Good Vibes from Acoustic to Amplified: Spring Reverb 2026
This past winter came early, hit hard, and—quite frankly—overstayed its welcome. It clung to Kingston’s limestone buildings with both hands before the sun managed to thaw the city. As the tulips gradually emerged and newborn goslings paddled around the inner harbor, Princess Street restaurants traded in their snow shovels and sidewalk salt for parasols and patios. Kingston welcomed this much-anticipated seasonal change the best way it knows how: with music.
Spring Reverb returned for its fifth edition this past weekend. Brought to life by KPP Concerts, the festival is a four-day showcase celebrating live music. It features workshops, panels, industry events, and of course, concerts. I was fortunately able to spend the majority of my Saturday catching every event I could, and was both exhausted and delighted by the day’s final notes.
12PM
Saturday brings weather so nice the walk from downtown to the Broom Factory is as much of a reward as the destination itself: the Katarokwi Punk Rock Flea Market. This drop-in event features vendors of the punk, alt, and DIY variety, bringing together a diverse mix of makers for the mid-day crowd. Some stalls are outside in the sun, others are inside where local band Havana Syndrome plays head-banging music for what they say is their first audience.
The market offers everything a punk could want. One booth sells custom stencils saying things like “WATER IS SACRED” and “MY BODY MY CHOICE,” while another hosts zines on various topics, featuring self-help guides like “How to Question Your Gender Without Going Insane: a Zine by a Genderqueer,” and, “How to Recognize White Supremacist Symbology.” There are patches, stickers, and hand-crocheted eyeball ice cream cones. Everything is also deliciously rife with anti-AI sentiment, from buttons to posters to one man wearing a t-shirt that reads “GenAI is the ANTITHESIS to art, humanity, and education.”
I could be a wallflower at the Punk Rock Flea Market all day. The vibes are excellent and the people friendly. Small children sit atop their parent’s shoulders wearing bulky headphones to protect their little ears, and it’s the first time in recent memory that—aside from the children—I have the fewest tattoos in the vicinity. The warm smiles and welcoming nature of the market is a gentle yet certain reminder that, as tacky as it sounds, being kind is pretty punk rock.
Crossing the street to The Wherehouse, I drop in on the DIY Merch event, back by popular demand. Here, people can work with makers emske (Em Harmsen) and eronone (Aaron Forsyth) to amp up their merch table. The space carries the same good energy of the Flea Market, but at a lower volume. The Wherehouse is equipped with irons and button makers, and I watch as someone puts their own design on a t-shirt.
3PM
Musiikki’s courtyard fills up slowly but steadily. The wooden stage in the corner has been built around the magnolia tree that has become ubiquitous with Musiikki concerts over the years. It was in bloom two weeks ago, and though only green leaves currently cling to the branches rustling in the breeze, evidence of the pink blossoms lay scattered about the floor as people find their seats. Savannah Shea, who will open this afternoon’s concert, is chatting with a seated couple in the middle of the courtyard. One woman walks in with a full pizza from Score to share with her friends.
Savannah Shea opens her set with “30 Different Lovers,” a song that is as lovely as it is cheeky. She plays the acoustic guitar while she sings, and is joined by her partner, Logan Brown, who brings a Tom-Cardy-energy to the stage as well as an electric guitar. Together, they have perfect timing with both the music and the comedy.
“Full transparency,” Shea tells the crowd between songs, “I’m wearing fake eyelashes and one of them is falling off.”
“You should rip it off and throw it into the crowd like a guitar pick,” Brown tells her in response.
From bantering with Jennarie—the main act, who sits in the audience—to playfully calling out her father in the crowd, Savannah Shea’s songs are bookended by moments of laughter.
Her deftness at comedy makes it all the more breathtaking when she sings a song that makes you want to cry. “Best Remembered” is a beautifully moving piece, and the whole courtyard falls impressively silent. There’s something profound about listening to the song—which evokes touching images of nature—outside beneath the magnolia tree, feeling the wind and smelling the flowers. It feels like magic.
4:30PM
Jennarie has a voice that I almost cannot believe, sounding both like Amy Winehouse and Olivia Dean while at the same time being singularly hers. Toronto-based-Jennarie tells us this is her first time in Kingston and her first time playing on a stage built around a magnolia tree. She opens with “Summer With You,” then “Melodies,” before covering Olivia Dean’s “Dive,” all of which showcase her vocal prowess.
Claiming she’d been inspired by Savannah’s earlier radical honesty, Jennarie lets the crowd in on the secret of for whom her next song, “Contemplating You,” was written. She takes time to explain the genesis behind some of her lyrics, talking to the audience less like they’re a crowd and more like they’re friends sitting across the table.
Jennarie’s vocal range ensures variety in her music. She can go deep into her chest register or high into her falsetto, and even more impressively, she can flutter around her vocal break effortlessly. From her rage-filled “True Fool” to the steady and confident “Never Been Small,” Jennarie’s voice makes each new song distinct from the last.
Despite how much I enjoy her original work, my favourite moment of the set comes from her cover of the Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love.” She asks the crowd to sing along—especially if they’re a soprano and can cover the higher parts—and the audience delivers, sounding like a heavenly choir joining in for the choruses.
8:30PM
The sun sets on Kingston, but concerts across the city are just getting started. The Musiikki magnolia is still a focal point of the courtyard, but now it’s lit by string lights hanging from its branches. There is once again a crowd grabbing drinks and finding places to sit or stand, but this audience is noticeably different from the one that was here four hours ago; more eyeliner and denim to match the evening’s genre of punk, hardcore, and metal.
Chris Royer, perming under the name Royer, opens the night. He’s a Kingston-based musician embedded in the punk scene. His acoustic guitar is a bit different from the screaming-rock most of the crowd was expecting, but the energy is still 100% punk.
When Royer welcomes to the stage Crown of Antlers, a local three-piece hardcore metal band, the volume certainly goes up a notch. Or five. The magnolia tree seems to shake with the sheer volume generated by the three men, and I’m glad I stole the musician’s earplugs my partner keeps in his trombone case.
“That song was about cannibalism,” frontman Nick Patterson says after the top of their set. “This next one is about relapsing. Wait, wait, wait,” he says with a smile. “We can make it way more metal. It’s about a wizard relapsing. I’m the wizard.”
I find myself head-banging to the music without realizing. It feels like the beat lives in my ribcage. The best part of the set is realizing how much fun Crown of Antlers is having. “We’re going to do a little thingy-ma-jiggy,” Patterson says before launching into a song about the dastardly deeds of an evil wizard.
The volume or the screaming might be offputting for the uninitiated, but their genuine love-of-the-game is as infectious as any good melody.
MVLL CRIMES (pronounced “mall crimes”) is a post-hardcore band from London, Ontario, and they hit the stage just before 10pm. Their raw punk energy fills the courtyard with fast songs with sharp lyrics. Jillian Clair, lead vocal, climbs into the magnolia tree and performs a few songs from where she’s propped herself between the branches.
Going from Crown of Antler’s long, guitar riffing songs to MVLL CRIMES’ shorter, distorted sound is at first a bit jarring, but the audience gets the hang of it quickly enough. It doesn’t take long for heads to bang to songs like “VRGUING WITH STRVNGERS” and “Don’t Be A Cop,” all of which lean heavily into the sardonic and satirical.
In turn, the crowd seems just as prepared to be sharply funny. At one point between songs, Clair asks, “Who’s your favourite member of the band so far, Kingston?” Without missing a beat, someone in the crowd yells back, “The tree!”
When Clair climbs back into the tree to sing another song, I spot Crown of Antlers’ Nick Patterson dancing alongside the rest of the crowd. Even the group sitting next to me—who had no idea what kind of concert they bought tickets for—were bopping their heads enthusiastically.
10:45PM
The wind that whips through the magnolia tree is chilly. The nearly-full moon shines down on the crowd as they disperse back to their homes, their bikes, their cars. Within the quiet of the night, you can hear the echoes of music; drum beats and guitar riffs bouncing from the limestone buildings to the still-cold waters of Lake Ontario. It’s the sound of Kingston waking up again—I guess that’s what they mean by Spring Reverb.
The fifth edition of Spring Reverb ran from May 28-31 at various venues across Kingston.
