nxne
#FIRSTLOOK: FIRST WAVE OF ACTS ANNOUNCED FOR NXNE 2023
Canada’s discovery music festival, NXNE, has announced its initial lineup of invited artists for this year’s event taking place June 13-17, with close to 300 acts showcasing the most exciting emerging talent. NXNE is also pleased to announce a festival partnership with Neo Financial that will allow fans to score a FREE full festival pass, plus a $10 credit by signing up for a Neo product with no financial commitment at nxne.com. This exciting partnership will make NXNE even more accessible this year, in addition to full festival passes available now for just $25 and single tickets available for $15.
Each year thousands of music fans descend on Toronto’s live music venues at NXNE to see bands often before they break it big, in a massive week-long club crawl of intimate performances. With the buzziest artists and venues, this year promises to be one of the best yet! NXNE is committed to diversity and gender equity when selecting artists, welcoming all marginalized communities and genres.
“NXNE has never been more committed to reducing financial barriers for people to make and consume music than we are right now as demonstrated by our elimination of fees to apply to play, our commitment to paying all performing artists and our extremely low cost festival passes,” said NXNE Founder, Michael Hollett. “Our revolutionary partnership with Neo allows us to go one step further and offer NXNE fans a chance to attend the festival for free and even have some cash for a drink, parking or the TTC. It has never been easier — or cheaper — to explore the future of music at NXNE.”
“NXNE is the ultimate celebration of music and creativity, where art and entertainment come together to create unforgettable memories,” said Richard Okeke, Director, Channel Growth, Neo Financial. “A must-attend festival for music lovers and culture seekers alike, we are excited to partner with NXNE to bring this experience to life!”
Featuring some of the world’s best bands of today and tomorrow, music lovers will be able to catch a diverse group of acts that will be the next generation of headliners. The first wave of invited performers include Black Note Graffiti, Broken Fires, Charmaine, Housewife, Josh Bogert, Missy D, Platinum Moon and Shawnee Kish with more announcements to come in the lead-up to the festival. NXNE Headquarters, located at It’s OK* (468 Queen Street West), will feature a lounge, parties, band merchandise, performances and more! It will also be home to a series of enriching music industry panels for performing artists programmed in conjunction with the Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA).
Showcase lineups this year will see the city of Memphis’ music export initiative (MEM) bring the BBQ and five incredible contemporary Memphis acts for day and evening showcases, while Humber College will host a special battle of the bands competition for a coveted spot to play in their showcase. Additional showcase partners this year also include the Corporation of the city of Brampton, Canada’s Music Incubator, the City of Kitchener and Side Door Access with more announcements to come.
A partial list of artists invited to perform include:
36? (Calgary, AB)
Accolades (Toronto, ON)
Alex Southey (Toronto, ON)
Almyr Jules (Ottawa, ON)
Ariel View (Ontario, CA)
ashlye (Brampton, ON)
Balto (Los Angeles, CA)
Banditos (Nashville, TN)
Bandits on the Run (Brooklyn, NY)
Bealby Point (North Vancouver, BC)
Big Loser (Winnipeg, MB)
Black Note Graffiti (Ann Arbor, MI)
Black Pontiac (North Vancouver, BC)
Blvck Hippie (Memphis, TN)
Borderline Toxic (London, UK)
Borito (Tel Aviv, Israel)
Bree Taylor (Mississauga, ON)
Broken Fires (Swansea / London, UK)
CHARMAINE (Toronto, ON)
Chris Pierce (Savannah, GA)
Cindë (Toronto, ON)
Cinzia & The Eclipse (Montréal, QC)
Dali Van Gogh (Halifax, NS)
Danny Toeman (London, UK)
Diamond Weapon (Toronto, ON)
Dilettante (Manchester, UK)
Durham County Poets (Ormstown, QC)
Electric Religious (Edmonton, AB)
Equal (Oshawa, ON)
Eric Ryan (Toronto, ON)
Fame Cartel (Hamilton, ON)
Fionn (Vancouver, BC)
FKB (Edmonton, AB)
Flamél (El Paso, TX)
FRANKIE FLOWERS (Waterloo, ON)
Gunner & Smith (Saskatoon, SK)
Half Tangerine (San Jose, Costa Rica)
Harkness (Toronto, ON)
Hot Fudge Sundae (Guelph, ON)
Housewife (Toronto, ON)
Jessica Sevier (Toronto, ON)
Joey O’Neil (Dawson City, YT)
Josh Bogert (Vancouver, BC)
Kevin Daniel & The Bottom Line (Nashville, TN)
King Kuda (Brighton, UK)
King of Foxes (Edmonton, AB)
KYLO (Toronto, ON)
LGS (Ottawa, ON)
Living Room for Small (Kitchener/Waterloo, ON)
Luxe (Toronto, ON)
Lynn (Taipei City, Taiwan)
Maddisun (Cranbrook, BC)
Mark and the Tiger (Pasadena, CA)
Missy D (Vancouver, BC)
Monad (Tel Aviv, Israel)
monarch. (Brooklyn, NY)
Moving City (Vancouver, BC)
Napoleon (Toronto, ON)
Nederveen (Bristol, UK)
Nicole Ariana (Halifax, NS)
Osyron (Calgary, AB)
Pixie & The Partygrass Boys (Salt Lake City, UT)
Platinum Moon (New York, NY)
Pony Girl (Ottawa/Hull, ON)
Prado Monroe (Vancouver, BC)
Queens & Kings (Toronto, ON)
Rip Pop Mutant (Montreal, QC)
Sadé Awele (Vancouver, BC)
Saults (London, UK)
Shawnee Kish (Edmonton, AB)
Sky Olson & The Valley (Salt Lake City, UT)
Sleep Outside (Cardiff, Wales)
Sorry, Peach (Spartanburg, SC)
St.Arnaud (Edmonton, AB)
Stuck On Planet Earth (Vaughan, ON)
Surf Dads (Regina, SK)
Taylor Ashton (Vancouver, BC)
The 12/21 (Winnipeg, MB)
The Band Ice Cream (Toronto, ON)
The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers (Los Angeles, CA)
The Garrys (Saskatoon, SK)
The Magnettes (Pajala, Sweden)
The Motive (London, UK)
The People Versus (Oxford, UK)
The Q-Tip Bandits (Boston, MA)
The Vanrays (Vancouver, BC)
theWorst (Portland, ME)
Velvet Rouge (Philadelphia, PA)
Victory (Toronto, ON)
VISSIA (Edmonton, AB)
Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys (Boston, MA)
Wave Montega (Malton, ON)
We Demand Parachutes (Boston, MA)
Wonderstate (Minneapolis, MN)
YASSiN & Sean Terrio (Oakville, ON)
ZELA (Newcastle, UK)
Zeroscape (Toronto, ON)
#FIRSTLOOK: NXNE RETURNS TO TORONTO IN JUNE 2023
The legendary annual music event NXNE announced today that tickets for this year’s festival are now on sale at www.nxne.com. Taking place from June 13-17, 2023, downtown Toronto will sizzle with a celebration of community, the best new music, industry events, parties, and more. The $25 festival pass admits music lovers into every show at every venue for the duration of the festival – an incredible offer that is cheaper than the festival’s 1995 $29 launch price. But wait, there’s more! Just in time for the holidays, 2-for-1 festival passes are available until December 31, 2022.
Dozens of artists from Canada and all over the world performed their first live shows ever at NXNE. Top Canadian and international acts have all played NXNE at key early stages of their careers including: Lizzo, Arkells, Feist, Billy Talent, Run The Jewels, Daniel Caesar, Big Freedia and many more. The festival remains an accessible festival with few financial barriers to perform or attend and is wholly committed to diversity and gender equity in selecting NXNE artists.
“Our commitment to eliminating financial barriers to attend or perform at the festival means we can present the most accurate snapshot of Canada’s emerging talent – playing to full houses across the city,” says NXNE Founder, Michael Hollett. “Our festival passes are cheaper than in our first year – back in the ‘90s. Less than five bucks a night if you attend NXNE from Tuesday to Saturday. And that’s before the 2-for-1 deal.”
New this year will be the NXNE Headquarters, a busy artist and festival hub in the heart of Toronto’s live music district. Located at It’s OK (468 Queen Street West), NX HQ will feature a lounge, parties, industry panels, band merchandise and performances.
Another new and exciting addition to this year’s NXNE will be a collaboration with the City of Memphis’ Music Export initiative, MEM. The partners will be presenting an official nighttime showcase plus a day show that highlights the best of contemporary Memphis music to NXNE’s audience of discovery-obsessed music lovers. Furthermore, it should be noted that MEM will not only be showcasing musical talent … they will be bringing BBQ.
“Artists in Memphis have been telling us for a while that Toronto is a top market they’re interested in, so working with NXNE on a showcase just made sense. We’re so excited to bring the tastes and sounds of our city to Toronto in June and hope this is the beginning of a long-standing partnership!” – Elizabeth Cawein, Executive Director, MEM.
NXNE is grateful for the support of all of our partners including FACTOR, Government of Canada, SLAIGHT Music, Music Export Memphis and Steam Whistle.
#SPOTTED: ANNA CAMP + SKYLAR ASTIN IN TORONTO FOR NXNE
As an absolute surprise, stars Skylar Astin (21 & Over, Graves) and Anna Camp (True Blood, Mad Men) are in the City for the NXNE Festival, last night judging an Acapella contest at Yonge-Dundas Square. The real-life couple who both star in the Pitch Perfect franchise together both are working on their own endeavours right now. Astin just released the single Call My Name, on which he provided guest vocals for Phantoms. Camp meanwhile is in Califorinia filming Good Girls Revolt, a new series.
It is said that Camp has family here and the soon-to-be-married couple were to spend some time with them.
Engagement Photo:
We were thrilled to meet the Couple who kindly stopped for a Photo!
A photo posted by Mr. Will Wong 📸 (@mrwillwong) on
We’re unclear if like their Pitch Perfect Co-Star Brittany Snow who came a couple years back, they will be at the iHeartRadio MMVAs this weekend.
(Photo/video credit: Mr. Will Wong)
#SPOTTED: MACAULAY CULKIN + THE PIZZA UNDERGROUND IN TORONTO FOR NXNE FESTIVAL
The ’80s were good to Child Star Macaulay Culkin, who rocketed to international fame with Home Alone and its massively-successful Sequel. That popularity carried over to the ’90s with him starring in heartbreaking My Girl opposite Anna Chlumsky, who has seen a resurgence of late with her role on acclaimed Veep. Where has Culkin been, many wonder?
Well, he’s certainly in Toronto right now partkaing in the fun of the Comedy-focused NXNE Festival, and the Actor-turned-Musician has been turning heads with his The Velvet Underground Parody Band, The Pizza Underground. Comprised of five Members, the New York based Band has been doing the Festival Circuit and in addition to surprising with a performance on a TTC Streetcar last night, they played a show at Lee’s Palace.
Earlier today, they played a surprised show at Edward Day Gallery on Queen Street West. Despite being an hour late as Festival Crew fumbled to keep their prop Pizza from collapsing and ensuring that microphones were working, Fans were rewarded with free Pizza from Panago and Vitaminwater.
“Don’t get your hopes too high”, says Frontwoman Deenah Vollmer. “This is about as good as it gets”. She makes it clear early on that their musical ambitions are geared towards fun, the Band craftily substituting Pizza-inspired lyrics of the famous American Rock Band to which they pay homage.
Culkin is seen on-stage alternating between percussion (Pizza Boxes are not spared!) and the Kazoo, enthused and focused on entertaining in sunglasses and the Audience knows now to be too harsh, sedated by their charm and the carbs of the three varieties of pizza offered. I liked the Chicken most. And will be the first to admit I actually had fun!
See a Clip below of the Performance:
NXNE runs through Sunday. More details here.
(Photo credit: Mr. Will Wong)
For advertising opportunites please contact mrwill@mrwillwong.com