Every September, Poacher’s Arms hands its stage over to London’s own musicians for four nights running, and Stompfest has become the closest thing this city has to a family reunion for its DIY scene.
Hosted by Stompbox London from Wednesday, September 9 through Saturday, September 12, 2026, this year’s Stompfest 2026 lineup is genuinely all over the map in the best way: teenage grunge upstarts who met at a girls’ rock camp share a bill with post-hardcore veterans who’ve toured with Propagandhi, a seven-piece Latin cumbia band trades the stage with a folk singer-songwriter fresh off NXNE, and a solo R&B artist pulling millions of streams plays down the hall from an indie band that only formed last fall at Fanshawe College.
It’s less a lineup built around one sound than one place, London’s basements, rock camps, campus radio stations, and neighborhood dive bars, all funneled onto a single stage for four nights straight, opening with a free all-ages jam night before the ticketed shows take over.
Here’s a closer look at who’s playing, and what makes every one of them worth showing up for.
Already ready to buy tickets to Stompfest 2026? Pick up yours here.
Wednesday / Night 1: Jam Night
Carrot Cake Milkshake: London’s Genre-Blurring Trio Turning the Basement Show Into an Art Form
Carrot Cake Milkshake is the sound of London, Ontario’s DIY scene refusing to sit still, a three-piece built around keyboardist/vocalist/trumpet player Jason, drummer Luther, and bassist/guitarist Ryan, who treat genre less like a lane and more like a suggestion. Depending on the song, or sometimes the minute, their sets swing through punk, noise, jazz-fusion, and electronic detours, an approach best captured on their 2026 release “Demos 2025,” eight tracks in twenty-five minutes that Bandcamp tags with everything from ambient and hip-hop to metal and pop, and one that seems about right for a band whose own bio promises “someone sings a silly song, selling his socks for sweet, sweet success.” That restless, anything-goes energy first got noticed on the strength of tracks like “Attack Of The Morbgoblins,” and it’s carried the trio through a steady rotation of London’s most character-filled rooms, from an experimental/noise-focused night at the TAP Centre for Creativity alongside Magic Daffodils and Arma Agharta, to an all-ages Honey Dip bill with Wishbone, to a set inside a laser tag arena for the TROPX showcase with Lua Sol and Winter, to stops at London Music Hall, Variety Cafe, and the Quiet Earth free concert series. It’s a résumé that reads more like a scavenger hunt than a tour history, which tracks for a band whose whole identity is built on not staying in one place musically for very long. That same unpredictable, all-ages-friendly chaos is exactly what Stompfest is counting on to open the festival: Carrot Cake Milkshake co-headlines the free Wednesday night Jam Night at Poacher’s Arms, kicking off four days of London’s local scene by proving, once again, that they’ve never met a genre they wouldn’t cheerfully throw in the blender.
Los Freakies: London’s 7-Piece Cumbia Crew Turning Poacher’s Arms Into “Londombia”
Los Freakies call their sound “Londombia,” a fitting shorthand for a seven-piece outfit that treats London, Ontario, as its own outpost of the Latin dance floor. Built around a full band of Latin rhythm, brass, and percussion, the group’s music moves fluidly between psychedelic textures, hip hop, cumbia, and salsa, less a fusion project than a genuine attempt to make a decades-old party tradition feel native to Southwestern Ontario. That mission has played out most consistently at Poacher’s Arms, where Los Freakies became the house band behind the Freaky Latin Jam Night, a recurring residency that, as of last October, had already brought them back to the venue for a third appearance in five months, evidence of a crowd that keeps coming back for more. The band has since carried that same “cool, modern Latin rhythms” energy into rooms beyond the jam night itself, including a charity showing at Heart-Links’ Share the Love, where they filled out their sound with extra brass, strings, and percussion in support of the organization’s community work. This fall, that momentum continues on two fronts: first backing Lua Sol’s EP release party at London Brewing Co-operative on September 4, then returning to their Poacher’s Arms home turf just five days later to co-host Stompfest’s opening Jam Night.
Thursday / Night 2: Tough Night
My Artifice: The Teenage Neo-Grunge Foursome Turning “Tough Night” Into Home Turf
My Artifice formed the way a lot of great bands do, four kids who met somewhere they were supposed to be learning, not necessarily starting a band, in this case the London Girls Rock Camp+ program. What started under the name The Sirenz has grown into a full-fledged neo-grunge and hard rock outfit, with Evelyn on lead guitar, Rosie handling lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Renee on drums, and Keira on bass, all of them still just 13 and 14 years old. That youth hasn’t kept them off stages built for acts twice their age: this spring, the local spotlight account @londonsprettycool tapped them as a featured local band in its recurring artist showcase, and by June they’d been tapped again, this time as one of the “Rising Stars” chosen to open the FCLMA Highschool Battle of the Bands. Their sound has also found a home at more purpose-driven shows, including a benefit lineup for Yellow Brick House, the Ontario shelter organization supporting women and children fleeing violence, where My Artifice shared a bill alongside Rose Cora Perry’s band The Truth Untold, Blue Herring, and Nostalgic Brightlights. It’s a fitting pairing: a band described everywhere from Bandcamp to the London Music Office as “fierce” playing in support of an organization built around resilience. That same ferocity is exactly what’s landed them a slot on Stompfest’s Thursday night bill. For a band that’s barely old enough to see most of the acts they’re sharing a stage with in concert, My Artifice keeps proving that grunge doesn’t need seniority, just volume, conviction, and four people who found each other early.
Thee Growlits: London’s Fuzz-Drenched Garage Rockers Who’d Rather You Buy the 7″ Than Stream It
Thee Growlits describe themselves, fittingly, as “the Groovy Growlers of London Ontario,” a four-piece built around Ethan on guitar and vocals, Theo on guitar, Nick on bass, and Teo on drums, who’ve made a whole identity out of fuzzed-out, acid-soaked garage rock and a genuine allergy to the streaming era. Their Bandcamp bio sums it up bluntly: “Garage Rock/Electric Blues from London Ontario!! all the homies hate spotify,” a tagline the band backs up with action, pressing physical vinyl like their “Concrete Dreams” 7″, which landed on consignment at Grooves Records, London’s local record shop, alongside their full-length “Why The World Needs Love” and cuts like “Ma Love,” “Buzz,” and the unmistakably titled “You Stole My Cat.” Live, that recorded fuzz turns into something rowdier, on full display in a 23-minute set filmed at Rye Field Studios titled “Thee Growlits Tear Up The Whiskey Pit,” which runs through a set list ranging from “Living Things/Garden Snake” and “Somerset” to the improbably named “Polka Dot Elephant” and “Bananarama.” That same raucous, feel-good energy has carried them everywhere from a shared bill with Problem Dog, Lost Cause, and Next Weeks Washing at Primal Note Studios, to a summer stage at Banditfest, to the Landlocked Luau at The Union, courtesy of local promoters Fuzz ‘n’ Reverb Productions, a fitting booking for a band that plays like it’s always summer. As they put it themselves, they aim to bring “a raucous, yet fun and loving vibe to every stage,” and Stompfest’s Tough Night at Poacher’s Arms is just the latest stage lucky enough to get it.
The Film Critics: London’s Punk Trio That Knows Where Guy Lombardo’s Head Is Buried
The Film Critics sum themselves up in four words on Instagram: “A Band and Petrochemicals,” a tagline that tells you exactly what to expect from this three-piece punk and post-punk outfit out of the Forest City. Their debut EP, “4 Songs From…,” dropped in March 2026 with a lineup of tracks, “Absurdly Yours,” “Laundry Room,” “Cylinders,” and the gloriously unhinged “Guy Lombardo’s Severed Head,” that plays on London’s most famous musical export: Guy Lombardo, the London-born bandleader once known as “Mr. New Year’s Eve,” whose orchestra rang in the new year on American television for nearly five decades. It’s the kind of local in-joke that only makes sense if you’re from here, and the band leans into it hard enough that a recent Punk Rock Flea Market Instagram post introducing them noted, deadpan, that they “know the top secret location of Guy Lombardo’s head.” That sense of humor extends to their own fans, one of whom left a Bandcamp Friday review admitting they only bought the EP because they’d been guilted into it, before conceding “the album does in fact slap.” Live, The Film Critics have built a reputation the way most great local punk bands do, gig by gig, at DIY spaces and dive-bar bills across the city, including sets at Holy Diver, a four-band night at Honey Dip alongside Dual Variant, and a headlining slot at the Punk Rock Flea Market itself. That grind lands them at Stompfest’s Thursday night Tough Night bill at Poacher’s Arms.
MVLL CRIMES: London’s Post-Hardcore Provocateurs, Back From Hiatus and Louder Than Ever
MVLL CRIMES (that’s pronounced “mall,” a name they lean into hard on Instagram as “The Ones Who Crime At The Mall”) has spent the better part of a decade turning London’s post-hardcore scene into a soapbox, and a genuinely great one. Formed in 2019 by guitarist Patrick Briggs and vocalist Jillian Clair, the band built its early catalog fast: the self-released “Roadside Attractions” EP in 2020, followed by “Bootlicker’s Delight” in 2021 as pandemic restrictions lifted, then their debut full-length, “You Embvrvss Me,” via Cursed Blessings Records in 2022, all of it stitched together by lyrics that dig into mental health, satire, and openly anti-authoritarian politics, with zBTFD Records summing up the band’s ethos as bluntly as possible: “We like each other most of the time and want to abolish the police all of the time.” That perspective earned them a feature on CBC Music’s The Intro in 2023, titled, fittingly, “More punks in politics!”, and a stage next to one of Canadian punk’s biggest political acts when they opened for Propagandhi in both London and Guelph. After a year-long hiatus, MVLL CRIMES returned in 2025 with the single “GWEN STVCEY” and they’ve kept the momentum going since, from a sold-out “SHE SAID SHOOT!” show at London Music Hall to a blistering outdoor performance of “Don’t Be a Cop” filmed right on Dundas Place in downtown London. With the current lineup of Clair on vocals, Briggs on guitar, Laurie McColeman on bass, and Roi on drums, MVLL CRIMES brings that same unfiltered energy to Stompfest’s Tough Night at Poacher’s Arms.
Wishbone: London’s Newest Indie Five-Piece, Straight Out of Fanshawe’s Music Program
Wishbone has been a band for less than a year, and it already sounds like it’s found exactly what it’s going for. Formed in the fall of 2025, the group is built around lead singer and songwriter Lori Watt, guitarists Wyn Niederer and Joaquin Viray, bassist Mila Nova, and drummer Attila Fay, most of whom met through Fanshawe College’s Music Industry Arts program. Their own bio describes the resulting sound better than any outside description could: “like driving home from a party you don’t want to leave, or finding an old note in your jacket and realizing you are still that person.” It’s a band built on individual creative overflow as much as collective chemistry, Wyn also plays in the jazz quartet Forwell ’26 and runs a solo project called Dunes Across Pender, while Attila splits time between Wishbone, the band You Might Be Sleeping, and his own music released under the name Phaii. Despite the short runway, Wishbone has moved quickly from rehearsal space to real bills, headlining a show at Honey Dip alongside Real Friend, Farron Keep, and In August, and packing Poacher’s Arms this past June with support from Jaded Valentine, gathering over 1,400 Instagram followers along the way for a band that’s barely old enough to vote as a unit. That momentum carries straight into Stompfest, where Wishbone plays Tough Night at Poacher’s Arms alongside a lineup of London veterans that Wishbone, not even a year in, has already more than earned a place beside.
Friday / Night 3: Alt Night
November Witch: London’s High-School-Born Folk-Electronica Act, Still Finding Its Footing
November Witch traces its roots back to HB Beal Secondary School, where the band first came together to compete in FCLMA’s Battle of the High School Bands, a contest that rewards its winners with airplay on a London radio station. That scrappy start has grown into a genuinely distinct folk electronica rock project fronted by Millie on lead vocals, bass, mandolin, and rhythm guitar, alongside Jazz on lead guitar and banjo, Ben on drums and guitar, and Jack handling synth and drum programming, a lineup that blends acoustic, folk-adjacent instrumentation with electronic textures in a way that’s hard to pin down and clearly meant to be. Their catalog so far includes the singles “Orion,” released in August 2025, and “Selena,” which arrived that November with a release show at Honey Dip, backed by a forthcoming 2026 EP with the memorably odd title “A Farm w/ No Horses.” The band doesn’t take itself too seriously in the meantime, their own website’s about page can’t resist a joke, claiming the band will stay active until the year 2061 and crediting itself with a fictional future “rap cabaret album” that won “unbelievable critical acclaim” a decade from now, the kind of self-aware humor that tends to come from a band that’s grown up together rather than been assembled. They’ve carried that same loose, exploratory energy from high school talent shows to bigger local stages since, including a run at Western University’s Battle of the Bands at the Spoke against acts like Bulking Season and The Fight Club, and a Honey Dip set that found room for a cover of The Cranberries’ “Dreams” alongside their own material. That trajectory, from a high school gymnasium to campus pubs to now Stompfest’s ALT Night at Poacher’s Arms.
Aidan Riley: London’s Singer-Songwriter Who Also Shoots the Scene From the Pit
Aidan Riley grew up in Tupperville, Ontario, a small community outside Chatham-Kent, before relocating to London to build a career as a solo singer-songwriter who, in her own words, wants listeners to feel genuinely connected to her voice. Her sound blends acoustic and folk songwriting with jazz-leaning touches, showcased on originals like “Nailbiter,” a song she’s described writing the previous summer and performing in stripped-down, living-room-style acoustic sets, and “Sugar Cabin,” which got the official video treatment. But Riley’s fingerprints on London’s music scene go beyond her own catalog: under the handle @by.aidanriley, she’s also become one of the city’s go-to concert photographers, shooting “views from the pit” for Stompbox shows and documenting basement gigs at Poacher’s Arms. She’s also a driving force behind a recurring tribute-night series at Poacher’s Arms, where local bands each take on a different artist for the night, past editions have paired her own sets with lineups covering The Dirty Nil, the Beastie Boys, Phoebe Bridgers, and Alex G, alongside acts like Dark Mickey and Cowpoke. That same community-first instinct shows up in her other bookings, including a springtime bill at The Rec Room shared with a handful of fellow London artists.
Willem James Cowan: London’s Most-Toured Folk Anthem-Maker Comes Back Home
Willem James Cowan has spent nearly a decade making a case for London, Ontario, as folk-rock territory, releasing music under his own name since 2018 and steadily building what he’s called “psychedelic and alternative inspired folk rock,” sweeping, nostalgic songwriting indebted to precise, literary songwriters like Elliott Smith, Dan Mangan, Joni Mitchell, and Sufjan Stevens. His catalog has grown patiently and deliberately, from early records like “Only Dreaming Now” and “Mourning in the Morningtime” through a run of singles, “Jam Jar” in March 2025, “You Will (A Brief Reminder to Look Up)” that August, which CBC’s London Morning singled out on its local playlist roundup, and “Back to the City” this past June. That build-up led straight into his most substantial release yet: the single “Not For You, Not For Us” dropped August 21, 2026, one day ahead of the release party for his new full-length, “What Should Happen Next?” Along the way, Cowan has quietly become one of the most widely touring names to grace a Stompfest bill, playing NXNE across two Toronto stages, a ticketed night at Burdock Music Hall and a free outdoor set at Harmony Cafe Patio, alongside stops at Summerfolk, Hotel Wolfe Island in Kingston, and a Guelph date with Cowboy Medicine and Nick Zubeck. With songs individually pulling thousands of Spotify streams and a combined social following pushing past 3,000 across platforms, Cowan brings the biggest touring footprint of anyone on this year’s roster back to his hometown for Stompfest’s ALT Night at Poacher’s Arms, a homecoming for an artist who’s spent years making London’s folk scene sound bigger than its city limits.
Superstar Crush: The Hamilton-London Power-Pop Crew With Three Lead Singers and a JUNOfest Stage Already Checked Off
Superstar Crush came together in 2022 out of the London-Hamilton corridor, and the band wastes no time explaining its own appeal: a four-piece “power pop group that pack a punch and a backbeat,” as their own bio puts it, built around three lead vocalists in Marzieh Darling, Sam Hansell, and Trüaxe Fox, alongside bassist Chloe Butler-Stubbs, all trading off hooks over danceable, baroque-tinged arrangements indebted to Blondie, Arcade Fire, and Pulp. That three-singer structure gives the band an unusual amount of range to work with, and they used it well on their independent debut full-length, “Way Too Much,” home to tracks like “They Keep Calling” and “Venus in the Dry Wall,” following up on their first single, “Crushed to Meet…,” back in May 2024. The band’s momentum hasn’t gone unnoticed regionally: CBC’s Afternoon Drive featured them on its Southwest Sounds segment around their JUNOfest Hamilton performance, a showcase slot during one of Canadian music’s biggest weekends, and they’ve since logged extended live sessions everywhere from Guelph’s CFRU 93.3FM to a 40-plus-minute set filmed for Sid’s Room, building an Instagram following that’s climbed past 3,400, a big number for a band still operating independently. London audiences have gotten their own taste of that energy too, including a Honey Dip Bar date shared with Brandyn Dunphy’s band. Now Superstar Crush brings its three-singer, hook-heavy chaos to Stompfest.
Amanda Movio: London’s Own and Backed by Two Million Streams
Amanda Movio‘s own label doesn’t hedge when it describes her: at 28, the London, Ontario, artist is billed as the city’s next major creative force, drawing from a wide well of jazz, funk, soul, hip hop, R&B, and alternative rock to build a sound that resists easy categorization. That range has translated into real reach, her NXNE artist profile cites over two million streams across 167 countries, a striking number for an artist still very much rooted in her hometown scene and now signed to Lovetown Records. Movio’s rise has been a patient one; back in 2022, 519 Magazine profiled her going solo, and she described her process as constant, always experimenting on guitar and layering vocals, with plans at the time to take her music as far as Vancouver Island. Since then, she’s kept building at home, performing at the London Music Hall of Fame, dropping her latest single “Tempt” as part of a Red Room Session, and telling fans on TikTok just how much she owes to London’s music community as she works toward her first full album, all while marking her 30th birthday with a personal project called “Survivor.” CBC’s London Morning has taken notice too, featuring her music on its local playlist roundup alongside fellow London artist Classik. With an Instagram following pushing past 7,000, the largest of any act on this year’s bill, Amanda Movio closes out Stompfest’s ALT Night at Poacher’s Arms.
Saturday / Night 4: Freak Night
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Buy Your Tickets to Stompfest 2026 and Lock In Your Nights Ahead of Time
Four nights, over a dozen acts, and not a single stranger on the bill.
Every band and artist on this year’s roster came up through the same handful of London stages, rehearsal spaces, and Fanshawe classrooms, which is exactly what makes watching them all in one place, over one long September weekend so special.
Choose from single-night tickets for the one act you can’t miss, multi-day passes for anyone planning to camp out at Poacher’s Arms all weekend, and merch-inclusive bundles for the “Super Stompers” who already know this is their September tradition.
Tickets have a habit of disappearing fast as the dates get closer, so if a name on this list caught your attention, don’t wait to lock it in. Head to Ticketscene, grab your passes, and start planning which nights, and which of London’s own, you want to see live.
Get your tickets here to Stompfest 2026!
