Photostory: Purple City Music Festival
Artist photos from the 2025 Purple City Music Festival.
Dylana TwitteyOne of Edmonton’s biggest festivals just finished up. The fourth annual Purple City Music Festival had 70 bands across seven stages between 105 street and 101 street. The festival had a range of genres groups based all around North America.
After not re-opening from COVID-19 lockdowns until just last year, Y AfterHours hosted more electronic genres. And, as someone who usually will die on the hill of punk or hardcore, the sets in this venue were some of the best I’ve seen this year.
The sets at the DECL were all emo adjacent, leaving them more emotionally present. The venue’s more intimate feeling was perfect for it. Fulfilment’s Kevin Stebner calling out against Danielle Smith before jumping into currently unreleased “Valleyview Municipal Library” wouldn’t have hit as good anywhere else.
Wait//Less had an insanely energetic set at Freemason’s Main, which, is an actual Freemasons meeting place. The band killed it with one of the best stage presences throughout the festival. While the venue is cool for its history, the openness made for an odd amount of distance and, in my opinion, hurt the ability to get mosh pits going. But that didn’t take from the really great performance.
As a whole, the 2025 Purple City Music Festival was had the block around The Starlite Room packed with insanely good acts to see. The Canadian and local acts were strong and definitely some of the best performances. If anything, I’d say the only thing that would have made them better is a bigger crowd.
