Prime Time, Brenden MacIntosh, Upper Mall Rats, DYLN, Jonny Vu and Ben Cornel will be among Yellowknife-based acts at the 2026 Still Dark festival.
Announcing the full lineup on Friday, organizers said attendees can expect a range of genres including folk, country, hip-hop, metal, rock and punk.
That includes Prime Time, which won Folk on the Rocks’ Main Stage Showdown in 2023 and describes itself as “a collection of northern minstrels who embody drunken swagger with symphonic precision.”
Dylan Hope, who performs under the stage name DYLN, is a Deh Cho Dene producer, songwriter and storyteller.
Brenden MacIntosh’s pop punk band brings “fast rhythms with strong melodies to give you highly energetic and catchy tunes.”
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Upper Mall Rats claim, somewhat dubiously, to have been cast in the Real Housewives of Niven until their husbands kicked them out of the house. The band said they are now focused on “liberating Centre Square Mall.”
Singer-songwriter Jonny Vu said he “fuses a unique blend of pop, rap and R&B” while Ben Cornel said his music “reflects the warmth of the rising sun, the serenity of crisp night skies and the comfort he finds in the embrace of his loved ones.”
Also joining the 2026 Still Dark lineup is Refrijerator, a “goof rock” band that formed in Yellowknife in late 2023 and won the Main Stage Showdown the following year. While the three original members have since gone to university, singer and guitarist Duncan Stewart has continued to perform and write material with new members in Edmonton.
The band describes its sound as an “amalgamation of Tom Waits, Frank Zappa, Primus and the Dead Kennedys.”
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Another northern act at the festival is Lester Slade, a travelling songwriter based in Iqaluit who blends folk, Americana and alt-country. He said his music offers “a clear-eyed take on the lives we lead and the truths we carry.”
Rounding out the 2026 Still Dark lineup from elsewhere in Canada are:
- Edmonton-based dream pop band Verttigo, whose sound “draws heavily from the underground movements of the ’80s and ’90s;”
- Amy Nelson, a Calgary-based country artist;
- Vancouver-based DIY synth-pop project Devours;
- Vancouver hip-hop act JUNK, an acronym for Just Understand Nobody Knows; and
- Stretch, an artist from Toronto whose sound is “reminiscent of a classic era of hip hop, embellished by lush and expansive production sensibilities.”
Still Dark announced the first wave of 2026 artists last month, including NWT acts Sun Starved, HYFY, Jonathan Antoine and Stacie Arden-Smith. They will be joined by out-of-territory acts Skinny Dyck, Dump Babes and Iron Tusk.
Still Dark 2026 will run from February 5-8 in various downtown Yellowknife venues.
Early-bird passes for the festival are available for purchase on the Still Dark website.
