Sappyfest returns to beautiful downtown Sackville NB on August 1-3, 2025 for the 20th annual festival of music, art, poetry, performance, and other forms of open-hearted expression! Artist-led and grounded in community we have traversed the years, together, still amazed by the magic and possibilities generated by participation and mutual creativity. Yes! This summer we are celebrating 20 years of an always improbable, never yet impossible, reunion and rendezvous: a shared act of dreaming ever anew!
Today we are announcing the first line-up of artists and performers taking part in Sappyfest 20: world-renowned musicians, award-winning artists, thrilling performers, amazing artists, beautiful thinkers, readers and makers. Thank you for being here with us!
Sappyfest 20
August 1-3, 2025 // Sackville, NB
Lido Pimienta // Mama’s Broke // Alan Syliboy and The Thundermakers
Thanya Iyer // Mas Aya // Niko Stratis // North Barn Theatre // Bry Webb
+ many more to come!
Her performance at Sappy in 2017 is legendary, her specially created performance film “Miss Colombia Medley”, projected 44 meters tall on the side of the Cube, was part of our 2020 presentation - we are absolutely thrilled to announce the return of singer, composer, producer, multidisciplinary visual artist, art critic, and curator Lido Pimienta!
Having spent most of the last decade in a state of near constant touring, connecting grassroots DIY communities and challenging borders between people, places, and traditions, this will be a first ever Sappyfest appearance by the deeply committed and highly celebrated folk duo Mama’s Broke! Years in the making, we couldn’t be happier to have them join us for Sappy 20!
Alan Syliboy, born and raised in Truro and living at Millbrook First Nation, looks to the Indigenous Mi’kmaq petroglyph (stone etchings) tradition for inspiration, and develops his own artistic vocabulary out of those forms. Calling upon other musicians and dancers to enhance his live performances he formed Alan Syliboy and The Thundermakers; this summer they’ll grace the Sappy stage with their award-winning Indigenous Rock and Spoken Word!
Sparkling, experimental, and enigmatic, songwriter Thanya Iyer and her collaborators Pompey, Emilie Kahn, and Daniel Gélinas craft serene, spiritual compositions, navigating rhythms of communal identity, healing, and loving within a dissonant world. Embracing mindfulness, aesthetic beauty, and the interconnectedness of all things – welcome to Sappy!
Mas Aya is the pseudonym of acclaimed Nicaraguan-Canadian composer, producer, and musician Brandon Miguel Valdivia. Prolific and highly respected for his contributions to the groups Not The Wind, Not The Flag, Picastro, The Cosmic Range, I Have Eaten The City, and alongside Lido Pimienta, Brandon has also been heard in collaboration with Laraaji, Bomba Estéreo, Tanya Tagaq, Sook-Yin Lee, U.S. Girls, Aidan Baker, Anthony Braxton, Michael Snow, John Oswald, and as remixer for Run The Jewels. Mas Aya’s unique and restless sonics have been celebrated by Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, the New York Times, and NPR and are guaranteed to be a Sappy favourite!
Niko Stratis is a culture writer based in Toronto, Ontario by way of the Yukon where she spent close to two decades working as a journeyman glazier before coming out as a trans woman in her late 30s and being forced to abandon her previous line of work. A long-time friend of Sappy, Niko provides a unique voice in cultural spaces seeking to work through lifelong traumas and emotional highs and lows through her work. Her reading at Sappyfest 20 will be a can’t miss event!
North Barn Theatre create playful community activations and poetic puppet shows that aim to provoke thought around critical social and ecological issues. Founders Ian McFarlane and Laura Stinson are theatre makers, scenographers and puppeteers who have worked internationally across the United States, Canada and Europe with companies such as Bread and Puppet Theater, the Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry and The River Clyde Pageant. Expect magic and surprise at Sappyfest 20!
After an unfortunate last minute cancellation last summer we are happy to announce the return of singer-songwriter Bry Webb for Sappy 20! Renowned for his 3 solo albums and his work with the Constantines, Bry performs dynamic garage-folk, tender ballads, and deep story-telling. Welcome back!
More info about all these artists, and links to explore their work can be found on artist page. Please explore! And please stay in touch in the coming weeks as we announce more artists and special projects!