The final day of a Festival is always a tricky one, as you want to give everything you have left, but on the other hand, do you have something left!?! But those doubts are usually gone when you cross the gate and hear the first band playing.
About 30 seconds after the doors were opened, it started raining, and it rained a good chunk of the hour, as the weather people backstage were making sure that no thunderstorm was nearby that could have put the whole event on pause before it even started. Thankfully, the moment as Canadian band Valley was about to get on stage, all the rain stopped (for now), and the show did go on!
Valley
While I don’t have scientific proof of it, I firmly believe that Valley is one of the reasons the sun came out as soon as the first few notes were played. The band went all over the place during their 40 minutes, playing the classics, “Like 1999”, but also some new songs, like “Vending Machines”, and “Someday” which the latter was released two days before, but the cheers were really loud the moment they were played with lead singer Rob moving all over the place on stage getting the crowd even more riled up! A feat that can be tough to accomplish when you’re the very first band to perform.
CMAT
After a small “break” in the media tent, we head back to the main stage to catch the second half of CMAT’s performance. To be able to see her is almost a miracle, as at first, her keyboardist suffered food poisoning, and second; the plane company at some point lost a good part of her gears. At the last minute everything fell in order and she and her band managed to deliver an amazing performance, including a fan request of the unreleased “Aw, Shoot!”
Sofia Isella
After the “poppy and happy” aura of CMAT, we headed to one of the secondary stages for a more dark environment with Sofia Esella. She arrived in her usual baggy, dirty clothes and more importantly, her really subtle voice was delivering a sometimes very dark and intense message, which was reaching a lot of crowd judging by all the gate people waiting for her and singing every word of every song of her set, which was a mix bags of her entire discography. Performing by herself with an instrumental backing track, she would, out of the blue, pull out a guitar, a violin or even a banjo and just start shredding.
Oklou
Right after Sofia, there was an act that I was really looking forward to seeing. French singer Marylou Vanina Mayniel, performing under the name Oklou arrived on stage with her 2 musicians, and smoothly set herself for her 45 minutes set which consisted mostly of her debut album Choke Enough which was released last year. There’s some comparison that could be made with her and Sofia as both are mostly relying on the smoothness of their voices to deliver their messages, but the comparison pretty much stops there, as Oklou travels us to a more upbeat and joyful mood. The highlight for me was definitely when she performed “Harvest Sky” which led the entire crowd into a cool little dancefloor.
Clipse
Quick run at the main stages for my first and only foray of the day into the Hip Hop world. Being the only acts from the 90s at the festival, we were still not sure if we would even get a performance. Back in 2018, one of the members (Hip Hop Superstar of his own), Pusha T got into an altercation in Toronto with rumors being with some of Drake’s crew. And from that point, according to him, he was “barred” from Canada. But thankfully he and his older brother Malice were there much to the delight of the crowd that was braving the rain for them for their first Canadian performance. Rapping mostly materials from their comeback album Let God Sort Em Out, we quickly noticed that there was no vocals backing track (except of course the numerous guest vocal spots). It was just them, and a DJ playing the tunes and hyping the crowd.
I looked at the schedule and while nothing interested me for a little bit, I decided to take a breather in the Media tent, in order to get my energy back for the final stretch of shows, and also recoup the day so far. All this while having Swedish pop stars Zara Larsson singing on the main stage in the background. I’ll admit; I never heard any of her songs, so I didn’t have any ideas of what type of reaction she would get. But the moment the first song started, all we could hear in the tent was screaming, and they were LOUD! The scream then changed to even louder sing along, then the song would end, then back to screaming. Rinse and repeat for the entire set, it was unbelievable, to the point where me and pretty much the entire Media tent all looked at each other and without saying a word and we all thought the same thing; She will headline this festival in the future, there’s no doubt about it!
Not For Radio
Back to the secondary stages for Not For Radio. The solo project of The Marias’ lead singer, Maria Zerdoya. She brings a more soulful touch into her songs. She also arrived with a garden-like stage for her and the backing band. Midway through her set, she took a lil break to change from a white dress to a black one (thankfully it wasn’t a long break to the point of people losing their energy). I didn’t have much expectation for her performance but was pleasurably surprised by it. It was simple but had a “grandiose” atmosphere which got me curious as to how it would look in an indoor venue. And I’ve been spinning her latest album “Melt” here and there ever since
Subtronics
Now lets go to the total opposite of the smoothness of Not For Radio to the Bass Dropping, Laser and Flames Shooting, Head Banging of Subtronics! The 33-year- old Dubstep DJ was already at his 3rd visit in Quebec this year, after selling out two shows in Laval and Montreal in January. He was met with waves of screaming and applause! He went on and mixed some of his best known songs with classics hits, including songs by Journey (mix with Stevie Nicks by the way), Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sia, Red Hot Chili Peppers and much much more. Even having a small interlude with none other than Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” which was pretty much the only “calm” part of his set. Beside that part, it was all Big and Fast, much to the delight of the crowd, who never stopped moving, even starting the occasional mosh pit here and there.
What separate Subtronics from most of the other Dubstep artists is how he’s able to break the mold of the usual “going higher and higher, then just drop it” to a more roller coaster ride where yes there’s a drop, but he will surprise us with a small unexpected bump here and there to keep us on our toes. A nice moment happened as he made sure to pay tribute to Oliver Tree (with whom he performed last Spring at Coachella), who sadly passed away a few weeks ago from a helicopter crash. I could have stayed there the whole set, but I really wanted to catch the final part of the last headliner of the main stage.
Lorde
I arrived at the final half of Lorde’s 3rd Osheaga performance (she came here first in 2014 when she was just 17 years old), and took the time to talk to the crowd about how important this festival has been to her in her development not just as an artist, but as a woman, and how she thanked us for it. Seeing a Lorde show is not just a show, it’s an experience. You can see how it’s not her first time around as she knows exactly how to play the camera. Giving the crowd in the back, who can’t necessarily see her from the stage witness on the big screens just as much as the person who camped all day for her. While still promoting her latest album “Virgin” she made sure to cover her entire catalog, including a truly amazing performance of “Teams”.
A funny moment happened as she was about to start “Girls, so confusing” (her collaboration with Charlie XCX) she stared by saying “Give it up for Charlie” which send the crowd into a frenzy, as Charlie did the song with her a few days ago a Lollapalooza, but after a few seconds people understood that it wasn’t going to happen. Maybe next year Charlie…
So that’s a wrap for Osheaga 2026! As I was walking back to the metro station one final time, I couldn’t help to be amazed on how a small 2 days festival with about 55 indie bands can grow and become THE Festival in Canada to the point where people are already getting their tickets and reserving their hotels the moment they’re heading back home from that weekend.
It should also be noted that next year will be the 20th edition of the festival and head promoter Nick Farkas already stated that they’re working on bringing some old favorites with the usual mix of new and exciting new acts that maybe we haven’t even heard yet!