Every June, Sled Island takes over venues across the city where Calgarians can enjoy an eclectic range of live performances. Running from June 18 to 22, the 2025 lineup features over 200 acts.
Since 2007, Sled Island has hosted talent from across the globe, spotlit impressive emerging artists and offered diversity in genres anywhere from neo-soul and punk rock to indie.
“Sled Island is a discovery festival. The beauty is in discovering your new favourite band,” says festival manager Hemen Tor-Agbidye.
Who to watch for
Every year, Sled Island invites a guest curator to help create the festival’s lineup, and Japanese punk rock band Otoboke Beaver fills that role for 2025.
“Having a different guest curator every year definitely brings in very different artists and bands,” says Tor-Agbidye. “The curator picks are so different from year to year with insanely energetic, heavier acts selected in 2024 from Show Me The Body and really exciting punk acts selected by 2025’s curator Otoboke Beaver.”
Otoboke Beaver will take the stage at the Palace Theatre on June 21 for an explosive modern punk show not to be missed. As the guest curator, the band’s selections include fabled garage punk group The Mummies, Japanese-American “action comic punk band” Peelander-Z, “gunk pop” trio Black Ends, DIY pop-punk outfit LEMON BOY, Seattle sludge metal three-piece MUÑECA, experimental glockenspiel musician and synth pop artist Glockabelle, Taiwanese indie punks BB BOMB and the recently announced final selection, Japanese classic rock group DMBQ.
Expect diversity across the board from headliners to lesser-known artists and so many opportunities to discover your next favourite band. The festival welcomes emerging singer-songwriters, alternative pop artists, indie rock groups, R&B singers and so much more.
Comedy, art and special events
Beyond musical talent, Sled Island also showcases artistic brilliance in other mediums. Festival goers can attend comedy shows, artist talks, punk rock bingo and even have the chance to belt it out themselves at the festival’s legendary wrap-up karaoke event.
In celebration of National Indigenous People’s Day, Sled Island has partnered with Indigenous-led organizations to put on two events on June 21 with exciting musical lineups highlighting Indigenous talent. Attendees can watch musical artists SMUTHER, Feartilizer 1492, No More Moments and Void of Mood at the Ship & Anchor, and an exciting collection of electronic performers, including LVL Collective, Creeasian, BLKFT and DJ Blexxy on the King Eddy rooftop patio.
With such an expansive selection of performances to take in, it might be tricky to decide on your ultimate Sled itinerary. Not to worry as the Sled Island website gives you the option to filter through bands based on genre and build your own customized Sled schedule to suit your preferences and maximize the fun.
A Discovery Pass gets you access to all of the events, and there’s an option to upgrade to a Discover Plus Pass for priority access.
To buy your passes and tickets and see the current lineup, visit sledisland.com.
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