Northern Lights Festival Boreal

Artists

LINEUP 2025

Melbourne Ska Orchestra

Formed in 2003, Melbourne Ska Orchestra is a 26-member powerhouse led by Nicky Bomba. Known for their explosive live performances, they have captivated audiences worldwide, from Montreal to Tokyo. Their debut album led to sold-out shows and international tours, while Sierra-Kilo-Alpha earned them an ARIA award in 2016. In 2019, their ambitious One Year Of Ska project—52 songs in a year—won them a second ARIA award. With the support of Ska legends like Stranger Cole and Neville Staples, their unique sound continues to resonate globally.

Melbourne Ska Orchestra
4

Shad is one of Canada's most respected rappers, a masterful wordsmith who captures hip-hop’s ability to both entertain and educate. Since releasing his self-made debut in 2005, the Toronto-based MC has developed a unique blend of socially conscious yet irresistibly fun hip-hop across five critically acclaimed albums. His music has garnered attention from top outlets like Rolling Stone, Complex, The Ringer, and NPR. With over 30 million streams, Shad has earned a Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year for TSOL in 2010 and has made the shortlist for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize four times, most recently for his 2018 album A Short Story About a War. Beyond music, Shad has hosted CBC Radio’s q program and is featured on the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Netflix series Hip-Hop Evolution. His latest album, TAO, was released in October 2021 on Secret City Records, continuing his legacy of thought-provoking and engaging music.

Shad
The Weather Station

Tamara Lindeman, the Canadian artist behind The Weather Station, returns with Humanhood, her seventh and most powerful album to date. Born out of a period of personal crisis, she channels her disorientation into an intimate yet experimental folk-rock sound. Following the critical success of Ignorance (2021) and its companion How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars (2022), this album captures the raw improvisational energy of a band responding in real-time to her emotions. Recorded with co-producer Marcus Paquin at Canterbury Music Company, Humanhood unfolds as a journey from chaos to tentative renewal, oscillating between despair and hope. Tracks like Body Moves and Window reflect an internal struggle through shifting musical structures, while moments of redemption emerge in Humanhood and Sewing, where Lindeman finds solace in nature and embraces life’s uncertainties.

The Weather Station
Klô_Pelgag_plan large crédit Benoit Paillé

Klô Pelgag is a major artist in Quebec and Canada, with a career marked by 20 ADISQ Gala Félix awards, a JUNO Award, and nominations for the Polaris Music Prize. Her latest album, Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs, received critical acclaim in Canada, France, and the U.S., with praise from Télérama and influential critic Anthony Fantano. She has performed sold-out shows at MTelus, in France, England, and Japan. From her first album, L'alchimie des monstres (2013), she won prestigious awards such as the Prix Barbara and the Grand Prix de la Francophonie. Her second album, L’étoile thoracique, earned her the Prix Félix-Leclerc and the SOCAN Songwriting Prize. Through her music, she seeks to capture deep emotions, creating art that is both personal and universal.

Klô Pelgag
David Francey

David Francey is a Scottish-born Canadian carpenter-turned-songwriter, recognized as one of Canada’s most revered folk poets. He spent decades working in rail yards, construction sites, and the Yukon bush, while writing poetry and composing songs in his head. Francey never planned on making a living from music, but his wife encouraged him to share his songs, leading to the release of his debut album Torn Screen Door in 1999. Over the years, he has released thirteen albums and won four Juno Awards. His songs have been covered by artists like The Del McCoury Band and Tracy Grammer. Francey’s music reflects his deep connection to Canada, drawing inspiration from his experiences across the country. He has earned prestigious awards like the SOCAN Folk Music Award and the John Lennon Songwriting Award. His straightforward, heartfelt songs continue to resonate with audiences seeking depth and meaning in everyday life.

David Francey
Burnstick

Built on emotion-stirring storytelling and unmistakable vocal harmonies accompanied by a century-old instrument, Burnstick, a JUNO nominated husband and wife Folk duo, are intent on creating affecting music that inspires listeners to feel. The Manitoba based Indigenous duo features Nadia and Jason Burnstick, esteemed independent artists who united over a decade ago to create deeply moving, cinematic Folk music using their trademark vocal pairing, and Jason's mastery of the lap slide Weissenborn guitar. Five years after their nationally acclaimed debut album, "Kîyânaw," Burnstick unveils "Made of Sin", their remarkable and poignant sophomore album.  Nadia and Jason perform deeply resonant music that strikes a chord with audiences. With thought-provoking lyrics and engaging stories, they often leave listeners reflecting on their own experiences, feelings, and memories.

Burnstick
the honest heart collective

The small Canadian city of Thunder Bay exists somewhere in the time and place between never and nowhere. Home to a modern rock band with a heavy history and a sheer will like no other. The Honest Heart Collective. Their three albums present an unintended trilogy; Liar’s Club, the naïve home studio DIY, Grief Rights, a blue collar coming-of-age tale, and More Harm, an accumulation of failures and victories picked up along the way. Standing at the crossroads of promise and pain, The Honest Heart Collective offer themselves up to you. Take what you will.

The Honest Heart Collective
bustamento

Nicky Bomba and his band Bustamento have returned with a fresh album, INTERCONTINENTAL JOURNAL 7, after two years of global performances. Building on their highly acclaimed debut, Intrepid Adventures to the Lost Riddim Islands, the new album showcases the band's creative evolution, moving beyond their Caribbean-based style. The album opens with the energetic "Fez in Fez," kicking off an adventurous musical journey. Tracks like "Caretaker" and "Rise Up" still honor their reggae and calypso roots, while the addition of steel pan adds a vibrant twist. The first single, "Back Again," blends Motown with calypso, while "We All Make Mistakes" features a Pacific ukelele serenade over a heavy drum bed. "Josephine" honors the legendary Josephine Baker with a jungle groove, and "Glasto Mud Shuffle" brings a New Orleans swamp boogie vibe. The diverse tracks reflect Bustamento's multicultural influences and their creative range.

Bustamento
bad actors

Bad Actors are a folk music duo based out of Sudbury, Ontario. As former members of Murder Murder, Barry Miles and Jonathan Danyliw have been mining the annals of appalachian, Americana, and bluegrass traditions for over a decade. This is folk music in the truest sense of the term, music that borrows from a centuries long catalogue of resources in an effort to both honour the genre's history and also examine the unique experiences of contemporary life. Sometimes the best way to process the present is to filter it through an old lens. Debut album "Silver Hands/Diamond Teeth" out now.

Bad Actors
black bull moose singers
Black Bull Moose singers are a group of Anishnabek singers representing the Northern shores of Lake Huron.  The drum is sacred and treated with much respect.  It represents the heart beat of Mother Earth. The songs are sung in a traditional manner learned from grandfathers and generations of grandfathers before.  It is our pleasure to sing songs of the land and waters that have been here since time immemorial. 
 
 
Black Bull Moose Singers
Lotus Wight

Multiple CFMA and JUNO nominee Lotus Wight (AKA Sam Allison) has been playing Northern Lights Festival Boreal for almost two decades as a host and performer. He is long known for his work as singer and banjo player with Sheesham, Lotus and Son. Wight is now busy as a solo performer, touring internationally and recording solo records. He sings original and carefully-curated old songs which weave together seamlessly. Keep an eye out for Lotus on the store-front stage for fun with jaw-harps and mouth bows.e in Sudbury with their families. Each year the group tours the Pow-wow circuit across Canada and beyond, delighting audiences with their inspiring brand of traditional music.

Lotus Wight

More artists to come...

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