Sled Island Music & Arts Festival announces LA-based experimental hip-hop trio clipping. as the guest curator it’s 2026 festival, running June 17 – 21, 2026 in Calgary, Alberta. Along with guest curator duties, clipping. will perform at the #1 Royal Canadian Legion (116 7 Ave SE) on Saturday, June 20, 2026.

Each year, Sled Island’s guest curator puts their stamp on the festival through special programming choices and their presence at the event. clipping.’s curatorial selections will be announced in the coming months, along with 200 additional bands, comedy, visual art and conference programming chosen by the festival in multiple venues across Calgary.

clipping William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes and Daveed Diggs, clipping. released their self-produced 2013 debut, midcity. Only five months later, the trio signed to Sub Pop and dropped their debut studio album, CLPPNG, in 2014. Since then, they have released two EP’s, a scorching live album, several remix collections, and four more studio LP’s.

All three members of clipping. bring their own influences to the table. Snipes composes film scores and was a member of the electronic music duo Captain Ahab, while Hutson has released experimental noise music under the names Rale, Anthracite, and Tattered Syntax. One of their most intriguing collaborations was crafting the score for the 2013 documentary Room 237.

Diggs, meanwhile, is a Tony and Grammy-winning actor, whose motormouthed rapping brought both Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson to life in the musical Hamilton. His rhymes piece together fragmented images with esoteric references — and are never written in the first person.

From contributing a track to The Rick and Morty Soundtrack to collaborating with Rivers Solomon on an award-winning science fiction novel, the breadth of clipping.’s work is vast. Their latest record, 2025’s Dead Channel Sky, moves the needle from straight horror-core to electro-drenched cyberpunk rave-ups, with guest appearances from Aesop Rock and Calgary’s own Cartel Madras. Diggs himself likes to declare, “It’s clipping., bitch.” Show up, get down, and experience what rap can really be.

Festival passes and individual show tickets for clipping. will go on sale this Friday, December 12, 2025 at noon MST. Passes will be available for a limited time at an early bird rate of 20% off. For more information and for passes and tickets, visit Sled Island HERE for more information.