February 14–16, 2025

Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick Avenue, Toronto, ON
Friday, February 14: 6:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Saturday, February 15: 12:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Sunday, February 16: 12:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Earlybird Tickets Now On Sale Until January 31 Here

Winterfolk, Toronto’s beloved annual celebration of folk, blues, and roots music, returns for its 23rd year from February 14–16, 2025, at the iconic Tranzac Club. This year’s festival promises an extraordinary mix of established artists, including Michael Jerome Browne, Dala, Sultans Of String, Donné Roberts, Russell deCarle, Amanda Rheaume, and Tannis Slimmon, alongside emerging talent and community-driven performances, all set to reignite the spirit of live music and inspire audiences of all ages.

Destination Markham proudly announces the return of the wildly popular Markham Jazzlicious WinterFest for its third year. Building on the success of the sold-out 2023 and 2024 editions, this year’s series promises even more memorable evenings celebrating the vibrant culinary and musical culture of the City of Markham. With six events planned from late January to March 2025, Markham Jazzlicious WinterFest continues to grow as a must-attend cultural experience in the Greater Toronto Area.

2025 Event Schedule:

Garth Hudson was always an enigma, a man who let his music do the talking while he stood in the shadows, quietly shaping the sound of The Band and, by extension, the very fabric of Americana. He was the quiet heartbeat behind anthems of dust and dreams, a reluctant hero whose touch on the keys carried the weight of centuries. Whether pushing the boundaries of the Lowrey organ or diving headlong into the rich textures of the piano, Hudson approached each instrument with reverence and curiosity, never content to settle for the obvious. The tracks he left behind are witnesses to his genius—painstakingly mixed, fixed, and prepared with a craftsman’s devotion. Garth Hudson didn’t just play music; he resided in it, breathed life into it, and left a legacy that resonates with every note. God bless this man.

Founder – Birdsong New Music Foundation

“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, a bird only sings because it has a song.” – ancient Chinese Proverb (reassigned to Maya Angelou, 2001).

Live Event Photo Credits: Allan Tong

The Art Gallery of Burlington (AGB) celebrates its golden anniversary with January exhibitions opening for Time Isn’t Real and Dry Thunder.

2025 marks 50 years of the Art Gallery of Burlington (AGB), giving us a unique chance to examine the past, look towards the future and find our place in the present. Exhibitions feature Canadian artists and curators, circulating stories of place and our relationship to time.

The AGB is kicking off this golden anniversary with a winter exhibition opening reception on January 16, 2025 for Time Isn’t Real and Dry Thunder. Members, media, and VIP are invited for a special preview from 5:30–6:30pm, followed by the public opening from 6:30–8:00 pm. Artist remarks and tours will take place at the gallery over the course of the night.

The AGB is thrilled to launch Time Isn’t Real. This landmark exhibition celebrates 50 years of artistic production, cultural festivities, and storytelling through the lens of contemporary Canadian ceramics. It invites viewers to consider how the lessons of the past and the potential of the future shape the artistic moment we live in today.

June 13-14 2025 will mark the 5^th Anniversary of Lilla By Festivalen and the plans are starting to shape up with announcements coming soon.

Lilla By Festivalen is an amazing music festival held in Rinkaby, Sweden. It's a celebration of music, family, and community, set amidst the beautiful Swedish countryside. The festival has been running for several years and has become a beloved event in the region. In 2025, Lilla By Festivalen will celebrate its 5-year anniversary with a brand-new festival experience, featuring a lineup of exciting artists and activities for all ages.

Founders and Producers of Lilla By Festivalen Malin Osth and Jonas Tancred, shared their thoughts, "We are incredibly proud of the musical cultural bridges that Lilla By Festivalen has built between Sweden and Canada. It is an honour to promote the exchange of music, culture, and friendship between our countries, and we look forward to continuing to develop this unique partnership in 2025 to continue to grow and strengthen the bonds between Canada and Sweden with further development of your home away from home, the Kanada Barn.”

Destination Markham proudly announces the return of the wildly popular Markham Jazzlicious WinterFest for its third year. Building on the success of the sold-out 2023 and 2024 editions, this year’s series promises even more memorable evenings celebrating the vibrant culinary and musical culture of the City of Markham. With six events planned from late January to March 2025, Markham Jazzlicious WinterFest continues to grow as a must-attend cultural experience in the Greater Toronto Area.

2025 Event Schedule:

February 14–16, 2025
Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick Avenue, Toronto, ON
Friday, February 14: 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Saturday, February 15: 12:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Sunday, February 16: 12:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Winterfolk, Toronto’s beloved annual celebration of folk, blues, and roots music, returns for its 23rd year from February 14–16, 2025, at the iconic Tranzac Club. This year’s festival promises an extraordinary mix of established artists, including Michael Jerome Browne, Dala, Donné Roberts, Russell deCarle, Amanda Rheaume, and Tannis Slimmon, alongside emerging talent and community-driven performances, all set to reignite the spirit of live music and inspire audiences of all ages.

David Farrell was a pal, a confidante, and a consummate craftsman of words. He was a visionary editor whose passion for music and storytelling transformed Canadian journalism. Much like the finest musicians he celebrated, David possessed an innate rhythm and flow in his writing, weaving narratives that struck at the heart of our shared cultural experience.

I often nudged him to write more. "Do that book," I’d say. The skill, clarity, and tone in his columns were something to marvel at. Recently, he asked me to locate as much of his work as possible. A good amount was available on FYI Music News, but it was the earlier work he was most concerned with. I understand why. There’s gold in those memories—the kind that sparkles brightest when unearthed. Sadly, time was never an ally in organizing those treasures into a book or hunting down the rest.

 Curbside Concerts, a Canadian-based business who've grown successfully in its first four years of operations, are proud to announce Tracy Posadowski and Tom Yeates have joined their team as managing directors of sales and marketing. The company looks to both experienced and highly successful entrepreneurs to deepen Canadian expansion, enter the American marketplace, and explore new and innovative business verticals to bring music to.

"We started, scaled and sold our own Fintech business in 2021 after successfully entering the market in over 15 countries," Posadowksi says. "Since then, we work exclusively with startups and scaling companies to set their go-to-market strategy and help them execute against their business goals. We are delighted to be part of the Curbside team."

Immerse yourself in the magic of The Huron Carole, a musical journey curated on the ancestral lands of the Mi’kmaq people. Following its premiere on APTN, APTN Lumi and Eastlink in 2023, these same broadcasters, along with CTV2, proudly present encore presentations beginning December 20, 2024. This iconic variety concert, recorded at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in Halifax, promises unique interpretations of seasonal classics from country to operatic, to innovative blends of traditional with contemporary.

Founder Tom Jackson, C.C., LL.D., takes the stage with an extraordinary 6 piece-band, featuring guest performances from Measha Brueggergosman-Lee, Shannon Gaye, Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy, Beverley Mahood, Loreena McKennitt, Andrea Menard, and PIQSIQ. Sing along with this exuberant audience vocally led by the Halifax Camerata Singers.

Full list of artists here: huroncarole.ca/artists/

CTV/CW Network stars from Sullivan’s Crossing – Morgan Kohan, Chad Michael Murray and Scott Patterson – bring greetings and direct viewers on how to donate to the Canadian Red Cross.

Plates & Playlists: Turning Food, Music, and Connection Into Real Support for Mental Health

This season, The Awesome Music Project is rallying communities across the country to transform good food, great music, and meaningful moments into vital support for mental health programs.

The attic of 20th-century pop music is packed to the rafters with exotic ephemera—a one-hit wonder that launched a nationwide dance craze here, a chart-topping classic from an otherwise forgotten movie there. Digging deep into the minutiae of those halcyon days is the fun of Moments in Time 2.0, a collection of anecdotes and factoids that’s more engrossing than a thousand long-distance dedications.

Just like its subject matter, the book was built with instant gratification in mind. Music historian Tom Locke has parceled out nuggets of pop trivia from the 60s, 70s and 80s, in bite-size morsels that you can sample a few at a time or all at once. Think of it like a great oldies channel but in print, with a playlist that covers one of the richest eras in our pop-cultural past—beginning at a point when Elvis’ stint in the army had ceded the charts to a cadre of squeaky-clean crooners, and running all the way up to the revolution that was the New Wave, in which a catchy synthesizer riff and a handclap machine were all it took to get a nation up and dancing.