The Town of Tillsonburg does not know what hit it.
Amid soaring temperatures, a torrential downpour, and tornado warnings, on the weekend of August 7-9, 2026, an epic collection of bands and musicians took the tiny farm town by storm.
It was the second year of the Buddies Fest music festival (also known as Buddies Fest 2), which brought big names from a variety of genres within the alt music scene to the small town, for the second summer in a row.
My friends Lori and Tyler joined me again this year for the event, and I was so glad they could come, because going to Buddies Fest alone just seems very ironic, and definitely wouldn’t have been as much fun.
I got there a little before them, so checked in and started unpacking so I’d be ready to go by the time they arrived. I had my dog with me too, so I was taking her around for a little walk when I saw a group of people get out of a van, headed into the same hotel. One of the guy’s was very enthusiastic on seeing my dog, and said, in a very raspy voice “Oh, a puppy, hello puppy!” My dog is pretty shy, so she was much less enthused to have anyone paying attention to her, but I figured by the sound of the guy’s voice he must be a singer.
It turns out I was right, but more on that later!
Although we were driving separately, unfortunately we did all get stuck in construction backups, and then rush hour Toronto traffic, coming down from Muskoka, so we weren’t able to catch the first few acts. We did, however, make it in time to see Tommy Stinson, of The Replacements, playing on the main stage.
Stinson and The Replacements are kind of legends among a lot of musical folks, and we were very glad to have made it in time to catch his act.
While Stinson of course put on a great performance, I very quickly got caught up in the band he had playing with him, who he later introduced as “Little Venom” and allowed to close out the set with a couple songs of their own.
Right away, I saw the energy of the two guitar players, and the bassist ripping and dancing around like no one was watching, and they were having the time of their lives. I also loved that there were women in this band, especially, as I do love a female rocker! The drummer had me especially enthralled, as she also brought a lot of energy and had the biggest smile on her face throughout the whole set, looking like she was having the most fun of anyone.
Apart from their energy, I really liked their sound as well, and will for sure be checking out more of their music, and would encourage anyone who gets the opportunity to see them live. It was just a really fun kickass good time to watch.
As much as we were glad not to have missed Stinson and his band, I personally was also particularly glad we didn’t miss the next act up, which was Dealbreaker, from Welland, ON, on the inside stage at Paddy’s Undergound.
I caught Dealbreaker last year, and bought the first cassette tape I’d purchased in years after seeing them perform. They bring a lot of energy, and lead singer, Connor Johnstone, really gets the crowd involved, encouraging the audience to come up close to the front, so he can kinda mosh with them, and wrap his lengthy mic cable around them at times, while performing.
The festival was an all ages event, so the crowd this time around included some kids who got in on the (gentle) moshing action too, which was very fun to watch.
Another guy we know from our hometown was there last year and this year as well, and he and I both told Lori and Tyler that they had to see these guys in action, but they didn’t really get it until they saw it for themselves – and loved it!
Dealbreaker seems to play southern Ontario fairly regularly, and I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to take these guys in live – you won’t regret it!
We then caught a good chunk of Chixxdiggit’s set back outside on the main stage, who many in the crowd were pumped to see, before heading to the other festival venue, the Copper Mug, just down the street, to get a bite to eat and secure our spots for the later parts of the show. We’d only been in town a few hours and had already seen a couple very popular performers (as far as non-mainstream, to on-the-cusp-of mainstream music goes) at this little gem of a music fest!
The first band up at The Copper Mug were called Audio Visceral. They were lively and lots of fun, and reminded me of a band some guys I used to know had back around the early 2010’s.
Next up was a band called The Spells, and this turned out to be the group who had piled out of the van at the hotel, with the guy who had wanted to say hi to my anti-social dog.
We could tell right away the set was going to be animated, as a few of the members were stretching and jumping to warm up, and then the whole band took a whiff of some smelling salts, and even shared them with some members of the crowd near the front, including myself, which is not a sensation I will soon forget. (I do not recommend, based on the smell, zero out of ten, but hey, it was an experience, and I now fully understand why people use them to wake up!)
Still, I don’t think we were quite prepared for the antics of the male lead singer, Ben Roy, who jumped on the back of the singer from Audio Visceral, Steve Beauchesne, (who obliged with a short-lived piggy-back ride for part of a song), then a beam in the middle of the floor, and basically made the whole space his own, while his female singer counter-part, Dawn Nock, also brought the energy, just in a little lesser range of space (and without jumping on anything or anyone, that I can recall).
Near the end of their set they brought a cake out and sang happy birthday to the lead singer of the next band to perform, being Chris Pierce of Doc Hopper, and then passed the cake around for anyone who wanted to grab a handful. By the end, there was water and cake in different places around the performance area (which isn’t an elevated stage, just the open space at the back of the room) and one stressed out looking sound guy.
After a little mopping intermission, the birthday boy and his band, Doc Hopper performed, with the skill and talent of a group you can tell has been playing music for a long time, and still really enjoys it.
Once they got through their set, Greg Norton of Husker Dü, who’d performed earlier in the day with his current band, Ultrabomb (which we unfortunately missed due to traffic) borrowed the bass guitar, while festival organizer and musician Jon Snodgrass took over the guitar, and birthday boy/guitarist Pierce moved to the drum kit.
The three just jammed for a few songs, off the cuff, and it was kind of surreal, and felt like a pretty special moment we were all lucky to witness/be a part of – basically like watching a bunch of good buddies play in their garage, which made quite a fitting end to day 1 of Buddies Fest 2.
Day 2 was a little bit trickier.
The show started at about 4 p.m., and the weather was nice and sunny when we walked over from the hotel. We caught The Slow Death on the main stage outdoors, who I really enjoyed – particularly with the intense, gruff vocals of both the lead singer/guitar player, and the singing drummer (whose names I haven’t yet been able to figure out), which really drew me in as we walked up to the venue.
We then went inside to catch Joe Pernice accompanied by another guitarist, performing a folky acoustic set which was very nice, and chill.
Unfortunately, the chill vibe was kind of disturbed by the alerts that started coming in on everyone’s phones – not because of the noise of them, but the message, which was a tornado warning, telling us to seek shelter immediately if conditions became threatening.
This is where things got a little chaotic.
We did go back outside to catch a bit of Scott Reynolds band, but I was worried about my dog, who I’d left in the hotel, and who doesn’t do well in storms. One of my friends had stayed behind because they weren’t feeling well, so at least the dog wasn’t going to be alone, but my other friend and I decided to walk back to the hotel to meet the one that stayed behind, and maybe wait out the storm? I’m not sure what the plan was really, or if there even was one, but as we started walking back we got caught in quite the torrential downpour.
We sought shelter under a tree, briefly, before I decided to head back to the venue and my friend continued on back to the hotel to meet their partner (not outing which one stayed back and which one came out to play, haha!)
Unfortunately, the weather resulted in the main stage being shut down, as it was an outdoor stage. By the time I got back to the festival grounds, the indoor space at Paddy’s Underground was already filled to capacity, with a bunch of people who remained outdoors piling under both the small beer tent, and the overhang of the building Paddy’s Underground is in, (which, above ground, is a restaurant and inn called The Mill).
When it was clear that the rain had drenched things a bit too much to continue outdoors, the festival organizers made a plan to have the rest of the performers each play two sets in the underground venue, so that the crowd could rotate through, and hopefully everyone would get a chance to see anyone they were excited about seeing that day.
I would have liked to catch one of the rounds of those performances in Paddy’s Underground, however I started to get dizzy from not having really eaten anything, so after a while my friends and I elected to go try to find something to eat instead, and just catch the late night shows at The Copper Mug. We did see ALL perform at Buddies Fest last year, and I had just seen Chuck Coles play the month before at Mariposa, so although I would have liked to see these and other acts, I was able to make peace with moving on at that point.
Lori and Tyler had done a pre-listen to the bands they didn’t know before coming, and had decided their top pick was a folk-punk band called Ghost Factory. They were playing at The Copper Mug that night, so as long as we caught that show, we decided we’d be satisfied.
As we were walking toward the road The Copper Mug is on, trying to pick a different place to eat dinner, we saw a couple guys walking toward us and decided to ask them if they knew where to find the restaurant we’d chosen. They said they didn’t but told us we should go to the Copper Mug to catch the show that night.
We figured they must be in one of the bands playing, so we asked, and as it turned out, they were the guys from Ghost Factory! (Unfortunately this meant they didn’t know the direction of the restaurant, so we had to figure that out on our own).
After we finished eating, we headed back to The Copper Mug and got chatting with the band members again, a bit before they played. They said their drummer couldn’t make it, so it was just the guitarist/singer Rob Gruszecki and upright bass player Eric Svilpis, but I generally love folk punk, AND upright basses, so I was still stoked. I enjoyed their set, of course, even without the drums, but will have to make it a point to check out their recordings soon, so I know what they actually sound like as a full band!
Next up was Mikey Erg of The Ergs! (real name Mike Yannich), who Gruszecki had told us was one of his favourite musicians, right up there with Dillinger Four (who we’d discussed as being the main reason my friends and I had made it to the first Buddies Fest).
His band was essentially Doc Hopper, only Yannich and Pierce switched places, as Yannich had been the drummer for Doc Hopper, and was now playing guitar and singing, with Pierce taking over the drums. The set was very good and very catchy, and they even did a cover of Tom Petty’s “You Wreck Me,” which I would almost say I may have liked better than the original!
I didn’t have the stamina to stick around for the very last band of the evening, unfortunately.
Day three I was on my own, as Lori and Tyler had to head back home for family obligations.
The atmosphere of Buddies Fest was very cool and welcoming though, so I didn’t really feel uncomfortable in my aloneness.
When I first arrived I caught a band inside called The McBains, who were a local Tillsonburg band with a Ramones vibe, which is apparently fitting, and likely what they were going for, as when I looked them up online I found they had been known to cover at least one Ramones song. I do enjoy the Ramones so I wasn’t mad about it!
From there I went out and caught the Anti-Queens, who I’d heard warming up and knew I would enjoy, as lead singer Emily Bones has a fantastic voice with a lot of depth and a bit of a rasp that really elevates their music beyond the average alt band. You could tell they were having fun on stage too, which always makes the show that much better.
I did, however, leave a few minutes early, to head to the basement venue, as there was no way I was missing the legend B.A. Johnston, whose antics I’d seen clips of online, but who I’d never before caught in person. Johnston was hilarious from start to finish, crawling on his knees to the stage with lit sparklers in his hands, stirring up people’s drinks with a prop cane of sorts he carries, sticking his head under other guy’s t-shirts, and even unbuttoning a guy’s top so they could rub their sweaty bellies together, all while he sang songs that made me laugh so hard my face hurt by the time he was done. It’s just an act you have to see for yourself to fully appreciate.
After that I went back outside to catch Rusty, who I’d heard of when I was younger, but wasn’t sure I’d ever really listened to, just because I was very young when they were popular. I talked to some people in the crowd who were absolutely stoked they were there, and had made the trip from other parts of the country just to see them. It was very cool to see members of the crowd that were so into the band’s music, being so pumped to see them again, which is also part of the magic of Buddies Fest. In the two years it’s taken place, it’s brought so many acts to the area that so many people have been overjoyed to see, and had probably resigned themselves to thinking they might never see again – and then there they are, right in front of us all. It’s a bit wild.
I then went back inside to catch Danbert Nobacon (real name Nigel Hunter), formerly of Chumbawamba, perform a whole bunch of anti-fascist anthems that made my heart incredibly happy – not only to hear performed live, but also to see the crowd of people around me also enjoying, giving the sense that I was, for a short time at least, gathered in a space with others who all actually cared about and engaged in social justice and politics. Maybe I was reading too much into it, but certainly some of the crowd fit that criteria, and made me feel a little less alone in the world in general.
The act I was particularly pumped to see that night was the OBGMs who I had previously seen open for Propagandhi in Toronto last September. As expected, I thoroughly enjoyed the energy, power and enthusiasm the band brought to their show, and was so happy to have caught them live again! I definitely recommend checking them out live, if you ever get the chance.
After the OBGMs, I went back to the hotel, briefly (I told myself) to check on my dog.
I fully intended to head back out and catch the last acts at the Copper Mug, especially The Last Drag, as I know a friend of the singer’s and was hoping to catch her in action. Unfortunately, it turned out I was worn out from having too much fun over the course of the weekend, and I wound up falling asleep on the floor beside my dog. I woke up at some point a bit later in the night with just enough energy to put my ass to bed, exhausted, but in the best possible way.
I did have a long drive ahead of me to get home the next morning, so I definitely needed some rest, but I was bummed not to have made it back out that night.
All in all, it was an incredibly fun weekend with lots of stellar musicians and great tunes. I didn’t even get to see all the acts I would have liked, but I have no complaints, regardless. It was a phenomenal time.
It seems not enough people know about this festival yet, or are aware of the talent it brings to the area, but I do hope if anyone reads this they’re inspired to check out the festival next year (if it continues) as it really is a gem, and I would love to see it continue.
Many of the bands also come up from the states, and unfortunately our American friends are dealing with some very heavy other stuff right now, which wasn’t as much the case last summer for the first year of the festival, so that may have put a damper on some things as well – although I hope for the Americans in attendance, coming up to Canada did offer some reprieve, even if only for the weekend.
All in all I think Buddies Fest is the coolest little music festival anyone could imagine. I really hope it continues to grow and thrive, and bring amazing acts to the area, as I feel so lucky to have been a part of it for the first two years, and can’t wait to see who they might bring around next year!
