Le festival est venu et reparti, but boy did we have a great time.

This year’s Osheaga – its nineteenth edition, albeit marking a COVID-splintered twentieth anniversary – was yet another fête de grandes proportions, mixing the up-and-coming with more familiar faces from decades past. Just barely outracing a stormy weekend which threatened downpour any minute (only Sunday’s festivities were briefly interrupted by rain), we came away energized – and with a whole new list of songs for our next roadtrip.

Things got off to a great start Friday evening, with killer performances from the likes of Wolf Alice (“Don’t Delete the Kisses” the natural closer) a day before their Lollapalooza set – there’s a long, proud tradition of Osheaga/Lollapalooza crossover – as well as indie sensations Wet Leg ( with the French-adjacent “mangetout”) and bigger stars like Twenty One Pilots and, almost a year to the day that Jamie XX played Osheaga 2022, U.K. rockers The XX, who raucously closed out their act with, amusingly enough, “Intro”, likely still their most popular song.

Saturday kicked things up a notch, with headliner Tate McRae, the Calgary native behind such hits as “greedy” and “Sports Car”. The McRae fans were in full force, sporting identikit wardrobe and singing along full throttle to all her greatest hits. For those not so pop-inclined, Saturday offered up a wealth of options across a wealth of genres, including Vancouver’s own Finn Wolfhard (“Trailers After Dark”), also fresh off a Lollapalooza performance, as well as hardcore punkers Turnstile (“Birds”) and, the surprise of the festival, a previously-unannounced set for Québec “math rock” sensations Angine de Poitrine. I don’t get them, you don’t get them, but the Internet seems to love them, and they were there in all their costumed glory.

The rain-dappled Sunday closed things off with Lorde (sadly Charli XCX-less, despite a Charli cameo at Lollapalooza days earlier), the very cool Of Monsters and Men (“Little Talks”), and the awesomely weird German DJ HorsegiirL (“My Little White Pony”), who is, you guessed it, a girl in a horse mask.

Beyond the stages, we were pleased to encounter some relatively fairly priced drinks and food trucks, as well as the famed Osheaga behind-the-scenes maneuvering which kept everything on schedule, moving, and safe. Free water bottles distributed throughout the day to parched fans was a nice touch. We also loved – as we always do – how smoothly and effortlessly the transit home was handled, with plentiful staff on hand to guide fans to the Metro, manage traffic control, and generally help us get home safe. Cannot wait for l’année prochaine; let the rampant speculating about performers begin!

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Early Bird Tickets for Osheaga 2027 are on sale now.