Two Juno award-winning musicians will be performing at the 37th annual Peterborough Folk Festival, which takes place from August 13 to 16 in downtown venues and across four stages at Nicholls Oval Park.

On Tuesday morning (May 19), festival organizers announced that award-winning songwriter Bahamas and powerhouse vocalist Begonia — who both shared the 2026 Juno Award for Adult Alternative Album of the Year — are among the first wave of more than 30 artists who will be performing during this year’s festival.

Back in February, festival organizers had announced Bahamas would be closing out the festival’s final night on Sunday, August 16 with a full-band performance on the Miskin Law main stage.

Harmony-driven trio The Pairs and acclaimed multi-instrumentalist Kelly McMichael will also be headliners, with other announced performers including The Young Novelists, Field Guide, Dean Johnson, The Lucky Ones, The Naysayers, Slow Leaves, The Watched Pots, and Toronto funk collective The Free Label.

The Watched Pots are a songwriting duo based in Peterborough, while several other performers also have deep ties to Peterborough, including Kelly McMichael, Drea Naysayer, Laura Spink of The Young Novelists, and Ryan West of The Lucky Ones.

Short bios of each of the announced artists are provided below.

Canada’s longest-running free admission folk festival, the Peterborough Folk Festival attracts over 16,000 attendees every year, both locals and visitors, and generated an estimated $1.5 million in economic impact.

The festival kicks off with ticketed concerts at downtown Peterborough venues on Thursday, August 13 and Friday, August 14, followed by a weekend at Nicholls Oval Park including free concerts and workshops where artists collaborate for one-of-a-kind performances, an artisans village, and a children’s village with free daily programming from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. featuring crafts, workshops, story time, face painting, and a daily children’s parade.

A registered charity, the Peterborough Folk Festival is run entirely by volunteers and is supported through government grants, partners, sponsors including kawarthaNOW, and community members, with all funds going towards running the festival, including paying artist fees and covering operational costs.

A suggested donation of $25 per person will help to offset a portion of the costs and is eligible for a tax receipt. You can donate online at www.peterboroughfolkfest.com or on-site during the festival.

Featured artists at the 2026 Peterborough Folk Festival

Bahamas

A globally successful touring artist, Bahamas (aka Afie Jurvanen) has earned widespread acclaim across genres, with over three quarters of a billion streams and more than three million monthly listeners. His albums Bahamas Is Afie and Earthtones both won Juno Awards, and he again won Adult Alternative Album of the Year in 2026 for My Second Last Album, which he shared with Begonia.

Begonia

Winnipeg-based artist Begonia (aka Alexa Dirks) is celebrated for her powerful live performances and genre-blending sound. A two-time Juno and Polaris nominee, her 2026 release Fantasy Life earned a Juno Award for Adult Alternative Album of the Year, which she shared with Bahamas.

The Pairs

Based in London, Ontario, this internationally touring trio of twin sisters Renee and Noelle Frances Coughlin and their lifelong friend Hillary Watson is known for their harmonies, humour, and intimate stage presence. Their 2025 album Together on a Rock charted in the top 10 on the FAI Folk Charts and received national radio play.

VIDEO: “The Bridge” – Bahamas

VIDEO: “So High” – Begonia

Kelly McMichael

A Polaris-shortlisted songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Kelly McMichael blends indie rock, pop, and experimental sounds. A previous Peterborough Folk Festival Emerging Artist who is now based in Newfoundland, her albums have earned national acclaim, with After the Sting of It winning MusicNL’s Album of the Year and receiving widespread radio play.

The Young Novelists

This internationally touring husband-and-wife duo of Graydon James and Peterborough’s own Laura Spink is known for their rich harmonies and storytelling. Their 2025 album These Dark Canyons was nominated for a 2026 Juno Award.

Field Guide

A Winnipeg-based artist known for atmospheric songwriting, Field Guide (aka Dylan MacDonald) has amassed millions of streams and toured alongside major acts including Bahamas and Leif Vollebekk.

Dean Johnson

The Seattle-based singer-songwriter broke out with his debut album at age 50, earning attention for his emotionally resonant songwriting and distinctive voice.

The Lucky Ones

Blending classic country-roots with contemporary sounds, this Yukon-based group featuring Peterborough’s own Ryan West along with Ian Smith, Kieran Poile, Jeff Dinely, and Ryan McNally draws from generations of musical tradition.

The Naysayers

Led by Drea Naysayer, a previous Peterborough Folk Festival Emerging Artist, along with Ryan Fleming and Jordan Perry, this genre-blending project spans folk, country, alt-rock, and punk. With 10 independent albums and international touring experience, they continue to build a passionate following.

VIDEO: “Bomb” – Kelly McMichael

The Free Label

This Toronto-based six-piece band (Josh Tsakas, Malik Mungo, Cole Mendez, Mathew Fantini, Jason Martin, and Jacob Thompson) delivers high-energy funk, disco, and R&B, with international touring experience and millions of views of their live performances.

The Watched Pots

This Peterborough songwriting duo blend improv songwriting, feminism, humour, and kitchen theatrics to make music creation accessible and fun for beginners.

Slow Leaves

Winnipeg’s Slow Leaves (aka Grant Davidson) writes songs about vulnerability that elevate the ordinary into poignant narratives with indie-folk and pop inclinations.

Moondoggy

Formed in Collingwood in 2018, this lively alternative rock band of brothers Jakob and Ben Matanowitsch along with Jonny Contini, Victor Carrillo, and Matt Grosso is now based in Toronto and has gained tens of millions of streams worldwide and toured across Canada, the U.S., and Europe.

VIDEO: “The Old 98” – The Lucky Ones

kawarthaNOW is proud to be a sustaining partner of the Peterborough Folk Festival.

Just steps away from where he grew up, retired Ontario Superior Court Justice and poet James Clarke will be in the audience at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough in early June when his 2012 memoir The Kid from Simcoe Street is brought to life by Trent Valley Archives Theatre.

Playwrights Ed Schroeter and Gerry McBride, joined by James’ grandson David Francis Clarke as script consultant, told kawarthaNOW it’s a “daunting” task to write a play about someone’s life knowing they will watch it being performed. But they knew it was worth the challenge to bring James’ memoir to the stage because of its historical context and messages about resilience and community.

Taking its title from James’ memoir, The Kid from Simcoe Street will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on June 4 and 5, with 2 p.m. matinee performances on June 6 and 7. The play is suitable for ages 14 and up, but parental guidance is advised due to the play’s mature content.

The play is a coming-of-age story following James, who also goes by Jim, as he grows up in poverty at 249 Simcoe Street in Peterborough during the Second World War. When his father returns from the war wounded and likely suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, he becomes an alcoholic and gambler and is no longer the man James once idolized. As a result, James faces challenging and dark times during his childhood and adolescence.

Despite his dysfunctional family, James went on to attend McGill University and Osgoode Hall, practising law in Cobourg for many years before his appointment to the bench in 1983. He served on the Ontario Court of Justice from 1990 to 1999 and the Superior Court of Justice from 1999 until his retirement in 2008.

When Ed first read the frank and moving memoir shortly after its publication and not long after he met James for the first time, he immediately saw its potential to be adapted for the stage. In fact, when Trent Valley Archives Theatre was first formed in 2023 to bring local historical stories to the stage as a fundraising initiative, Ed had James’ memoir in mind.

While the theatre group decided to focus on the bicentennial anniversary of the Robinson emigration for its first two productions (Tide of Hope in 2024 and Crossing Over in 2025), Ed says he was happy they could revisit James’ memoir this year.

“(The first time I met him) Jim was such a lovely, generous, hilarious man, and then I read the book, and it’s just clear that he came from this downtown troubled area of Peterborough and still became a judge in the Ontario Superior Court,” Ed says. “That journey on the surface just attracted me and then, when I started looking at the book, the situations that Jim had overcome, as well as his sense of humour about some of those situations, it just all seemed like a perfect coming-of-age story.”

For his part, Gerry — not having met Clarke by the time he read the memoir — saw it as being a story about Peterborough in the war-torn era of the 1940s and 1950s.

“I’ve lived in downtown Peterborough for 30 years and I knew exactly the geography of the places that he was talking about,” Gerry says. “Not necessarily the buildings because most of them are gone, but I was able to picture things the way they were and make the connections. There were things that really touched me from his references to growing up in a city that I’m familiar with but at the same time not familiar with, because it was a whole different time and place. I found that really interesting.”

The play takes both of these perspectives — the resilience of a boy growing up plagued by hardship and Peterborough in the mid 20th century — to explore how a close-knit community came together to support James. From his mother to local firefighters, teachers, nuns, and coaches, those around James lifted him up and led him to a career as not only an esteemed judge, but also a poet with upwards of 20 published books of poetry.

“You meet Jim and you think this man could not have endured some of those conflicts, but he said to me the other day ‘I learned from that and we all rise on the shoulders of the people that helped us get through those tragedies or challenges,'” Ed says.

“For me, it’s about the importance of community. It’s how people band together and take care of each other, and I think that’s an important message these days. I think over the decades we’ve all become in a way very independent and insular, but when you look at someone like Jim and his life, you can see, as he says, he rose on the shoulders of others. I just feel that’s something we’ve lost in some ways.”

Rounding out the writing team, David was able to be a representative on his grandfather’s behalf, using his short film background and personal knowledge of his grandfather’s stories to provide editorial feedback on the script during its development.

“I’ve grown up with these stories,” David explains. “I’ve read his book a lot and I know a lot about his childhood. Ed and Gerry were very generous, very receptive, and collaborative with feedback and I’ve learned a lot from working on this.”

Since the story begins with James as an adult, before following his childhood from when he was a young boy until he went off to university, director Drew Taylor-Grigg (formerly Drew Mills) and stage manager Barb Mills decided to cast three different actors to play James during the different stages of his life.

Grade 8 student Charlie Harris will play the youngest version of James, 12th grader Zoe Shufelt will be playing the teenaged version, and veteran actor Jim Mills will be portraying him as an adult.

Amongst the rest of the 14-member cast includes a cameo from Murray Byrne, an old friend and former football teammate of James’ while they attended St. Peter Catholic Secondary School, who will be playing his own father in a high school football banquet scene near the end of the play.

Now a Bridgenorth-area resident, Byrne noticed the call for auditions for The Kid from Simcoe Street back in February. No stranger to community theatre, he asked to join the cast and also said he wanted to see his old friend after 73 years.

On April 28, accompanied by his grandson, James travelled from his home in Guelph so the two old friends, now both in their 90s, could be reunited. They enjoyed lunch at Princess Gardens of The Gardens of Peterborough Retirement Residences, a platinum sponsor for the The Kid from Simcoe Street, and watched a rehearsal of the play.

“They hadn’t seen each other in almost 75 years before this lunch and it was really interesting, because they very quickly just became two teenage boys (again) talking about pulling pranks on the teachers and stuff like that,” Gerry says.

In advance of the play’s world premiere, Trent Valley Archives will be hosting “The World of the Kid on Simcoe Street” walking tour led by local historian Elwood Jones. leading up to the play’s world premiere. The tour will explore what Simcoe Street was like when James lived there in wartime-era Peterborough. The walks are being held on Sunday, May 24 and Sunday May 31 at 2 p.m. The rain-or-shine tour costs $20, with tickets available at eventbrite.ca/o/9633726313.

“We live in the present but that past is always with us, and when you look at some of these old pictures of downtown Peterborough from a distance, they don’t look that much different, because we still have a lot of the same buildings and things,” says Gerry. “There’s a history here that’s worth maintaining and learning about.”

Whether you’re a history buff eager to learn more about Peterborough during a transformative time period, or are just looking for an entertaining and empowering story, David says there’s something for everyone in his grandfather’s memoir and its stage adaptation.

“It’s a story of overcoming against a lot of things — a bit of a broken home, setbacks — and I think people are moved by those stories because, I think in some capacity, we can all relate to them,” David says.

Special limited-edition copies of James’ memoir will be available for purchase at Trent Valley Archives (567 Carnegie Avenue, Peterborough) leading up to the performances and at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre during the shows.

Tickets for The Kid from Simcoe Street cost $40 for assigned cabaret table seating or $30 for regular assigned seating and are available online at www.markethall.org.

Proceeds from ticket sales will support Trent Valley Archives, a non-profit charitable organization that houses an extensive and growing collection of local historical resources and makes them available to the public. Trent Valley Archives also encourages local and family history research, operates a facility, and raises awareness of local history through historical tours, events, publications, and presentations.

kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor for The Kid from Simcoe Street.