24 September 2026 – Second Summer Opens Across Toronto With More Than 100 Independent Acts

Toronto's inaugural full-scale Second Summer festival begins today, spreading more than 100 artists across a network of venues through September 26. The lineup is a particularly healthy snapshot of contemporary independent music rather than a top-heavy bill built around two enormous names.

cleopatrick, EKKSTACY, Militarie Gun, MIKE, High Vis, Folk Bitch Trio, Dune Rats, W.I.T.C.H., Ribbon Skirt, Squirrel Flower, Bodywash, Art d'Ecco, Kiwi Jr., Twin Shadow and dozens more appear across venues including Lee's Palace, the Horseshoe Tavern, the Garrison, Baby G, Bovine Sex Club and the Great Hall. Toronto punk favourites PUP are serving as guest curators, selecting a group of acts under the "PUP Picks" banner that includes High Vis, Truck Violence, Status/Non-Status and others.

Second Summer also incorporates a two-day conference for emerging music professionals and industry figures at the Drake Hotel, making the event partly about building the infrastructure around independent music rather than simply selling wristbands. That city-wide model can be chaotic—festival schedules occasionally resemble advanced mathematics—but it also encourages audiences to discover artists accidentally while moving between rooms. For independent music, those accidental discoveries are often where the real value lives.