The Canadian Folk Music Awards are getting ready to roll out in Calgary, April 9 to 12. Awards in 21 categories will be handed out in batches at the four major concerts, all featuring CFMA nominees, to be held over those four days. Launching the event is Songs and Stories at the Westin Calgary Ballroom on April 9. Celebrating storytelling, it features performances by Amanda Rheaume, Claire Morrison, Guillaume Arsenault, Robert Thomas & the Sessionmen, Terra Spencer and Wyatt C. Louis, and six awards will be handed out here.
Folk Forward, on April 10 at the Bella Concert Hall, hosts performances by Calgareal, AHI, recent Juno winner Aysanabee, Boreal, Duane Andrews and Yves Marchand, with seven awards distributed on the night. On April 11, Traditional and Global Roots (also at the Bella Concert Hall) presents Cassie and Maggie, Garcons a Marier, Joaquin Núñez & Habana Safari, Juno-winners Kazdoura, Sacred Wolf Singers with Simon Wall and Scott Duncan & Luka Hall and it sees six more awards presented.
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On Sunday morning, April 12, the final concert, Folk for Families, will be held at the National Music Centre, featuring performances by Ginalina, James Culleton, Max Francis and Oh Clementine, plus the presentation of awards for Children’s Album and Young Performer will be handed out.
Topping this year's CFMA nominations list are Toronto singer-songwriter AHI and Nova Scotia siblings Cassie and Maggie, with five nods apiece, followed by young Victoria fiddler Max Francis, with four, and Ontario trio Boreal and Jessica Pearson and the East Wind, with three each. Full list of nominees here.
– Live Nation Canada has released an economic report looking at the first season of Toronto's Rogers Stadium in 2025. According to the findings, the Downsview venue generated more than $500 million in economic activity during its inaugural season. A formal assessment by Nordicity found that the 14 concerts last summer drew 700,000 fans and contributed $388 million in GDP and $115 million in federal and provincial tax revenue, supported the equivalent of over 3,000 full-time jobs and created $218 million in labour income for employees.
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“RogersStadium was designed to keep Toronto competitive on the global music circuit while delivering an exceptional experience for fans and artists alike," says Wayne Zronik, president of business operations at Live Nation Canada. "The scale of impact in our first season — from supporting thousands of local jobs to driving new customers to neighbourhood small businesses — shows how a world-class music venue acts as a force for good in our city."
Rogers Stadium received mixed reviews in its first season, creating a new hub for major acts like Oasis and BLACKPINK while also receiving bad press from Coldplay, who made light of the venue's hard-to-reach location and logistical issues, while some complained about noise and traffic in the area. It was also a major boon to Toronto's stadium concert landscape, which has become one of the biggest in the world, and helped expand Live Nation's already major footprint in the city (a trio of the company's executive team, Riley O'Connor, Erik Hoffman and Melissa Bubb-Clarke, were named Billboard Canada's 2025 Power Players of the Year).
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The 2026 season will bring major shows from acts including Bruno Mars, BTS, Luke Combs, Noah Kahan and more. Find the full schedule here.
Festivals News
The Loveless Festival is a brand new Toronto event that focuses on shoegaze and indie rock artists. The new series, put on by a new grassroots promoter group called Loveless Collective, will be held at three downtown venues, The Monarch Tavern, Sneaky Dees and St. Martin-In-the-Fields, July 25 and 26. Bands performing include Hamilton faves Basement Revolver, Bleary Eyed, Bubble Tea and Cigarettes, Pony, Bonnie Trash and Sunnsetter. More info and early bird tickets are available here.
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– The Mission Folk Music Festival returns to Fraser River Heritage Park in B.C. from July 24 to 26 for its 39th annual fest, bringing more than 20 acts across four daytime stages and evening mainstage sets. The lineup includes Tanika Charles, local faves The Fugitives, blues and swing duo Blue Moon Marquee and Chicago’s LowDown Brass Band. More info here.
Industry News
Without a doubt, the Canadian band currently creating the biggest buzz internationally is the enigmatic Quebec duo Angine de Poitrine. Reaping a huge benefit from this is the province's record pressing plant Drummond Vinyl, one of just two plants in Quebec and the only artist-owned one.
The release of Angine de Poitrine's new album Vol. 11 on April 3, brought a rush order for 30,000 vinyl copies, a huge figure for a small company of just six employees, and extensive media coverage (including CTV news and Radio-Canada) has followed. "It's an extraordinary production pace," co-owner Jeff Beaulieu (who also runs the label Hopeful Tragedy Records and plays bass inAlex Henry Foster & The Long Shadows)tells Radio-Canada. "It has changed our daily routine a lot. Everyone is really, really busy, but we love it."
–The Room Upstairs is a celebration of the life and legacy of jazz pioneer John Coltrane presented by Holla Jazz, in partnership with DanceWorks and Toronto Dance Theatre, on stage at the Winchester Street Theatre in Toronto, April 29 to May 2. Featuring black vernacular dances and Natasha Powell’s choreography, it is set to a live score of some of Coltrane’s most celebrated songs. Notable musicians featured include Thompson Egbo-Egbo (piano), Colleen Allen (saxophone) and Rebecca Hennessey (trumpet). 2026 marks the 100th year of Coltrane's birth and 10 years of Holla Jazz, and this is a world premiere. Tickets and info here.
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Artists News
Highly-regarded Vancouver indie label Light Organ Records has announced the signing of rapidly emerging local band cherry pick. Their sound has been described as a hybrid of shoegaze, noise rock and grunge, and they've made a splash via TikTok (a reported 1.4M likes), tracks such as “daze” and “doe-eyed” and the debut EP sorry place. cherry pick play The Garrison in Toronto on May 7 as part of the Departure Festival. Here's a new single and video, "aster."
– Ottawa-based guitarist-composer and vocalist Terry Gomes delivers a new EP, 2 Open 3 Closed, on April 9, and he hosts a Bandcamp listening session for it on April 8 (join it here). A mellow and melodic instrumental sound is his signature, but he delves more into vintage rock sounds on this new effort.
