Believe it! This weekend. Gussapalooza

August 21–23, 2026
Cookstown

(08/20/26) If you still believe a music festival should involve discovering a band you’ve never heard of, getting dirt on your shoes and occasionally wondering exactly where your friends disappeared to, Gussapolooza may be your kind of weekend.

The independent music and arts festival takes over the Georgian Bay Steam Show Grounds in Cookstown August 21–23, bringing three days of bands, camping, artists, food, vendors, workshops and assorted creative troublemaking to a field just south of Barrie. The 2026 edition features dozens of performers spread across multiple stages, with everything from rock and pop to folk, country and hip hop represented.

And Peterborough has a couple of horses in Sunday’s race. LOTSY — aka Peterborough singer-songwriter SJ Riley — is on the bill, along with local rock outfit Burning Bridges. LOTSY is scheduled for a 4 p.m. Barn Stage set, while Burning Bridges hits the Main Stage at 2 p.m., giving local music fans a couple of familiar reasons to make the drive west. As always at festivals, check the final schedule before leaving home — tents move, bands move and clocks occasionally become more of a philosophical suggestion.

But Gussapolooza has never really been just a collection of bands. The whole enterprise is the creation of Russ and Val Robson, who have steadily grown it into a genuine grassroots gathering built around independent artists and the increasingly endangered idea that a festival can still feel like a community rather than an outdoor shopping mall. Russ Robson, the festival’s founder and one of its principal organizers, told local media this year’s edition could be their strongest yet, while the festival itself continues to credit both Russ and Val with the behind-the-scenes work of keeping the Gussapolooza machine moving.

It takes more than optimism and extension cords to build one of these things. Gussapolooza is backed by sponsors and funding partners including FACTOR, the Government of Canada and the Town of Innisfil, along with additional community and festival partners. This year there’s also a partnership with the Stevenson Memorial Hospital Foundation, with a portion of ticket sales going toward the new hospital facility.

Then there is the little temporary economy that springs up around the music. Food vendors this year include Paco’s Tacos, Dee’s Quiet Café, Miss Richie’s Kitchen, Came to Fil Up, Dark Horse Tavern and BeaverTails, while the artisan market includes makers such as Jazz Urban Style, BlackOnyx, Knotty Newfie Crafters, GlowSpark Originals, Wild Acres Soapery, Gypsy Bee, The Altered Nation and King Smart Wood Shop.

Add a Kids Zone, wellness programming, visual art, beer gardens, workshops and late-night campfire jams and Gussapolooza starts looking less like a conventional concert weekend and more like somebody built a small town where the municipal government has been replaced by guitar players.

That may be the festival’s greatest trick. While the big summer festivals keep getting bigger, more expensive and increasingly dependent on the same touring names, Russ and Val have kept betting on the opposite idea: give independent artists a stage, give people a reason to hang around, and let discovery do some of the work.

Gussapolooza runs Friday, August 21 through Sunday, August 23 at 4635 15th Line in Cookstown. Single-day, three-day and camping passes are available, and the event is all ages.