Prepare The Ground festival has added some heavy hitters to its second edition lineup.
The three-day Toronto festival, which launched last year to fill a void in the heavy music scene, has announced its full 2025 lineup from May 30-June 1, and it includes some rarities and gems.
The biggest is probably Baroness, one of the highest-profile metal bands of the last couple of decades. The Savannah, Georgia group will exclusively play from their first-two full-length albums from the late-2000s, Red and Blue.
“Last month, for our annual Philly pre-holiday show, we performed our first two full length albums: Red and Blue. It was a great experience, unearthing the deeper cuts from those records that had faded from our setlist and it offered a rare opportunity to play some of those songs for the first time ever outside the studio," the band wrote on Instagram. "After the overwhelming and positive response from the Philadelphia shows (and while we’re busy writing our next record) we’re excited to present Red and Blue in full, once again. Thanks to everyone at Prepare the Ground Festival for giving us the opportunity to share this special experience. See you there!”
Toronto hardcore band Burning Love, who reunited for last year's festival, will do so once again in what is billed as their final show. Reunions are big this year, with Kylesa and Khanata also reuniting for the festival. They join doom metal band Yob (playing the full album ATMA, which includes a song, not coincidentally, called "Prepare The Ground.")
Have A Nice Life, Montreal's Big Brave, Atlas Moth and many others will play in a festival that spans subgenres of heavy music from psych-metal to prog to noise and post-punk. There is even silent film, with Pygmy Lush & Planning for Burial providing scores.
Inspired by European festivals Sonicboom, Amplifest and most specifically Roadburn in the Netherlands, Prepare The Ground aims to offer a community-first approach with meticulous curation by Denholm Whale (Modo Live), KW Campol (Mythos & the Perpetual Flame Ministries).
“Toronto has always been a town that embraces honest, cathartic music and that is what we are trying to provide through this festival," Campol told Billboard Canada last year.
Prepare The Ground is focused around four music venues in two blocks around Bloor and Bathurst: Trinity St. Paul’s Church, Lee’s Palace, the Cave and 918 Bathurst. Full festival passes and single day tickets are available here.
FULL LINEUP:
YOB (ATMA & a career spanning set)
KHANATE (reunion)
KYLESA (reunion)
HAVE A NICE LIFE
BARONESS (songs from the red & blue albums)
A MONOLITHIC DOME
ADULT.
ALASKAN (reunion)
ASHBRINGER
ASTRAL WITCH
BIG BRAVE
BURNING LOVE (reunion / final show)
COLISEUM
DISMAL AURA
FALL OF RAUROS
FOTOCRIME
GENITAL SHAME
GUILTLESS
HARVESTMAN
HIDE
IMMORTAL BIRD
JETSAM
JOHN WIESE
KOWLOON WALLED CITY
KOWLOON WALLED CITY & FRIENDS: SHALLOW, NORTH DAKOTA TRIBUTE
LANA DEL RABIES
MIDWIFE
MORNE
NO MAN
OLDEST SEA
OLGA
ORA COGAN & ESTER THUNANDER
ORISKA
PLANNING FOR BURIAL scoring "the Phantom Carriage"
PRISONER
PYGMY LUSH
PYGMY LUSH scoring "An Original Composition of Archival Footage"
RAPHAEL WEINROTH-BROWNE
SHALLOW WAVES
STEVE VON TILL
THE ATLAS MOTH
THE DISCUSSION
THE RITA
TRUCK VIOLENCE
YOUNG WIDOWS
The Weeknd at Rogers Centre in Toronto on August 8, 2025.Hyghly Alleyne, Courtesy XO Records