🎸 Line Spike Frontenac 2026: The Kingston-Area Music Festival That Refuses to Be Stopped

There's a hay field just outside Harrowsmith, about 20 minutes north of Kingston, that holds a pretty remarkable piece of Canadian history. The Day Farm sits steps from where the very last spike was driven into the ground connecting Toronto and Ottawa by rail for the first time. That spike, a simple iron piece that locks rails to the tracks, is the binding element that holds everything together.

Jeremy Campbell borrowed that image and ran with it. A line spike, as he sees it, is exactly what music does. It forges connections. It holds people together. And on June 27 and 28, 2026, his festival Line Spike Frontenac is doing exactly that on the very ground where that history was made.

The setting alone is worth the drive. As you head through Frontenac County, granite ridges and pristine lakes start filling the windshield, and the venue itself is a natural amphitheatre on a hay field with the K&P Trail and Cataraqui Trail running right alongside. It's the kind of place that makes you wonder why you don't get outside more. Kids under 12 get in free with a paying adult, there's a Drag Your Own Cooler option for those who like to plan ahead, and the vibe is firmly all-ages, all-welcome, all-Canadian.

The lineup is where things get genuinely exciting. Sunday night closes with Raine Maida and Chantal Kreviazuk on their I'm Going to Break Your Heart Tour, sharing a stage as a married couple with a combined catalogue that spans Junos, a Grammy, and a joint appointment to the Order of Canada. If you grew up in the 90s, you already know why this is a big deal.

The two days leading up to that finale are anything but filler. Saturday opens with RAXX bringing hip hop energy to a hay field (yes, really, and yes it works), followed by a journey through country (Abby Stewart), alt-country and roots (Grievous Angels, fronted by Charlie Angus, yes, the former NDP MP who stepped away from Parliament in 2025 and returned to music full time), folk (Graven, Crooked Wood), bluegrass (Devin Cuddy Band), and rock (Harm & Ease and Kingston's own Kasador, whose bassist Boris Baker is the son of Tragically Hip guitarist Rob Baker). Saturday closes with WiL and Company, billed as "soul changing" on the official schedule, which feels about right. It is also, worth noting, their only scheduled Eastern Canada date for their new 2026 album.

Sunday builds through folk (VanCamp, I, The Mountain), rock country (Kingston's own Emilie Steele & The Deal), country (Jessie T), and a set from multimedia painter GoudCreated that might be the most unique thing on the schedule. Then Miss Emily (Kingston's own, 2026 Juno nominated) closes the evening before Raine and Chantal take the stage.

Eighteen acts. Two full days. One field. Clear your calendar for both days. You will not regret it.

Jeremy could have filled the bill with national names and called it a day. Instead, he built the program around giving local and regional artists their shot at a real stage, many of them for the first time. That says something about what kind of event he is trying to build.

On site, the Lions Club will be running a fundraiser. This is a festival that is putting money and opportunities back into the community it draws from.

Then there is the 26-foot guitar Jeremy is building as a roadside attraction marquee for the venue. He was planning to debut part of it at the Inverary Spring Market, because why not.

And if you think setting up a festival is just a matter of booking acts and hanging some lights, consider this: the venue is an active farm field, which means Jeremy and his team typically have about one week to build everything on site. Farmers need to wait until the last minute to cut, dry and bale their crops before the crew can move in. Add unpredictable weather and the need to run generators to power the whole operation, and you start to appreciate just how much goes into making a two-day festival look effortless. 

And if the stars align, the weekend could kick off on Friday with something pretty special. Jeremy is exploring the idea of Guitars Galore, a free public event where he wants to fill the amphitheatre with as many acoustic pickers, strummers and pluckers as he can find. Percussionists, vocalists, even a string section. No ticket required, free parking, just bring your instrument and show up. The inspiration was a video from Italy a decade ago where hundreds of musicians gathered to play together, and the result was the kind of thing that makes you remember why live music matters.  If this sounds like your kind of Friday night, head to LineSpike.ca (or let Jeremy know by email: [email protected]) and register your interest now. The more people who sign up, the more likely this happens. Know someone who would be in? Share this with them.  

Before Line Spike, Jeremy Campbell spent decades in the trenches of Canadian film and television production. It all started in the basement of Sydenham High School, where a teenage Jeremy first got his hands on analogue filming equipment and never really looked back. His credits include Orphan Black: Echoes, the SONY series Accused, the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto for Prince Harry, and FATMAN with Mel Gibson and Walton Goggins. He produced TV commercials for some of North America's largest brands. And early in his career, he worked under legendary promoter Michael Lang at Woodstock '99, learning what it takes to pull off a large-scale live event from one of the people who helped define the format. 

His production company, Get2ThePoint Productions, takes its name from The Point, a public park in the hamlet of Sydenham where he originally dreamed up a smaller, more intimate waterside concert. The ambitions grew somewhat from there. 

The idea for Line Spike came to him in 2020, during a moment of reflection on a remote lake. He was inspired in part by the legacy of Expo '67's Peter Aykroyd and a conviction that live events have the power to lift both people and local economies. His vision was an all-Canadian celebration rooted in community, positivity, and the kind of shared experience that you simply cannot replicate on a screen.

Line Spike 2025 was Jeremy's first full festival production, though hardly his first rodeo. He'd dabbled in smaller one-offs and played supporting roles in larger events before betting big on Harrowsmith. That first year drew Burton Cummings, Chantal Kreviazuk, Walk Off The Earth, Alan Frew of Glass Tiger and others amid a wave of Canadian national pride. By any creative measure, it was a success. Nearly 4,000 people showed up, and by all accounts they left happy.

The Lineup at Line Spike Frontenac 2025

But two days before the gates opened in 2025, the local municipality and the AGCO pulled his liquor license. The financial fallout was brutal, costing him hundreds of thousands in ticket and alcohol sales and leaving him with roughly $200,000 in debt he is still working through.

He ran the show anyway.

That decision tells you everything you need to know about Jeremy Campbell. He had every reason to shut it down and none of the reasons that would have made quitting forgivable. Instead he opened the gates, got on with it, and started planning Year 2 before the dust had settled.

Year 2 is bigger, the lineup is stronger, and the vision is sharper. The phoenix arc, as it turns out, is very much on schedule.

Of course, no festival of this scale runs on one person. Jeremy has assembled a solid team around him: Bill Day as Director of Operations, Phil Sampson holding it together as Stage Manager, Emma Ostling managing artistry hospitality, and Kim Popovich spearheading vendors and merchandise. Together they are the ones turning a very big vision into a very real weekend.

Jeremy is not thinking small. His stated goal is to build Line Spike Frontenac into Canada's premier arts and music festival over the next seven years. Given what he pulled off in Year 1 under circumstances that would have finished most promoters, it is hard to bet against him.

The 'Power of Positivity' is the festival's motto, and you can hear it in the lineup itself. Jeremy has been deliberate about curating artists whose music carries that spirit, from the soulful to the uplifting to the flat-out joyful. The goal is a weekend where the music does what live music does best: pulls people out of their heads, into the moment, and into each other's company. 

This summer he is also running a Golden Line Spike treasure hunt, hiding golden spikes around the Kingston region and releasing daily clues. Each person who finds a Golden Spike, takes a photo and tags Line Spike on their social media - gets entered into a cash prize draw. , It is a clever, very local way to build buzz and get people invested in the festival before they even set foot on the grounds.

The ambition is real, the roots are deep, and the community buy-in is growing. If you want to say you were there for the early chapters, June 27 and 28 is your chance.