Anticipations: NXNE 2017

Toronto’s a tough market for music festivals. Over the years we’ve seen festival after festival pop up for one or two years and then fade away and forgotten. Throughout the rise and fall of festivals, NXNE has stood tall and remained a cultural event that is ingrained within the streets of Toronto and doesn’t look to be going away anytime soon. That’s not to say they haven’t had their fair share of struggles, year after year they’ve had to evolve and adapt to the changing times of music in this city but this year's festival looks like their most cohesive yet since they’ve started calling the Port Lands their home and moved away from their otherwise boring presence at Yonge-Dundas Square.

To keep things simple, NXNE has bucketed their festival into four categories and we’re going to go through and pick some not-to-be-missed events that are happening throughout each. Pay attention and get hyped:

Club Land:

Club Land is the most familiar space for long-time NXNE festival goers. It’s where NXNE hits the streets (or should we say the clubs) and brings music to you where it’s meant to live… the hard working music venues. This year’s club shows are curated by a list of extremely talented folks like Leah Fay of July Talk, The Dirty Nil, Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene and a lot more.

We recommend making sure you hit up The Garrison for The Dirty Nil’s showcase featuring:

Game Land:

E-gaming is MASSIVE and if you didn’t know that you could win millions of dollars for playing games like Call of Duty then you better start pwning noobs with haste. The inaugural year of NXNE’s Game Land e-sports event and tournament kicks off in Yonge-Dundas Square where gamers will compete for $10,000 in cash prizes playing Starcraft II. If you’re a gamer then this is a must-see event.

Future Lands:

Future lands is creative conference portion of this year's NXNE where you can find tons of networking opportunities and learn about cool shit like why Toronto is now the capital of the hip-hop universe. The is where you can see a heart to heart conversation between SXSW co-founder Louis Black and NXNE founder, Michael Hollett. Don’t miss it.

Port Lands:

The Port Lands is where things really get epic and is the most familiar to music fans that love those festival vibes. NXNE’s takeover of the Port Lands this year features some world class music talent and of course some sick midway games and a ferris wheel. Make sure you don’t miss these acts below:

For more information on tickets and all things NXNE go here.