Coldsnap 2025 sees incredible attendance

2025’s main festival was another successful one for the Coldsnap Music Festival.

“We had wonderful attendance, four out of five of our main stage shows sold out, and I think we could have sold out last night (Sunday) had it not been for the Super Bowl,” said Coldsnap Operations and Communications Manager Katherine Benny.

“Not only that, we had incredible energy in the room, artists had a wonderful time, we had engaging workshops and ice jams, which are free to attend mini concerts, and overall, the board, the volunteers, the staff, we’re all thrilled.”

Benny added being able to use the Knox Performance Centre has been popular.

“Folks love coming here and we’ve been able to work together to create this wonderful atmosphere, to make something really special,” she explained.

“We said it last night, I don’t think that Coldsnap could exist in the way that it does without this venue.”

Benny added one piece of feedback they received from patrons was they should have released more festival passes.

“We only released a small number, those were brand new for us, other festivals do them, but the concept of having a pass that guarantees you access to every show is something that our audiences get really excited about, and those sold out right away, so there’s definitely an appetite for building upon that,” she said.

“There was really great attendance at our later afternoon free-to-attend events, we’ve typically done noon hour, but this year we also incorporated 3:00 pm, 5:00 pm, and they were very well attended, so I think the idea here is how do we take what we’ve just done and scale it up, maybe do a little bit more next year to give folks what they’re looking for.”

In terms of next year’s festival, Benny noted they’re typically working 18 months in advance.

“We’re already starting to think about 2027,” she said.

“For 2026, we’re having conversations and signing contracts, and it’s not my area, we leave that to our very talented Artistic Director, but things are coming together.”

Benny added they have one-off events planned for the rest of 2025 in April, September, and one in November that she said is one that people will not want to miss.