Get ready to experience electrifying moments with a program that will thrill you like never before!
NLFB gives festival-goers something to look forward to before the official lineup launch!
Northern Lights Festival Boréal (NLFB) is delighted to share a first glimpse of its 2025 program, with numerous artists yet to be announced. This year’s edition promises to be even more incredible, with a selection of artists who will make festival-goers dance, move and unite in the spirit of celebration – from July 4 to 6, 2025, at Sudbury, Ontario’s Bell Park. Most artists will perform their own shows, while also appearing in one-of-a-kind, collaborative ‘workshop’ performances with other artists. Advance pricing is currently in-effect for Festival Passes, available now at nlfb.ca.
MELBOURNE SKA ORCHESTRA
Formed in 2003 Melbourne Ska Orchestra is an orchestra with a difference. Comprising up to 26 members this juggernaut contains some of Australia’s finest musicians and performers. Helmed by the energetic and charismatic Nicky Bomba (John Butler Trio, Bomba, Bustamento) Melbourne Ska Orchestra are more than just a band, they are an experience to behold. Melbourne Ska Orchestra’s live performance is explosive and infectious, and blew away Northern Lights audiences in 2014 and 2015. NLFB is thrilled to have the rare opportunity to present this explosive group once again.
SHAD
Shad is one of Canada’s most revered rappers, a peerless wordsmith who embodies hip-hop’s power to entertain and educate. Since releasing his DIY debut in 2005, the Toronto-based MC has pushed his style of socially conscious yet infectiously playful hip-hop across five increasingly ambitious albums that have received widespread critical acclaim and coverage in outlets like Rolling Stone, Complex, The Ringer, Fader, NPR, and more. Shad can currently be seen talking shop with the legends of rap on the Emmy/Peabody Award-winning Netflix Original docu-series, Hip-Hop Evolution.
THE WEATHER STATION
The Weather Station is the project of Toronto based songwriter Tamara Lindeman. The Weather Station have gone on to headline tours across North America and Europe, play major festivals, and perform on the televised Austin City Limits as well as Jimmy Kimmel Live. Over the course of six albums, her music has moved from home recorded, mostly acoustic folk to the “ornate act of world building” (New Yorker) that was Ignorance. Nominated for three Juno Awards, a Socan Songwriting Award, and the Polaris Prize, her albums have made a mark both critically and conceptually.
DAVID FRANCEY
David Francey is a Scottish-born Canadian carpenter-turned-songwriter, who has become known as “one of Canada’s most revered folk poets and singers” (Toronto Star). “David’s straightforward songs tell honest stories of real people and real places. Poetic perception and a keen eye for the heart of the matter are trademarks of the man and his music. His songs and stories are a direct connection for audiences seeking depth and meaning in the day-to-day.” Shelter Valley Folk Festival. Francey had the honour of receiving the prestigious SOCAN Folk Music Award as well as taking home the Grand Prize in both the International Acoustic Music Award and in the Folk category for the John Lennon Songwriting Award.
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. With thought-provoking lyrics and engaging stories, they often leave listeners reflecting on their own experiences, feelings, and memories.
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.
BUSTAMENTO
Nicky Bomba has once again rallied his musical cohorts and produced a fresh sounding album that lifts off beautifully from their last highly acclaimed excursion.
After spending the last 2 years performing around the globe, Bustamento have returned to musical shores with a great collection of songs capturing the international flavor of their intrepid travels. An exciting departure from the Caribbean based style of their ARIA nominated first album (Intrepid Adventures to the Lost Riddim islands), the new release shows the band flexing its creative muscle.
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.
BLACK BULL MOOSE SINGERS
The Black Bull Moose singers are a group of Anishnawbek drummers and singers from Georgian Bay and Southern Ontario who make their home 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.
To find out more about our artists’ music, visit nlfb.ca/artists/
