Wavelength Music Festival and Conference
Indie music non-profit Wavelength Music announces its inaugural Music Festival and Conference, expanding its annual winter season festivities to include conversation programs and interactive activities along Toronto’s west end while shifting timing to the first weekend of spring. Following its massive 25th anniversary celebrations, in 2026 Wavelength goes global in scope, with emerging Canadian artists spotlighted alongside international guests from Australia, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Portugal and the United States. In addition to the 30+ live acts, a festival highlight will be the book launch event for the memoir by Melissa Auf der Maur, Canadian-born alternative rock icon (Hole, Smashing Pumpkins), in partnership with the AGO.
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
About Wavelength Music Festival + Conference 2026:
Toronto’s Wavelength Music welcomes a prominent roster of artists, venues and community partners with Wavelength Music Festival + Conference 2026. Proudly independent, homegrown and artist-centric, the festival brings a grassroots-oriented approach that reflects the diversity of the Toronto music scene. For the first time in its 25+ year history, Wavelength 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 now taking place in mid-March, family-friendly March Break programming includes the Synth Petting Zoo, an interactive synthesizer exhibition.
At its apex is its home base Wavelength @ St. Anne’s, an arts hub known for immersive and intimate performances in a gorgeous historic church hall. Building on Wavelength’s key role in the west-end creative community, events will also be held at Lula Lounge, the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Baby G, The Garrison, and InterAccess.
Local heroes and international artists fill the stacked lineup, with globe-trotting guests including Australian yacht-rock icon Alex Cameron, Irish dream-pop singer Maria Somerville, and Hong Kong shoegazers Lucid Express. Wavelength is delighted to welcome back Bibi Club and Ribbon Skirt, following their Polaris Music Prize short list success and 2024 appearances at Wavelength. Melissa Auf der Maur will fête the publication of her new ‘90s alt-rock memoir Even the Good Girls Will Cry with three events in Toronto, including a book launch at the AGO, a late-night DJ set, and an alphabetically pleasing lineup co-presented by Basilica Hudson, her independent venue in upstate New York curatorially inspired by their annual music and art festival, Basilica SoundScape. 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.
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. 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.” - Jonathan Bunce (aka Jonny Dovercourt), Artistic/Executive Director and co-founder of Wavelength
Tickets and passes will go on sale Friday Dec. 12 at 10am. Conference programming will be announced in early 2026. Free tickets for Melissa Auf der Maur’s book launch at the AGO will be available in Feb. 2026.
Website - wavelengthmusic.ca.
About Wavelength:
Founded in 2000 by a collective of indie musicians, artists and curators, 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 diversely curated concert presentations — while never wavering from its original vision of building more excitement for the DIY Toronto music scene. In recent years, Wavelength has expanded into research projects such as the acclaimed Reimagining Music Venues, proposing a path towards new models of conservation and innovation for Ontario’s live music spaces. Having just celebrated its 25th anniversary, Wavelength looks forward to championing the Canadian independent live music sector and providing a space for forward-looking conversations.
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.