CityFolk Festival 2026: A New Home for Ottawa’s Favourite Fall Fest

Five days, two stages, and a genre-spanning lineup at the new Festival Grounds at RA Centre

📍 Get Directions Full Schedule

Ottawa’s late-summer music festival moves to a new site for 2026 — The Festival Grounds at RA Centre — with five nightly headliners spanning soul, country, alt-rock, indie-folk, and shock rock across two outdoor stages.

🎸 30+ acts 🎪 2 outdoor stages 🆕 New venue for 2026 👨‍👩‍👧 All ages

💡 CityFolk has moved off its usual Lansdowne Park grounds this year due to construction — double-check the RA Centre address before you head out if you’ve been to the festival before.

Why Go Lineup New Venue Essentials Getting There Tips FAQ

✨ Why CityFolk Is Still Worth Planning Around

CityFolk has spent years carving out its own identity in Ottawa’s crowded festival calendar — less sprawling than Bluesfest, but with a lineup that refuses to sit still inside one genre. The 2026 bill is a good example: Alabama Shakes bring their Grammy-winning soul-rock swagger to open the week, Cameron Whitcomb represents the country-leaning crowd, Third Eye Blind and Switchfoot cover ’90s and 2000s alt-rock nostalgia, Of Monsters and Men and Angus & Julia Stone bring indie-folk texture, and Alice Cooper closes things out with a genuinely theatrical shock-rock finale.

This year comes with a twist, though — CityFolk’s usual home at Lansdowne Park is tied up in construction, so the festival has relocated to a brand-new site: The Festival Grounds at RA Centre on Riverside Drive. Organizers describe the new location as centrally positioned and highly accessible, with two outdoor stages, one tented and one open-air, replacing the multi-stage Lansdowne layout.

It’s a genuine change of scenery for a festival with a long history in one spot, and it’s worth going in with fresh expectations rather than assuming the old Lansdowne routine still applies. If you’ve been before, treat this as effectively a new festival site with a familiar name and lineup philosophy.

🎤 Nightly Headliners

Over 30 acts perform across the five days — here’s who tops each night’s bill.

🏟 The New Venue

For 2026, CityFolk is staged at The Festival Grounds at RA Centre, 2451 Riverside Drive — a departure from its long-time Lansdowne Park home while that site works through construction. The new grounds feature two outdoor stages, one tented and one open-air, and the site is fully licensed.

Organizers have described the move as a chance to try a new, centrally located setup while keeping the festival’s broad, all-ages appeal intact — but if you’re a returning CityFolk fan used to Lansdowne’s layout, plan on a genuinely different on-the-ground experience this year.

📋 Essentials

🚗 Getting There & Parking

The RA Centre sits on Riverside Drive in Ottawa’s south end, near the Rideau River — a different part of the city than the festival’s usual Bank Street location, so budget extra time if this is a new route for you.

Parking: The RA Centre has its own on-site parking lots, a different setup than the limited underground parking at the old Lansdowne site — check the official site closer to the festival for any updated parking guidance specific to the new grounds.

Transit: OC Transpo routes serve the Riverside Drive corridor — confirm current routes and any festival-specific transit perks on the official CityFolk site before you go, since transit details may differ from previous years at Lansdowne.

💡 A Few Things Worth Knowing Before You Go

🗺 Don’t assume it’s at Lansdowne. This is the single most important thing to know for 2026 — the festival has moved to RA Centre on Riverside Drive, a genuinely different part of the city.

🎟 Buy through Frontgate directly. Stick to CityFolk’s official ticketing partner to avoid resale markups or scalped tickets.

🎧 Pick your night by genre. Each night skews toward a different sound — soul and country early in the week, alt-rock and indie-folk on the weekend, punk and shock rock closing it out — so choose your single-day tickets accordingly if you’re not doing the whole run.

🧥 Layer up for September evenings. Ottawa evenings cool off quickly this time of year — bring a jacket even if the afternoon feels warm.

📱 Download the CityFolk app. It’s the easiest way to track set times and any last-minute schedule changes, especially with a brand-new site layout this year.

❓ Common Questions