From the shores of Parc Jean-Drapeau to the pulse of Montreal’s cultural landscape, Osheaga returned with three days of electrifying performances, fearless self-expression and the artists defining the sound of now.
There is a particular kind of magic to Montreal in the height of summer, when the city seems to surrender itself to possibility. From July 31 to August 2, that spirit found its fullest expression at Osheaga, where Parc Jean-Drapeau became a meeting ground for music lovers, international talent and a generation eager to make the most of the season. Against the backdrop of the St. Lawrence River, Canada’s largest music festival transformed an island escape into a vibrant celebration of sound, style and shared experience.
Across three days, the 19th edition of Osheaga delivered a compelling portrait of contemporary music in all its many dimensions. Pop spectacle met alternative introspection, emerging talent stood alongside established icons, and performances unfolded as more than entertainment. They became moments of collective release, where thousands of voices could find themselves in the same lyric, the same melody, the same fleeting exchange beneath an open sky.
The festival’s appeal has always extended beyond its stages. Osheaga captures something essential about the Montreal summer: its unrestrained energy, its appetite for discovery and its remarkable ability to bring people together. Fashion became its own language amongst the crowds, with expressive personal style reflecting the individuality that defines festival culture. Between sets, the grounds hummed with anticipation, the air thick with conversation and the promise of whatever might happen next.
Few artists embody the evolution of modern popstar quite like Tate McRae. The Calgary-born performer arrived with an intoxicating energy commanding the stage with an aura of confidence and poise. Choreography and dramatic staging heightened the spectacle as she moved effortlessly through a catalogue of hits, met with the loyalty of an audience that has grown up alongside her music. Yet it was the finale that proved truly unforgettable. Dipped in gold, McRae emerged in a radiant crescendo of light and movement, embodying the confidence of an artist stepping boldly into a new era of artistry. It was a breathtaking culmination that underscored her evolution from Canadian breakout to one of pop’s most captivating performers, leaving the crowd suspended in the afterglow of a star fully coming into her own.
If McRae brought a sharp-edged theatricality to the weekend, Zara Larsson offered a radiant celebration of confidence and carefree abandon. Even beneath Sunday’s rain, the Swedish pop sensation summoned the warmth of midsummer, filling the stage with luminous energy and infectious charisma. Her performance embraced the exuberance of girlhood in its boldest form, encouraging an audience to take up space, revel in the moment and find freedom in being unapologetically themselves. As the opening notes of “Lush Life” gave way to the shimmering finale of “Midnight Sun,” bubbles drifted through the illuminated air, creating an almost dreamlike tableau. The weather may have turned, but Larsson made a convincing case that summer is as much a state of mind as a season.
Elsewhere, Sombr offered a different kind of intimacy. The rising singer-songwriter, known for pairing vulnerable lyricism with an atmospheric indie-pop sensibility, made his Montreal debut with a performance that balanced theatrical flair and emotional candour. Dressed in a pinstriped suit, he moved between the romantic melancholy of his songwriting and the unguarded enthusiasm of a performer eager to connect. During “Back to Being Friends,” a prolonged instrumental passage became an opportunity to bring the audience into his world, while his playful Montreal-inspired alteration of “12 to 12” made the performance feel distinctly of the moment. For all its scale, the festival is often at its most compelling when an artist makes a vast crowd feel like an intimate gathering. Sombr understood that distinction.
The weekend’s emotional register shifted once more with Lorde, whose return carried the weight of a full-circle moment. Thirteen years after appearing at Osheaga as a seventeen-year-old, the New Zealand singer-songwriter returned with a body of work and a perspective shaped by the passage of time. Opening with “Royals,” “Buzzcut Season” and “Perfect Places,” she drew the audience into a world of cool-toned visuals and hypnotic movement, where nostalgia and reinvention existed in delicate balance. Reflecting on her earlier visit and the connection built between an artist and listeners who have grown together, Lorde articulated one of music’s most enduring gifts: its capacity to preserve who we were while making room for who we are becoming. As “Green Light” gave way to the closing strains of “Ribs,” the performance became less a retrospective than a reminder of how deeply a song can embed itself in a life.
Twenty One Pilots brought an explosive dimension to the festival, combining expansive visuals, pyrotechnics and anthems built for collective participation. Their return to Osheaga after a decade underscored the enduring relationship between a band and its audience, with familiar songs amping up the grounds into a chorus of shared memories. The spectacle was immense, but its emotional centre remained remarkably human; the tensions of growing up, the pressures of adulthood and the complicated desire to hold on to the parts of ourselves that time inevitably changes.
What distinguishes Osheaga is not simply the stature of its headliners, but the thoughtfulness of a lineup that makes discovery feel inseparable from celebration. Across genres and generations, the festival offers a glimpse of music’s next chapter while honouring the artists who have already soundtracked our lives. Its greatest achievement is perhaps this ability to make the unfamiliar feel inviting and the familiar feel new again.
As Montreal’s summer began its slow transition toward autumn, Osheaga left behind more than a catalogue of memorable performances. It offered three days in which music became a common language, personal expression flourished and strangers found themselves united by the same refrain. At Parc Jean-Drapeau, summer was not merely passing through. For one extraordinary weekend, it belonged to everyone.
