TopFest 2025

Tongue on the Post 2025 has an amazing lineup in store for you and we are beyond excited to share our favorite week with you all once again!

2025 brings us an entire 7 days of amazing music from many award-nominated and winning artists of 2024!!

We can't wait to be back in the historic venue, Medalta Potteries, with our dear musician friends from across the country as well as all of you here in Medicine Hat! We have missed you all so much!

Monday we kick things off with our signature Supper & Song event at the amazing new Blowers & Grafton. This year we have something special for our coveted Supper and Song event. The famed, Traveling Mabels , will take the stage at 5:00pm for a set, followed by an amazing served meal by the staff of Blower's & Grafton and then The Traveling Mabels will take the stage once again for one last set to end the evening. This event is $65 and includes your dinner, drinks are extra. Please arrive early to find your seating as this is a rush seating event and seating choices are first come, first serve.

Tuesday brings to Medalta for the first of 3 evenings of intimate concerts in the historic brick beehive kilns for a one-of-a-kind experience with the amazing duo, Big Little Lions

Big Little Lions are an award-winning duo who were born out of a collaboration that won them a JUNO Award in 2014. Since then they have been cranking out infectious folk pop songs that are jam-packed with emotion and tight harmonies that sound like the product of two people working side-by-side instead of living in different countries.

They have released 6 albums to date, which have garnered them awards including the CFMA Ensemble of the Year, Independent Music Awards Americana Single of the Year, and the John Lennon Songwriting Competition Song of the Year. Their critically acclaimed music has appeared in the CBC’s Top 20 and has been featured on shows like Q and Vinyl Cafe. The duo consists of Paul Otten and Helen Austin, both hugely prolific songwriters - their music has been placed in hundreds of movie trailers, ads, network TV shows, and on MTV.

All Kiln shows are $30 each. The show starts at 7 pm with doors opening at 6:30 pm

Wednesday brings us Zachary Lucky in the kiln. Zachary is no stranger to the Folk Club stage as he has returned for numerous packed shows here in Medicine Hat. Once you hear this amazingly talented troubadour and his unique voice, you too will be hooked and bound to catch another of his shows.

Zachary Lucky is a Canadian songwriter, folk, and Country artist based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He is the grandson of Canadian country music legend Smilin Johnny Lucky.

Dubbed “The Laureate of the Lonesome Song,” Zachary Lucky has been making a name for himself as a well-respected singer-songwriter with The Wind clocking in as his sixth full-length album.

The Wind is a storyteller album. The instrumentation is stripped-down and subtle. Lucky’s husky baritone delivery is raw and steeped in a familiar classic country music composition. Each of these elements allows the listener to focus on the lyrics and imagine the places the story is navigating through. “The Wind feels like the album I’ve been trying to make my entire career,” remarks Zachary. “I’ve always tried to create albums that really put the song and story front and center, making the listener feel like they’re right there in the room with us.”

All Kiln shows are $30 each. The show starts at 7 pm with doors opening at 6:30 pm

Thursday brings us to our final VIP Kiln show as we join Joe Nolan for one final intimate performance in this unique and inspiring venue.

Hailed by The Globe and Mail as "an Americana wunderkind to watch out for," Joe Nolan is proving that praise is well-deserved with his upcoming album, produced by Grammy Award-winner Tyler Chester.

A virtuoso guitarist, elusive poet, and musical chameleon, Nolan was raised in the rural community of Sturgeon County, Alberta. Caught between two small northern towns, he found his place in this world at an early age, growing up alongside the North Saskatchewan River. Nolan has always lived on the outskirts and can be a hard one to pin down. Breaking genres and defying labels, he defines his sound as "These are my caravan diaries," claiming to go "wherever the muse takes me." He has garnered many accolades upon his shelf, including last year’s Canadian Folk Music Award nod for his 2023 release Lost Verses. However, he’d rather let those awards collect dust than bask in the limelight.

All Kiln shows are $30 each. Show starts at 7pm with doors opening at 6:30pm

Friday brings us back to the reception gallery at Medalta Potteries for our coveted Singer Songwriter Night where local musicians are given the stage in an effort to promote the amazing talent we have right here at home! Be sure to join us and encourage these talented artists as they begin their journey in the music industry.

The local roster for this evening's event includes: Jack Humeny, Brad Haas, Jason Crooks, Ryan Hornung, Stacey Head, Netty Mac, Greg Herman, Presley Battle, Joy Bower, Connie Johns and possibly a few other surprise performances.

This event is a free event with a suggestion of a $5 donation to help cover costs. Please do not feel obligated to pay to attend, we wish this to be a barrier-free event for those in our community.

Saturday brings us to the big day!! With a jam-packed schedule and the most bang for your buck, Main day artists will include, Bobby Dove, Jed & The Valentine, John Hewitt,The Eisenhauers and many more throughout the day. There will also be a local artisan market as well as a bar running throughout the day.

Tickets for the Saturday side stages are $30 and include 8 hours of non stop performances.

This year the side stages have been extended to the entire afternoon and evening at Medalta and the Headliner event has been moved to Sunday afternoon as a matinee at Medicine Hat College.

Sunday afternoon brings us to the new spot for our Headliner event. Tickets for this event are $50 and include all 3 headliner performances at Medciien Hat College in the Eresman Theatre.

This year will host 3 amazing acts that you absolutely do not wish to miss and with a start time of 2 pm, you'll be home in time for supper!

Brand new to TOPFEST, Mallory Chipman will kick off the afternoon with some of the most soul-soothing and heart inspring vocals and lyrics you have heard in a very long time!

Award-winning singer-songwriter, Mallory Chipman, is fresh off the heels of her fifth studio album release and is turning heads across the international folk-roots scene. Her latest record, Songs to a Wild God, hit #1 on CKUA upon its release and was one of the only indie albums to debut in the National Radio Top 50.

Engineered by JUNO-nominee Scott Franchuk (Corb Lund, Del Barber) and featuring a line up of Western Canada’s top musicians, Songs to a Wild God boasts a sonic landscape that combines classic folk acoustic instruments, like banjos and tenor guitars, with modern units, like synthesizers and effects pedals, to create a sound that is definitively contemporary while proudly rooted in the folk tradition.

Songs to a Wild God displays Mallory’s vivid lyricism and acrobatic vocals atop a deft and dynamic rhythm section and has been met with a solid reviews and a sold out album release concert in Edmonton, with a forthcoming support tour slated for summer 2025.​

​In the past year alone, Chipman has toured across Canada, Europe, Korea, and Japan, turning heads at major showcases including Folk Alliance International, North by Northeast, Alberta Showcase, and BreakOut West; and drawing comparison to Kate Bush, Melissa Ethridge, and Joni Mitchell.

Next up, and no stranger to our stage or Medicine Hat.....The Amazing and multi-award-winning artist Kyle McKearney makes his return to the main stage and ensures an unbelievable afternoon of songs and storytelling but this time joined by his wife Sarah as they harmonize and transport everyone to faraway place that somehow hits you right in the feels.

In 2020, Kyle McKearney was restless and ready to start something new. After spending time in Nashville and being a part of many varied musical projects, he settled in Alberta and began posting YouTube videos of himself performing cover songs. It was the start of a creative reinvention, and two years later Kyle’s debut solo album Down-Home received a Canadian Country Music Association award nomination for Alternative Country Album of the Year.

Yet, that was only one of the accolades that have boosted Kyle McKearney’s status as Canada’s biggest breakthrough independent country/Americana artist of 2022. He also earned two Western Canadian Music Award nominations, was named a SiriusXM Top of the Country semi-finalist, placed second in Alberta Music’s Project Wild (for which he was awarded $75,000), shared stages with The Black Crowes, Kip Moore, Our Lady Peace and Dean Brody, all while racking up over one million global streams.

Kyle hasn’t wasted any time building on that momentum. Fans have been treated to new music over the past several months with the singles “Mercy,” “River Rain” and “Grandfather” displaying Kyle’s maturation as a songwriter, while still showing off his powerful voice and his evolving collaboration with Juno Award-winning producer/guitarist/songwriter Russell Broom. It’s all there as well on the latest single, “Whispering Pines,” a soaring duet between Kyle and his wife Sarah that immediately belongs in the conversation of songs at the cutting edge of country music’s current renaissance.

“I wrote ‘Whispering Pines’ while I was working a shift job,” Kyle explains. “It was two weeks away from home at a time in a place where I felt isolated. This song speaks to so many families’ situations; one parent working away while the other takes care of things at home. It can be very tough and can take its toll on any relationship.”

And to wrap up the afternoon on a high note, a local legend and an early contributor to shaping our beautiful festival........Phyllis Sinclair. Phyllis Sinclair, a Canadian Folk Music Award-nominated singer-songwriter weaves Indigenous realities with spirituality, astronomy, and mythology.

Having released six albums that include numerous Folk, and Indigenous chart-toppers, Phyllis Sinclair's discography stands as a tribute to her artistry, and testament to her authenticity.

With performances spanning Australia to the UK, Phyllis Sinclair captivates audiences through her dynamic story-telling and eclectic mix of pop and folk that seamlessly blends traditional wisdom with contemporary melodies.