Most music festivals start with a business plan, a sponsor deck, and a lineup built to sell tickets.
Stompfest started with a stapled-together zine, a couple of Western University students bored out of their minds during COVID-19 lockdowns, and a stubborn belief that London, Ontario deserved a real music scene of its own. Five years later, that scrappy origin story has turned into one of Southwestern Ontario’s most talked-about DIY music festivals, and the 2026 edition, running September 9 through 12 at Poacher’s Arms, is shaping up to be the biggest and most homegrown yet.
If you have never heard of Stompfest, or you are trying to figure out whether Stompfest 2026 is worth the trip downtown, this guide breaks down everything from the festival’s origin story to ticket pricing, nightly themes, and more.
What Is Stompfest, Exactly?
Stompfest is an annual, multi-night, multi-genre music and arts festival produced by Stompbox London, a volunteer-run collective dedicated to spotlighting musicians, visual artists, and vendors from London, Ontario and the surrounding region. Rather than flying in national headliners, Stompfest builds its entire lineup from local and Ontario-based talent, spreading performances across several themed nights at intimate venues rather than one giant outdoor stage.
The 2026 edition, officially billed as Stompfest 2026, spans four nights of programming between September 9 and September 12, anchored primarily at Poacher’s Arms in downtown London.
From a COVID-Era Zine to a Full-Blown DIY Festival Sharing the London Music Scene
The origin story matters here, because it explains why Stompfest feels so different from a typical promoter-driven event. Stompbox was founded in 2021 by then-Western University students Roisin Miland and Sofia Pompe, who launched the project as a homemade zine when pandemic restrictions had shut down live music entirely.
With no shows to attend and no scene to plug into, the pair decided to build one from scratch, starting with print media before pivoting into actual events once restrictions eased.
Their explicit goal was to connect London’s creative community beyond the insular “Western bubble,” bridging students at Western University and Fanshawe College with the broader city population that often gets overlooked by campus-centric programming.
That mission clearly resonated. Within its first two years of operation, the collective had already hosted roughly 35 separate events, ranging from hip-hop and hardcore showcases to queer-focused dance parties produced in partnership with organizations like Late Bloomers and Heaven.
The first official Stompfest launched in 2023 with 16 performing artists, establishing the template of a multi-night, multi-venue showcase that the festival still follows today.
By 2024, the event had grown into a full four-day festival featuring 24 performances and 17 local vendors, complete with a custom collaboration beer brewed alongside London Brewing Co-operative and sold at Poacher’s Arms and partner bars around the city.
After the ambitious 2024 edition, Stompbox took a roughly one-year hiatus from the main festival brand while Miland and Pompe redirected their energy into Magical, a queer-focused collective project that launched in October 2024 and produced events like community movie nights, open jam sessions, and local markets.
That same network of organizers went on to help launch Magical Pride, a free four-day queer celebration held in downtown London and Old East Village in June 2025 under the banner of Magical Project 519, featuring live music, film screenings, and a queer-led night market.
When Stompfest returned in September 2025, it came back leaner and more locally rooted, with 11 of its 13 performing acts hailing directly from London rather than touring in from elsewhere. That intentional “back to homegrown roots” pivot is exactly the kind of operational detail that signals real experience running events, not just marketing copy.
Stompfest 2026 At A Glance: Dates, Venue, and Lineup
Stompfest 2026 runs from Wednesday, September 9 through Saturday, September 12, 2026, with the bulk of the festival taking place at Poacher’s Arms, located at 171 Queens Ave in downtown London, Ontario.
Doors for ticketed nights open at 8:30 PM, with performances beginning at 9:00 PM Eastern time, and the venue is licensed with an all-ages designation for most of the run.
Presented once again by Stompbox London, this year’s confirmed lineup includes Wishbone, Amanda Movio, Mvll Crimes, Superstar Crush, Carrot Cake Milkshake, Los Freakies, Exhibitor, My Artifice, The Film Critics, Growlits, Aidan Riley, November Witch, and Willem James Cowan, with additional acts still to be announced closer to the event.
The 2026 edition marks a return to the four-night structure last used in 2024, expanding from 2025’s three-night format.
Event capacity at Poacher’s Arms is capped at 300 people per night, which keeps the atmosphere intimate compared to arena or amphitheater festivals, but also means popular nights can sell out well before the door.
Organizers have already flagged that advance purchase is the safer route, since walk-up pricing at the door runs noticeably higher than pre-sale ticket tiers.
Night By Night: Jam Night, Tough Night, Alt Night, and Freak Night
One of Stompfest’s most distinctive features is its themed-night structure, which gives each evening its own genre identity and audience rather than blending everything into one undifferentiated bill.
Wednesday September 9th: Jam Night
Jam Night opens the festival on Wednesday, September 9, and is completely free and open to all ages, built around an open jam session where local musicians can sit in with the scheduled bands rather than simply watching from the crowd. This night functions as both a warm-up and a genuinely low-barrier entry point for newcomers who are not ready to commit to a paid ticket.
Thursday September 10th: Tough Night
Tough Night follows on Thursday, September 10, remaining an all-ages, ticketed show featuring Exhibitor, My Artifice, Growlits, The Film Critics, Mvll Crimes, and Wishbone, generally leaning into heavier and more aggressive genres based on past programming patterns.
Friday September 11th: Alt Night
Alt Night takes over on Friday, September 11, again all-ages, and showcases November Witch, Aidan Riley, Willem James Cowan, Superstar Crush, and Amanda Movio, with a lineup that skews toward alternative and indie-adjacent sounds.
Saturday September 12th: Freak Night
The festival closes with Freak Night on Saturday, September 12, which is restricted to attendees 19 and older and, notably, will not be held at Poacher’s Arms; organizers have indicated additional venue details are still being finalized as of publication.
Historically, the closing night of Stompfest has leaned into DJ sets and drag performances, giving the festival a genuine full-circle arc from acoustic-leaning open jams to a late-night dance-focused finale.
Stompfest 2026 Tickets, Passes, and More: Where to Buy and How Much
Stompfest has built a genuinely tiered pricing structure that rewards commitment without pricing out casual attendees, a balance a lot of larger festivals struggle to strike.
A single-night pass for either Tough Night or Alt Night runs $20 CAD in advance, while Freak Night’s 19+ single-night pass is also $20 CAD.
For anyone planning to attend multiple nights, the Superstomper two-day pass, covering both Tough Night and Alt Night, is priced at $30 CAD, which represents a meaningful discount over buying two single-night tickets separately.
Attendees 19 and older with plans to stay for the entire run can grab the Big Stepper three-day pass, covering Tough Night, Alt Night, and Freak Night, for $42 CAD, a price organizers themselves have pointed out saves roughly $33 CAD compared to buying each night individually.
There is also a premium $waggy $tomper tier at $60 CAD, which bundles the same three-day access with an exclusive Stompfest 2026 t-shirt, and a standalone t-shirt pre-order option priced at $25 CAD for anyone who wants the merchandise without a full festival pass.
Anyone who skips advance purchase and buys at the door should expect to pay a flat $25 CAD per night, a difference that makes pre-sale tickets the financially smarter move for almost every attendee profile.
All tickets are sold through Ticketscene.
For context on what that pricing actually means: a full three-night Big Stepper pass at $42 CAD works out to roughly $14 CAD per night of live music from more than a dozen acts, a price point that sits well below what most mid-size North American festivals charge for a single day of programming. That affordability is not accidental. It reflects Stompbox’s stated mission of keeping the festival accessible to students, early-career artists, and community members who might be priced out of larger commercial festivals entirely.
Poacher’s Arms: The Basement Venue Anchoring London’s Indie Scene
Poacher’s Arms sits at 171 Queens Ave in downtown London and functions as both a working pub and one of the city’s more reliable small-capacity live music rooms, hosting everything from Stompfest to recurring stand-up comedy nights throughout the year.
The performance space itself is located below street level, accessed via a staircase, though the venue has an elevator available through a separate entrance for attendees who need mobility accommodations, and organizers have publicly shared a direct email contact for anyone who needs to arrange that access in advance.
Because Poacher’s Arms caps out around 300 attendees, the room delivers the kind of close-quarters, sweat-on-the-walls atmosphere that larger festival stages simply cannot replicate.
For touring musicians and emerging local acts alike, a packed basement show at a 300-capacity venue often does more for word-of-mouth momentum than a mid-afternoon slot on a festival’s third stage, since every performance essentially plays to a fully engaged room rather than a scattered, passing crowd.
A Safe Space By Design: Stompbox’s Inclusivity Policy
Stompbox London has been explicit and public about the values underpinning its events, and that positioning shows up directly in Stompfest’s terms and conditions.
The organization describes itself as an anti-racist and anti-homophobic collective, stating plainly that anyone who disagrees with those values is not welcome at its events, and it enforces a formal safe spaces policy covering staff, volunteers, performers, vendors, and attendees alike. Violations can result in removal from the event and potential bans from future Stompbox programming, a policy that is communicated upfront rather than buried in fine print.
This is not an isolated stance.
Stompbox’s organizers have also been directly involved in London’s queer arts and nightlife ecosystem well beyond Stompfest itself, including collaborations with Late Bloomers, a queer-led nightlife collective, and co-organizing Magical Pride.
Stompfest 2026: Local Talent, Fair Pricing, Real Inclusivity, and an Unforgettable Week
2026 is a useful case study for Stompfest in what a genuinely community-built festival looks like when it survives past its first few years.
With the lineup to Stompfest 2026 built almost entirely from local and regional talent, a pricing structure designed around accessibility rather than maximizing margin, a stated and consistently enforced inclusivity policy, and an organizing team with a documented multi-year track record across several related community projects.
None of that requires a massive production budget or a headliner with a Billboard chart history.
What it requires is exactly what Roisin Miland and Sofia Pompe started with back in 2021, a genuine commitment to building a scene rather than simply renting one for a weekend.
For anyone in or around London, Ontario looking for a live music experience that feels closer to a community gathering than a corporate product, Stompfest remains one of the clearer examples of how a scrappy, pandemic-born idea can grow into a fixture on the regional festival calendar without losing the DIY spirit that started it.
Get your tickets to this year’s Stompfest in London, Ontario. Day passes and more are available from Ticketscene. Pick your nights and lock in your tickets today.
