Northern Transmissions Bets for Osheaga 2026

Northern Transmissions Best Bets for Osheaga 2026 by Erin MacLeod for Northern Transmissions: The xx, Clipse, Little Simz, Turnstile, Geese

Little Simz at Primavera 2026 photo by Alberto Dal Santo

It’s that time of year again: Osheaga. Montreal’s festival season has seen Angine du Poitrine take over the downtown core during the Jazz Festival and legendary “Weird Al” Yankovic perform a full two hour free show. All signs are that this year’s pop fest will keep the party going with something for everyone. The headliners are Twenty One Pilots, Tate McCrae and Lorde, but the line up is deep. Us folks at Northern Transmissions will be covering the whole weekend and here are some of the acts that we are particularly excited about.

Friday kicks off with Montreal producer Jules Henry and his franco-disco stylings as Super Plage. Here’s hoping the whole three days are as sunny as his tunes. But overall, the fest opens with a range of Britain’s best: indie rocker darlings Wunderhorse, melodic MC Jim Legxacy, genre benders the XX, and the spectacular stylings of Blood Orange. The evening ends with Brooklyn’s Geese, the band whose live shows make everyone forget about the supposed social media psyop that led to their viral breakthrough over the last year.

Geese at Primavera 2026 photo by Christian Bertrand

On Saturday, don’t miss Nova Scotia’s answer to Lana Del Ray, Baby Nova and the loose, shoegazy sounds of London’s bar italia. Montreal collective Moonshine is going to take over the reins of the dance-forward Coca Cola Stage for a full hour and a half. Given that legendary is probably a weak adjective for their more than decade-long track record of all night parties featuring music that spans Afro-beats, amapiano, and, frankly, anything bass-driven, there will be dancing. Critically acclaimed, for good reason, British rapper Little Simz will take the stage as will Turnstile, whose contemporary interpretation of 90s hardcore punk is as good as their show.

The last day of the fest brings the combination of pop sensibility and humorous self-depreciation that is Irish singer Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson a.k.a. CMAT, whose last show in Montreal was at teeny tiny Bar Le Ritz back in 2024. Others that we are looking forward to are the electro dream pop of French singer/producer Oklou, Aussie indie rock band Spacey Jane, and the mysterious DJ/pop star/stallion HorsegiirL, who takes the horse part of their name seriously (just google for details). Finally, on the same day as all of these folks, Osheaga is offering up Clipse. Yes, Pusha T and Malice will be performing right at the dinner hour. Not to be missed.