Downtown Smiths Falls Music Festival: The Trews Headline a Rideau Canal Town

A full day of free and ticketed live music through the historic downtown core

📍 Get Directions Full Schedule

Free all-ages performances fill Russell Street East through the afternoon, then the ticketed evening shifts to Main Street West for One Eyed Dawgs, Vicki Brittle, and headliners The Trews — Canadian rock royalty behind hits like Not Ready to Go.

🎸 The Trews headline 🎤 Free afternoon stage 🍺 19+ evening concert 🏙 Two downtown stages

💡 Downtown businesses stay open through the festival — it’s genuinely built as an all-day downtown experience, not just a fenced-off concert.

Why Go Schedule Lineup Essentials Getting There Tips FAQ

✨ Why a Small Town Landed The Trews

Smiths Falls sits right on the Rideau Canal between Ottawa and Kingston, and this festival is the Downtown Business Association’s answer to a question a lot of small towns struggle with: how do you get people to actually stop downtown instead of just passing through? After a successful launch in 2025, the festival returns for its second year having landed a genuinely significant booking — The Trews, the Canadian rock band behind Not Ready to Go and Highway of Heroes, headline the evening stage.

The band’s résumé is not small-town scale: 20 Top 10 Rock radio singles, three of them number one, multiple Gold and Platinum albums, and stages shared with The Rolling Stones, KISS, Aerosmith, and Bruce Springsteen. Landing an act like that for a downtown business association event is a real coup, and it’s a strong signal of how much the festival has grown between its first and second years.

What makes the day work as a whole-town event rather than just a concert is the split structure. The free afternoon stage on Russell Street East is genuinely open to everyone — no ticket, no age restriction — while the evening shifts a block over to Main Street West for the 19+ ticketed show. Downtown shops and restaurants stay open throughout, so the festival doubles as a full day exploring Smiths Falls rather than a single fenced-in event. That’s a deliberate choice by the DSFBA: the goal isn’t just to draw a crowd for one night, it’s to get people wandering the same storefronts they’d otherwise drive past on the way to somewhere else.

🎶 Festival Schedule

One day, two stages, two very different vibes — free and family-friendly by day, ticketed and 19+ by night.

🎤 Meet the Lineup

Also performing: DaNielle Hewitt (Smiths Falls-born 7-string guitarist), Spencer Scharf (Ottawa-based one-man band blending folk, blues, and bluegrass), and Landon Bedor (19-year-old country-rock singer-songwriter).

📋 Essentials

🚗 Getting There & Parking

The festival footprint covers both Russell Street East and Main Street West in downtown Smiths Falls, roughly midway between Ottawa and Kingston.

Parking: Downtown Smiths Falls offers on-street and municipal parking within walking distance of both stages — check the DSFBA’s Parking Downtown page for current lot locations and any festival-day restrictions.

💡 A Few Things Worth Knowing Before You Go

🎟️ Buy evening tickets ahead of time. With The Trews headlining, the 19+ Main Street West show is the festival’s clear main draw and supply is limited both online and in person.

🎒 Leave large bags at home. The ticketed festival area doesn’t permit large bags or outside food and drinks, and there’s no re-entry once you’re inside.

👨‍👩‍👧 Come for the free afternoon if you’re bringing kids. The Russell Street East stage is all-ages, family-friendly, and doesn’t require a ticket.

🛍 Make a day of it downtown. Shops and restaurants stay open through the festival, so pairing the music with dinner or shopping is easy — this is designed as a full downtown day, not just a concert. Arriving early for the free afternoon stage and staying through the ticketed evening is the best way to see everything the festival has to offer in one visit.

❓ Common Questions