Little do we know that the momentous, five-night celebration of Wavelength’s 20th anniversary in Feb. 2020 — including a one-night return to our former Sunday night home Sneaky Dee’s — will be one of the last in-person music festivals in Toronto before COVID-19. The pandemic shuts down all live music in Ontario for 18 months, but Wavelength makes the most of the spare time, presenting ever more creative livestream concerts and talks, while organizing our archives behind the scenes and launching new research projects, including “Reimagining Music Venues.” In-person events return with the “TOPS x Wavelength” film and music series at Fort York over Labour Day weekend 2021, and in 2022 we relaunch our summer festivities as the Wavelength Summer Thing.
You Are Here (2020-present)
You Are Here (2020-present)
Little do we know that the momentous, five-night celebration of Wavelength’s 20th anniversary in Feb. 2020 — including a one-night return to our former Sunday night home Sneaky Dee’s — will be one of the last in-person music festivals in Toronto before COVID-19. The pandemic shuts down all live music in Ontario for 18 months, but Wavelength makes the most of the spare time, presenting ever more creative livestream concerts and talks, while organizing our archives behind the scenes and launching new research projects, including “Reimagining Music Venues.” In-person events return with the “TOPS x Wavelength” film and music series at Fort York over Labour Day weekend 2021, and in 2022 we relaunch our summer festivities as the Wavelength Summer Thing.
2023 marks Wavelength’s first full year of in-person shows post-pandemic, which exemplifies our ongoing commitment to diverse programming and innovative spaces — kicking off with a collab show at Collective Arts Brewing in Hamilton, Ontario. The Wavelength Winter Festival highlights Indigenous performers and pays tribute to Montreal's Constellation Records, while the Summer Thing returns to a green, lakeside location at Trillium Park for a free weekend of music and arts. Two research projects, Band Together and Reimagining Music Venues, explore remote music collaboration and possibilities for innovation and conservation of live music spaces. Memorable shows include events at the Royal Ontario Museum, Tkaronto Music Festival, and unique venues like Filipino club Sari Not Sari and furniture design studio Brothers Dressler.
Though the COVID-19 Omicron variant kiboshes an in-person Wavelength Winter Festival, things begin opening up for good a few months later. In May, Wavelength returns to full-capacity events and, in August, relaunches its summer event as the two-night Wavelength Summer Thing. It features much of that year’s planned Winter Festival lineup, with guest curation by industrial horrorcore artist Backxwash, Wavelength veteran Cadence Weapon, and Montreal psych-rock collective Mothland. Finally, Anishinaabe musician/composer Daniel Monkman (Zoon, Ombiigizi) starts their year-long guest-curation engagement. Memorable performances include Ombiigizi’s album launch, and a Halloween party fittingly doubling as the album launch for gothic drone-rockers Bonnie Trash.
Though it’s still firmly mid-pandemic, 2021 starts off on a hopeful note with the rollout of COVID vaccines in Canada and the fully online 21st Wavelength Winter Festival. Wavelength returns to in-person programming in September with TOPS x Wavelength, five days of live music and film co-presented with the Toronto Outdoor Picture Show at Fort York, and two sold-out, restricted-capacity shows at 918 Bathurst. Memorable moments include soul singer Odario livestreaming from Union Sound Co. in an online double bill with underground rap hero More Or Les, and Brendan Canning DJing virtual concert simulation Waveworld.
The year starts off as a momentous one, marking our 20th anniversary with the four-night Wavelength Winter Festival 2020. The opening night at Sneaky Dee’s (20 years to the day from WL 1) feels like a high school reunion for long-time showgoers, complete with commemorative ‘zine. No one knows that #WL2020 will be the last in-person music festival in Toronto before the COVID-19 pandemic. We spend the rest of the year sorting through our archives and making the most of livestreaming, like Rapport playing live from their living room (with their bassist socially distanced on the porch) and the Wavelength 800 Livestream Mini-Fest.