The countdown is on. In just a few days, Our Music Festival returns for its third annual edition on Saturday, May 30.
Our Music Fest is more than just a music festival; it’s a community movement creating space for connection, empowerment, and the joy of live music. Bringing together an inspiring lineup of performers across genres, this festival shines a spotlight on the powerful voices and stories often underrepresented in the music industry.
New additions are in store for the 2026 edition of the fest, including two new venues, Mod Club and Small World Centre, as well as the the debut of an afternoon song circle, and most notably, a decidedly spring like new date – May 30th. Moving the festival to the warmer months was a strategic decision for artistic director and festival founder Andrea Ramolo. “After two years of programming around International Women’s Day, it felt right to move into the warmer months, because women and gender-diverse artists deserve to be celebrated all year long,” shares Ramolo, who launched the festival to help address ongoing gender disparities in the music industry.
The main evening concert will feature a dynamic lineup of celebrated artists, including Alysha Brilla, Anyma Ora’, Ammoye, Kimmortal and Maïa Davies, along with newly announced DJ Me Time, co-presented with Uma Nota.
“I am honoured to be a part of the third annual Our Music Festival,” shares Alysha Brilla. “This is my first time performing in Toronto again after almost five years, and I’m looking forward to singing with the community there and sharing new songs.”
The newly added afternoon song circle will spotlight some of today’s most exciting emerging talent, including Angela Saini, aniqa dear, Leah Holtom, Maya Killtron, and TRP.P. Hosted by Ramolo, this year’s edition promises to be a beautiful and musical way to spend an afternoon.
We got a chance to connect with Andrea, founder and Artistic Director of Our Music Festival. Andrea is a long-time Canadian touring and recording artist, a multiple Canadian Folk Music Award nominee, an award-winning filmmaker, and an actor, host, and educator. As a musician and songwriter, she has released 8 studio records and has toured nationally and internationally, gracing the stages of major Canadian folk festivals including Calgary Folk Fest, Mariposa, Vancouver Folk Fest, Harbourfront Centre, Northern Lights, Ness Creek, Sunfest, and Montreal’s Italfest. Having produced numerous multi-artist and multidisciplinary events, Andrea recognized a need for greater equity in the field. Today, she uses her platform to instigate change for her peers and remains a dedicated voice in the ongoing initiative to close the industry’s gender gap. And Our Music Festival is that ambition and goal in festival form.
What inspired the creation of Our Music Festival?
In my 20 years as a musician I’ve been a part of many strong circles of women and gender-diverse artists and for ages and in our different ways, we have always tried our best to create events and community-based endeavours that spotlight us because there was a gender gap back then and there most certainly is now in terms of which Canadian acts get to be spotlight on the big stages and in the headlining slots. We knew then and we still know now what it feels like to perhaps be one of the few women or non-binary folks promoted in large font on festival posters. During the pandemic, I was invited to be a part of this incredibly nourishing community of artists from Sarah Slean to Madison Violet, Dala, to the Good Lovelies, Hill Kourkoutis to Amanda Rheaume, and more and it was such an inspiring group and we would speak about this need for more women and gender-diverse focused events and festivals. One day when things opened up again, Hugh’s Room Live offered me a date in March to play my own show and immediately I thought… well March is Women’s Month (although that should be every day and every month) and so I thought that there was no time like the present and used the opportunity to get a crew of my talented friends together, and the first year of OUR MUSIC FESTIVAL was born. That was 3 years ago… and we are still trying to fill the gap and yearning for more acts like ourselves on stage. As a music lover I crave it. We need to re-establish our understanding of worthiness in art as active audience-members. Because art being made by women and by gender-diverse artists is incredible and so why not put our focus on that?!
What need do you see the festival filling in the music industry today?
Women make up more than 50% of the population and we are definitely being represented as such across the board on most festival bills or large marquis shows. We are doing our part to offer incredible and diverse programming that is eclectic and interesting and powerful. But the other half is that people need to show up. They need to buy tickets to actually catch these incredible shows. The festival creates a new space in Toronto where you don’t have to be competing against hundreds of other women and non-binary acts for one slot on a bill. All slots are available for us. The festival also exists to showcase the rich diversity that we have in our community in terms of talent and genre-versatility. This year’s festival has everything from reggae to adult contemporary to roots and boogie to hip hop and alt-country. It’s my dream come true!
What are some successes you can highlight?
We had a sold out year 1 at Hugh’s Room live with a room that sounded so good and was so full of love and magic that I believe it transcended everyone who attended that year. We have had multiple Juno-award nominees and winners. We have seen collaborative finales, intimate shares, dancing, crying. Amanda Rheaume and Skye Wallace teamed up for a duet in our first year which was really special and Melissa McClelland from Whitehorse took her guitar out into the crowd and walked through serenading everyone that same evening. Last year we had two young Honey Jam alumni join us and one of them was an old dance student of mine who blew the crowd away with an accidentally acapella piece when her backing track turned off. R. Flex gave it their all in an incredible music and dance performance out in the crowd. Kinnie Starr and Cris Derksen’s duo collaboration last year was transformative. And young Emilee Ann Pitawanakwat, a local hoop dancer, added so much cultural beauty to last year. It’s all been amazing. I just wish we had 500 more people in the crowd to witness what we got to experience each year.
The lineup is stacked! Who are you excited about bringing to the Our Music Fest stage?
I’m truly excited for all the acts. The newly added Afternoon Song Circle which features TRP.P, Angela Saini, aniqa dear, Maya Killtron, and Leah Holtom happening at Small World Centre during the day will be intimate and glorious. I love the mix of genres in the afternoon because I personally love all genres of music and sometimes I find that some of the festivals I attend are limiting and centre around 1 or 2. The evening show is going to be off the wall. I’m really excited that Uma Nota is bringing us DJ Me Time this year so we get non-stop music and dancing at the top and end of the night. Kimmortal coming all the way from BC is a legend. Maia Davies who won the Juno last year for Adult Contemporary album gives a really powerful and emotional performance. Ammoye who was up for Reggae Album of the Year at this year’s Juno’s is such a vibe and bringing her magical full band so they will surely get us grooving. I’m really excited to help introduce Anyma Ora’ – a Wendat singer and dancer from Quebec – to our Toronto scene with the support of the International Indigenous Music Summit and Tkaronto Festival. And of course Alysha Brilla just makes the world a better place with her sound. She hasn’t performed in Toronto in 5 years and will be closing the show. The day and night are fully stacked and for those who get the 2 for 1 festival bundle that is on promotion right now, a handful of great restaurants on the Little Italy strip where the Mod Club is located are providing some really great discounts and incentives to visit them for a bit before the evening festival doors open at 6:30. It’s seriously going to be a love fest.
What is your ultimate goal with the festival, and what impact do you hope it will have in the music industry and beyond?
My ultimate goal is that more people will see the value of supporting music made by women and gender-diverse artists and come join in this revolution. Because the revolution is magical…. because we are magical. And we are singing about important things and we want to connect to a crowd. If Our Music Festival can turn the dial and balance things out in our industry even just a bit, that will feel like it’s been successful. Strategically my vision has always been for OUR MUSIC FESTIVAL to be a 3 day weekend festival in Toronto. Friday night kick off, Saturday and Sunday afternoon programming with youth mentorship opportunities, song circles, workshops, and then Saturday and Sunday evening programming. I always envisioned Sunday evening being a world music program. I’m a part of a world music group myself and the joy of expressing culture though song is so powerful that I’d love us to allot a full night to programming that like. Baby steps. We are working hard and trying our best to offer something unique but necessary to our Toronto music landscape. So grab a ticket and come on out!
Listen to Andrea, and your music loving heart, and get your ticket today for Our Music Festival, taking place this Saturday May 30th. Head to their website below for tickets, artist and festival info and more!
https://www.ourmusicfestival.ca/
Nadia Elkharadly