessner addressed confusion over the production and subject of “Death Wish,” one of the most talked-about tracks on Daughter From Hell. Some listeners have expressed surprise that the spritely album version sounds so different from the somber live piano version Abrams initially recorded and released amid her Secret of Us Tour, questioning why the duo would “change” the “original.” (Spoiler alert: They didn’t.)

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