Departure Festival + Conference used to be known as Canadian Music Week, and in its first year under its new name, the event is taking over Toronto from May 6 to 11 with six days of performances and industry events.
With keynote speakers, comedy and film, Departure is a wide-ranging festival with attractions that cross disciplines. For our five must-see acts of the events, we chose from the music lineup, which spans local indie faves and big-name international headliners and everything in between.
See our picks below, and find information about passes over at Departure's website.
Freak Heat Waves
For a decade and a half, Victoria's Freak Heat Waves have been crafting surging grooves that mix the spiky thrum of post-punk with droning krautrock and the circuit-fried whirr of dance music.
Mustafa
In an Exclaim! cover story last year, Mustafa opened up about his complicated feelings about Toronto, discussing the ways in which the city failed him as well as being the place he identifies with most strongly. Any homecoming is a must-see, so don't miss it as he brings his album Dunya to the stage.
Bria Salmena
Bria Salmena has covered a lot of ground in the past few years, having fronted the post-punk band FRIGS, backing Orville Peck in his band, and then leading her own country project mononymously as Bria. Now going by her full name, her new album Big Dog takes a bite out of goth-y new wave pop.
SadBoi
The ascendent Toronto R&B star used to be known as Ebhoni, but she's officially arrived under her new moniker with Skygirl's party-starting posse cut "Wifey Riddim," which also features Jorja Smith and was named as one of Exclaim!'s favourite songs of 2025 so far.
Grace VanderWaal
Having got her career as a cursive-voiced teen on America's Got Talent, Grace VanderWaal has now matured into a fully formed pop songwriter — ironically on a new album titled CHILDSTAR.