Giddy Up: A Complete 2026 Guide to Montreal's Country Music Festival LASSO

LASSO Montreal returns August 15–16, 2026, and for the first time it takes the whole weekend. After four editions squeezed into Friday and Saturday, the festival has moved to a Saturday–Sunday run at Parc Jean-Drapeau, with LASSO in the City taking over downtown on Friday, August 14 as a warm-up.

What began as an evenko experiment—country music, in Montreal, on an island—pulled 51,500 people in 2025, its biggest year yet.

Whether you're a first-timer still figuring out what LASSO even is, or a seasoned cowpoke with a festival chair already strapped to your back, here's what you need: the lineup, the bag rules, how to get there, what to eat, and why Montrealers keep showing up in boots.

Festival dates & times

• LASSO in the City: Friday, August 14, 2026 (downtown)
• Main festival: Saturday & Sunday, August 15–16, 2026
• Festival hours: 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. daily (2025 hours — confirm against official 2026 schedule)

Venue: Parc Jean-Drapeau, on Saint Helen's Island (Yellow Line métro → Jean-Drapeau station)

2026 headliners & lineup highlights

Two headliners, two very different arguments about what country music is in 2026.

Thomas Rhett closes Saturday, which is about as mainstream-Nashville as the bill gets when considering two decades of radio hits.

Mumford & Sons close Sunday, which is a stranger and more interesting call. The banjo-stomping British band that soundtracked a thousand weddings has spent the last few years working its way back toward the roots side of things, and a country festival is a reasonable place to land.

Saturday leans hard into the honky-tonk end. Jon Pardi brings the traditionalist streak, Koe Wetzel brings the Texas rowdiness and a fanbase that shows up loud, and Max McNown arrives on the back of a fast rise. The Band Perry are back on the road, Chance Peña and Waylon Wyatt represent the streaming-era breakouts, and Canada's own James Barker Band hold down a slot alongside Laci Kaye Booth and Elizabeth Nichols.

Sunday is the day for anyone who likes their country a little dustier. Turnpike Troubadours are the draw here—the Oklahoma outfit spent years away and came back to a devoted crowd that never left. Old Dominion handle the arena-country duties, Carly Pearce brings the sharpest songwriting on the bill, and Cameron Whitcomb returns after a strong 2025 set. Add Jonah Kagen, Blake Whiten, and Lily Fitts—an indie-folk singer whose TikTok covers pulled co-signs from Zach Bryan and Noah Kahan—and there's plenty worth arriving early for.

The Québec contingent is the real story: Seven Québécois artists are on the 2026 bill: Arpin Lépine, Krystel Mongeau (the 2022 Star Académie winner who's since gone properly country-pop), Theo Day, Joël Vogt, Léa Jarry, Paige Somerville, and Sorrene, plus Montreal's Classe Moyenne and Zach Chico. That covers francophone new country, Americana, folk-pop, and country rock across one weekend—a scene that's been building quietly for years, finally getting stage time that matches it.

Three finalists from the SiriusXM Top of the Country competition round things out: Morgan Griffiths, Shawnee Kish, and Québec City's Blue Ridge Band. More than 30 artists across three stages, all told.

Ticketing info

LASSO is all-ages. Kids 10 and under get in free with a ticketed adult, but everyone needs a valid ticket for premium zones (Gold, Front Stage, Sky Saloon, and so on).

There's no re-entry, so plan your day right—once you leave the site, you're out for good.

Montreal's cowboy core moment, five years on

Let's get one thing straight: LASSO isn't Montreal pretending to be Nashville. It's Montreal being Montreal—with more denim and a lot more twang.

Country music has been part of Quebec's identity for decades, from Saint-Tite's Western festival to institutions like the Wheel Club. What's changed is the city itself. Bars like Spaghetti Western, Bottes et Whiskey, and June turned line dancing into a standing weekend fixture. Cowboy hats stopped being ironic somewhere around year two.