News/Announcements: Wavelength Music Festival Announces Lineup for Inaugural Wavelength Music Festival and Conference

Founded back in 2000 by a collective of indie musicians, artists and curators, Toronto-based Wavelength Music has evolved from its roots as a weekly Sunday night club series and monthly photocopied zine, to a non-profit, multi-format platform including outdoor festival experiences, thought-provoking conversations and diverse, curated concert presentations — all while never wavering from its original version of building excitement for the local DIY music scene.

In recent years, Wavelength has expanded into research projects such as Reimagining Music Venues, which proposes a path towards new models of conservation and innovation for Ontario’s live music spaces.

Having celebrated its 25th anniversary, Wavelength looks forward to championing the Canadian independent live music sector and providing a space for forward-looking conversations. And to that end, Wavelength Music recently announced their inaugural Wavelength Music Festival and Conference, which will take place March 19, 2026 – March 21, 2026 at Wavelength @ St. Anne’s, an an arts hub known for immersive and intimate performances in a gorgeous historic church hall. Building upon Wavelength’s key role in the Toronto West End’s creative community, showcases and other events will also be held at Lula Lounge, The Art Gallery of Ontario, The Baby G, The Garrison and InterAccess.

2026 will see Wavelength going global in scope, with emerging Canadian artists spotlighted alongside international acts from Australia, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Portugal and the States.

Proudly independent, homegrown and artistic-centric, the inaugural Wavelength Music Festival portion of the programming brings a grassroots-oriented approach that reflects the diversity of Toronto’s music scene. The Conference portion will offer a weekend-long series of its acclaimed talks, panels and workshops, aimed at both music industry professionals and the general public. And with the festival portion now taking place during Spring Break/March Break, family friend break-time programming includes the Synth Petting Zoo, an interactive synthesizer exhibition.

The inaugural Wavelength Music Festival and Conference’s music lineup will feature Aussie yacht rock artist Alex Cameron, Irish dream pop-singing Maria Somerville, and Hong Kong-based shoegazers and JOVM mainstays Lucid Express. Montréal dream pop duo Bibi Club and Ribbon Skirt, who landed on the Polaris Music Prize shortlist will be returning to play the festival and more Canadian alt-rock legend Melissa Auf der Maur will celebrate the publication of her memoir Even the Good Girls Will Cry with three events in Toronto, including the book launch at the AGO, a late-night DJ set and a showcase co-presented by Basilica Hudson, Auf der Maur’s Upstate New York-based independent venue, which will be feature a lineup curatorially inspired by their annual music and art festival, Basilica SoundScape. The full festival lineup is below.

Additional events include a Nowruz (Persian New Year) party showcasing Toronto’s vibrant Persian electronic music scene, a spotlight on Indigenous musical talent co-presented with Tkaronto Music Festival, and a global-meets-hip-hop night at the Garrison co-presented with Uma Nota Culture. 

“After celebrating our 25th anniversary all throughout 2025, I’m thrilled to wrap things up with a bow by presenting the lineup for our first-ever Wavelength Music Festival Conference in March of ‘26. Wavelength grew out of the ‘think globally, act locally’ ethos of the ‘90s, and this lineup still embodies that a quarter-century later: with concerts connecting our diverse, vibrant local music community with groundbreaking artists from around the world,” Jonathan Bunce (aka Jonny Dovercourt), Artistic/Executive Director and co-founder of Wavelength says.

And what a dream to inaugurate our conference with the book launch for a true ‘90s icon: the one and only Melissa Auf der Maur, musician, photographer, curator, producer, and now author. A Canadian music legend, Melissa exemplifies artist-run culture at the highest level, demonstrating her commitment to the grassroots by running a venue and festival in her adopted hometown of Hudson, New York,” Bunce adds. “We need cross-border co-operation between arts communities now more than ever, and we hope Melissa’s talks and readings will inspire future generations of musicians and organizers.”

For more information, including artist bios and the full festival schedule, feel free to check out the festival’s homepage: https://www.wavelengthmusic.ca. Tickets and passes go on sale, Friday, December 12, 2025 at 10:00am.

Conference programming will be announced in early 2026. And free tickets for Melissa Auf der Maur’s book launch at the AGO will be available in Feb 2026.

Musical line-up includes: 

Ada Lea * Alex Cameron * Bad Waitress * Bibi Club * bikebike * Burs * Casper Skulls * Cinna Peyghamy * Colle * Ebril * Dan English * Dastgâmachine * Dumai Dunai * Fortunato Durutti Marinetti * Hélène Barbier * Lucid Express * Mad Iris * Maria Somerville * Melissa Auf der Maur (book launch + DJ set) * Orbital Ensemble * Paul Chin * Pizza Bush * P.S. Lucas * Ribbon Skirt * Salar Ansari * Sheenah Ko * Slash Need * Sook-Yin Lee * Status/Non-Status * Tara Kannangara * Tarek Funk

Plus: Panels * Poets * Synth Petting Zoo * Walking Tours * Workshops 

Wavelength Music Festival + Conference is supported by:
The Government of Ontario, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, Department of Canadian Heritage, Canada Council for the Arts, FACTOR, TO Live, Sonic Boom Music, The SOCAN Foundation, Adamson, DICE, Exclaim!, Great Lakes Brewing, and Yamaha.
With community partners: the Drake Hotel, Little Portugal BIA, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Basilica Hudson, Basilica Soundscape, InterAccess, Link Music Lab, Lula Music & Arts, Synth Palace, Tkaronto Music Festival, Tri City Synthesizer Society, and Uma Nota Culture.

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