Organized by the creators of Stampede Mela in Calgary, the one-day music festival is coming to The Bowl at Sobey's Stadium on Sept. 12, billing itself as the biggest South Asian music festival in the city of Toronto.
Toronto is getting its own festival dedicated to South Asian music.
6ix Mela, a brand new music festival dedicated to Punjabi urban music and hip-hop, is touching down in Toronto on Sept. 12 at The Bowl at Sobeys Stadium. The one-day event will be headlined by Canadian hitmaker, rapper and XO Records signee NAV, and bills itself as the biggest South Asian music festival in the city of Toronto.
6ix Mela is run by the founders of Stampede Mela, a one-day festival founded in 2023 that takes place during the Calgary Stampede and celebrates South Asian music and culture. Born from a lack of representation in the Stampede's general lineup, the festival was created by friends Amar Duhra and Jas Toor as a space to champion homegrown Canadian artists and put South Asian music on the global stage, while simultaneously celebrating the cultural richness of Calgary's Indo-Canadian community.
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Stampede Mela most recently welcomed bubbling names like AR Paisley, Chani Nattan, Inderpal Moga and many more on July 11. For the inaugural Toronto edition, almost all of this year's Stampede Mela lineup will be coming to the city, alongside global star NAV.
It's another big milestone for the growing music market, which continues to witness an impactful rise within Canada amid numerous milestones. Earlier this year, Punjabi music superstar Diljit Dosanjh broke his own record for the biggest North American tour ever by any Punjabi artist, after repeating history in Canada with a second sold-out show at Toronto's Rogers Centre where he also met the students from the Toronto Metropolitan University course centred around his career and influence. Punjabi musicians have also increased their footprint on the Canadian charts, with artists like Cheema Y and Gur Sidhu charting their entire Bermuda Triangle album on the Canadian Billboard Hot 100 and Chani Nattan earning a placement on the chart with "Morni," a collaboration with Dosanjh.
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Last year, NAV played a high-profile set at the first-ever Rolling Loud India in Mumbai and later made a guest appearance during Karan Aujla's set, creating a viral moment between two giants of the Canadian-Punjabi music scene. Since signing to XO Records in 2017, he has maintained a consistent presence on the Billboard Canada charts, earning two No. 1 albums with Bad Habits (2019) and Good Intentions (2020) and numerous top 10 entries. He also contributed to the massive 2020 summer hit "Lemonade" by Internet Money, which peaked at No. 3 on the Canadian Hot 100. The melodic track remains a fan favourite at festivals and it's sure to be a standout moment from NAV's set once he takes the stage this fall for the first-ever 6ix Mela.
