This year marks the 15-year anniversary of Montreal’s beloved Osheaga music festival on the newly renovated Parc Jean-Drapeau grounds. With long awaited headliners like Dua Lipa, hometown heroes Arcade Fire, and Future stepping in for A$AP Rocky, who cancelled last minute, the zoomers turned up in droves donning their skimpiest festival swag, which included glitter bustiers, cut-out tops, mini skirts, and of course the signature denim cut-offs.
Day one featured stand-out sets from cool guy hard-core band Turnstile, brit popper Charli XCX commanding crowds, the return of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs after nine years off, a record-breaking crowd for Kygo, and a double headlining set from Arcade Fire.
Day two started a little gloomy weather-wise, and despite the clouds threatening rain, it held off as we headed to catch sets by lo-fi rockers Men I Trust and indie rocker Mitski on the main stage. The sun started to peak out just in time for a cheery trek back over to the Green Stage for a couple of tracks with Freddie Gibbs and most of Burna Boy’s high energy set. We headed back to the main stage to stake out a spot for Future and catch a few good vibes from Houston’s own Khruangbin. While we were sad A$AP Rocky had to cancel last minute (without much in the way of explanation), Future commanded crowds while relying heavily on his backing track but looked damn cool while doing it. We finished off the evening on a high note with a solid dance session at Caribou.
With energy levels waning a little by day three but with a good solid brunch in our bellies and the sun shining, we jumped onto the Metro and headed in to catch a little bit of Tinashe on the main stage before a full-on evening vibe session with our favourite indie rockers Glass Animals. Over on the Green Stage SAINt JHN commanded crowds with his mystical slow jams, cool animations, and TikTok antems, but the crowds started to bai off to stake out their spot for Dua Lipa who was on point as ever to close out the festival.
