This year is the 45th anniversary of Sudbury's Northern Lights Festival Boréal (NLFB)—one of Canada’s best arts festivals in Northeastern Ontario. From July 8-10 at Bell Park, NFLB brings us an incredible lineup, headliners including Canadian fiddle royalty Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy, Bahamas, Steven Page and the Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra. To sweeten the deal, NLFB has introduced free admission for kids as well as new accommodations packages, making attending the festival easier and more enticing than ever.
The very first Northern Lights Festival Boréal was held in 1972, making it the oldest annual music festival in Canada. The NLFB team is hoping to outdo itself this year and to rival the blowout 44th edition last year. With unforgettable performances by more than 50 acts, the Northern Lights Festival Boréal continues to innovate each year with an eclectic program of indie, roots, and world music, as well as visual arts, workshops, family entertainment and more. Northeastern Ontario’s artistic community comes alive over the festival weekend with a unique and unforgettable celebration of community and culture.
As usual, the festival will feature a great musical lineup split over two main stages and two secondary stages throughout the weekend. The music ranges from Celtic to world, folk, the range of rock, blues, and indie, the new and the old, and as many different instruments as you can name. Canadian musical icon Steven Page and former frontman of national treasure Barenaked Ladies is scheduled to close out the 45th edition. Crowd-pleasing fiddle masters Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy will return again this year due to popular demand. Many artists play more than once and participate in workshops, giving the audience a chance to get to know the artists in a way unique to folk festivals. As for local talent, fans can expect to see well known performers like Matt Foy, Murder Murder, Brian Dunn, Paul Dunn, Chuck Roberts and Hugh Jazz.
This year the festival is offering accommodations packages. Festival-goers can choose from three overnight packages suited for all budgets and tastes. There is a camping packages (with shuttle service), college residence accommodation and hotel bookings. All overnight accommodation packages come with two weekend passes.
Sudbury’s Stack Brewing is creating a special festival beer for the festival—The Bear—which will be available exclusively at the Festival. Taps from Muskoka Brewery will also be flowing, ensuring that everyone's tastes are catered to and local offerings are well represented.
The festival is also host to an interactive Arts Village, where many types of folk art will be on display and participative workshops and artisan vendors on site. The festival promises to unveil a new and improved family area to attract more families, and admission is now free for kids ages 14 and under.
The Northern Lights Festival Boréal experience is much more than a concert—it's a weekend spent hanging out in a beautiful park with great friends, listening to some of the best musical acts of the moment. It's no coincidence that it has been going strong for 45 years.
For more tickets and more information on the Northern Lights Festival Boréal visit the festival website here.
