Loveless Festival 2025

Multiple quality festivals lined up for fall, including Kalamashoegazer, Dreamgaze PDX, Seagaze and Tremolo, even a “Slide Away Junior” festival, but… pound for pound, there might not be a better lineup than this year’s Loveless Festival in Toronto in late July. So big it takes three venues to present it all. Headliners? If you listen to DKFM regularly, you might have your own set of headliners, as you will know these names well: Basement Revolver (Album of the Year winners for 2022’s Embody in these halls), Away Forward (a rotation staple if ever there was one), and SWIIMS (Into the Blue Night was one of our 2023 top ten LPs). But there’s so much more for shoegaze/dream pop fans (and DKFM listeners, including these names you’ll know from our airplay: Sunnsetter, Talking Violet, Shallow (not that one, not that other one, but the third quality shoegaze Shallow imprint), Otsyuda, Rituals, The Neverminds, Fleeting Colours, and Luster Dust. Winners all. But even then, there’s more homework for us, including some headliners Loveless Festival has elevated: White Rabbit, Public Health, Whisper Gang, Brother, Lotus, Seventh Dose, Deer Fang, Blosum, So Perfect, Wanda, Closeout, Last Light, and Cowboy Cat. It’s honestly a packed bill, spread over two nights and three venues: Collective Arts, 777 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON M6J 1V2; Monarch Tavern, 12 Clinton St, Toronto, ON M6J 2N8; and Sneaky Dee’s, 431 College Street, Toronto, ON M5T 1T2. 

24 bands. Three local venues. Two epic nights: July 26 and 27. It’s a 19+ event, so it’s more inclusive than many (if not most). A full weekend early bird pass is $25, single day passes are $22, and the regular full weekend pass is $35 (if you miss the early bird cutoff). That’s got to be the best shoegaze/dream pop value for live performance in North America. All three venues are within a ten-minute walk of each other, so practice your “fast walking” for optimal results.

Ticket link? Here. Loveless Collective Festival website, complete with frequently asked questions, here. And, honestly, if we’d heard about this event in June (what with airline tix and accommodations), we’d have given up a limb to be there. Outstanding established artists and bold sonic newcomers, it’s the kind of effort we’re thrilled to get behind.

DKFM is proud to be a media partner promoting this year’s Loveless Festival.