As usual, we’ll have you covered throughout the festival with daily previews to get you geared up for that day’s lineup at Lansdowne, and then a slew of pictures the next day to help you relive the experience—or give you a bad case of FOMO. Fair warning.
Day Five
And just as we were getting fully geared up in festival mode, CityFolk already comes to an end, with one last night of music. The fest is going out with a bang however, with heavyweight hitmakers X Ambassadors and Hozier on the main stage.
TD Stage:
6:00pm: Julian Taylor
7:20pm: X Ambassadors
9:00pm: Hozier
A mainstay at area festivals, Julian Taylor has the honours of kicking off the final night on the main stage. As a solo artist, Taylor strips out some of the bombast from his Julian Taylor Band sound, revealing–and enhancing–his soulful R&B vocals. After his years with Staggered Crossing and his Julian Taylor Band, his solo career hit a new level with the award-winning The Ridge in 2020, which earned Taylor a Juno nomination, a Polaris long-list, and the Canadian Folk Music Award for Solo Artist of the Year. The album also garnered worldwide attention and airplay, making his follow-up album, 2022’s Beyond The Reservoir, highly anticipated, and it has not disappointed.
You could easily make the case that on most nights, X Ambassadors would be a fitting headliner. The pop rockers from just across the border in Ithaca, NY have been mainstays on the charts around the world with their string of hits, including “Renegades” and “Unsteady”, which led off their debut album VHS in 2015, and each have garnered over 600 million streams apiece. The group has been quite busy releasing singles, an EP, and over a dozen collaborations with artists in almost every genre, from rap’s Eminem and Lil Wayne to rock’s K. Flay and Tom Morello to DJs Kygo and Illenium.
Closing the night, and the festival, is global sensation Hozier. Ten years ago, a 23-year-old Hozier released his debut single, a little ditty called “Take Me To Church”. All that song did was top charts around the world (and in many others, peak at #2 behind Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”), became the most streamed song on Spotify in 2014, and has amassed over 2 BILLION streams on Spotify alone. Not a bad debut.
Following that staggering level of success, Hozier took four years to produce his next album, 2019’s Wasteland, Baby!, and while it didn’t quite match the success of his debut (and seriously, how could it?) it continued to showcase an artist maturing as a songwriter, which came through quite clearly with his newest album, Unreal Unearth. Masterpieces like “Francesca” showcase just how his songwriting and vocal prowess can somehow meld into a result that is even greater than the sum of its parts. It’s going to be the type of night that goes down in festival lore, so don’t miss it.
Courtside Stage:
6:30pm: Salute to Ray Charles
In a slightly different twist, CityFolk will be bringing in Jeff Rogers and a 12-piece band to perform a variety of Ray Charles’ legendary catalog. It might not be very ‘folk’, but Charles has practically every other genre in his repertoire, from blues to soul, from jazz to gospel, and everything in between. With a full band, this rollicking set is bound to keep the tent rocking all night before CityFolk tells us all to “Hit The Road Jack” until next year.
We hope you enjoyed our coverage of CityFolk 2023! Check apt613.ca and our social media feeds for more photos tomorrow, and everything else happening around town!
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