Begonia is your best friend. She’s the whimsical fairy on your shoulder making you feel all at once comfortable to be yourself while simultaneously making you think wtf is this fairy doing here and what is she wearing. With a voice that compels you to feel everything deeper, she sings like she’s calling you into her world. Sure, on the surface it may simply look like a world overtaken by flowers, colour and lightness but go deeper and it’s also a world that doesn’t shy away from the dark. It’s a world that invites you to be exactly who you are without shame. Her voice is like a delicate sandpaper with iridescent grit. Her lyrics will make you laugh and cry all within the span of a single phrase. A charm and presence that evokes some of the greatest entertainers of the past but no matter the size of the stage you always feel like you are hearing a secret that is especially for you. Begonia has many stories to tell, many iterations of life to walk you through, and she takes her fans on the journey with a stumbling grace and an uncanny wit. A true sight to behold, sometimes clunky but always beautifully and refreshingly entertaining. Begonia crafts some of the most honest pop music out there. With ‘Fantasy Life’, she's simply at the top of her game. There’s more risk, more complex vocals, more pop diva mania, more feeling, more truth, and more fantasy.

Begonia, the stage name of Winnipeg entertainer Alexa Dirks, who launched her solo career in 2017 with the EP "Lady in Mind," featuring the #1 CBC Radio single "Juniper." Her critically acclaimed full-length albums "Fear" (2019) and "Powder Blue" (2023) have earned her two JUNO Award nominations and two Polaris Music Prize nominations. Begonia followed up with a three song EP, “Open Swim” (2024) which received remarkable response across streaming platforms and radio. Recognized by NPR as an "Artist You Need to Know," Begonia is celebrated by her core fans for her powerful live performances, which Noisey describes as “obliterating the misery from this world one live performance at a time." Her captivating stage presence has opened doors for her to perform at clubs, theatres, and festivals globally, connecting with audiences worldwide. Her newest full-length release “Fantasy Life” makes its debut October 2025, via Birthday Cake Records.

Opening Support: FONTINE

“Good Buddy” is CB Radio code for gay, so it’s a fitting title for FONTINE’s first full-length album. Like a truck driver on the radio, she is a road warrior logging shows all year with her own project or as a collaborator with Boy Golden, Kris Ulrich, Begonia, Georgia Harmer and so many others. And while that trucker-hat-wearing, big-rig-wielding archetype might not usually be associated with soft sensitivity, that middle zone is exactly where FONTINE and this album live. It's a rock record with a mushy middle. It's beautiful and energizing. There's pain and there's catharsis. FONTINE is Indigenous, queer and a self-proclaimed “real goofy guy.” These things all inform her art. She is the life of the party, her magnanimous laugh and smile filling up any room. But there's also a lot of struggle behind all that. Navigating through relationships beginning and ending, identity exploration,self-doubt, activist frustration, people pleasing and friendship – all rooted in areal sense of place. This is what the album is all about. Good Buddy is a departure from FONTINE’s breakout Yarrow Lover EP, which leaned into cleaner, folkier singer-songwriter tones. This record finds her back with her trademark powerhouse voice and disarmingly vulnerable approach, but this time housed in a grittier shell. FONTINE always wanted to be a rock star growing up, listening to rock radio and singing along full tilt. This album is a step towards that dream. Recorded live to tape, the intention was to be as raw and scrappy as possible, with her band in the room feeding off the energy they’d gathered from hundreds of shows on the road. All to allow the beautiful, raw songwriting to shine through.“Body Double” is a fan favourite singalong at live shows with its half-time, harmony-stacked chorus. It explores the idea of sharing space with others to help you focus on the task at hand and more broadly, about physically manifesting the support of your friends and loved ones in hard times. “Night hours” channels Neil Young’s guitar-driven, lip-bitten grit trying to get over an now gone lover. “Current” is a life-preserver – a landing spot to put all the sadness you feel like you didn’t want to bother anyone with, because it’s just too damn sad. And then there is "Home Right Here," an exploration of the places FONTINE is rooted to, along with associated core memories that formed who she is. Between rich choruses she takes us somewhere new with each verse – the family farm on Cowessess First Nation, an escape to a tiny Vancouver apartment, Jimmy's place on Braemar – a makeshift garage hang spot during the height of pandemic lockdowns where her Winnipeg musician pals would gather to drink and write and dream. Up until now, on the strength of just one EP, FONTINE has garnered over 800,000 streams, a loyal online following, glowing press from CBC, Country Queer, Exclaim!, RANGE and more, radio charting success, plus support slots with folks like William Prince, The Paper Kites, and Helena Deland. Good Buddy plants her next route marker on the side of the road. It peels back the layers and puts her heart and her grit centre stage. It poises her to expand her reach, carveout new highways, and fully put her behind the wheel