London Canada celebrates its 4-year UNESCO City of Music designation by lighting up the city with music!
London celebrated its 4-year UNESCO City of Music designation by lighting up the city with live music events, a conference and a showcase festival!
The week of celebrations kicked off on November 5 with The Next Stage, hosted by the Canadian Live Music Association, in partnership with the London Chamber of Commerce, Tourism London and the London Music Office (LMO) The evening brought together London’s leading business and live music voices to spark collaboration, new connections and big ideas. The night included a fireside chat with local music and business leaders and featured live music from London’s own King Cruff and Thunder Queens.
The City of Music Conference expanded to a two-day format for 2025, taking place November 6-7. We were delighted to welcome representatives in-person from fellow UNESCO Cities of Music including Liverpool, Mannheim, Kansas City and Norrköping, with a virtual presentation from Kharkiv. The conference also featured local and regional panelists, along with folks from Minnesota USA and South Africa and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO.
This year we eagerly collaborated with Asahikawa, UNESCO City of Design, to create the Conference logo and we were thrilled to welcome designer Kaoru Ueda and colleague Takaya Yokoi to present the project in-person.
The Conference included several panels, presentations and interactive sessions. Attendees stayed engaged with topics ranging from music policy, advocacy, model sharing and using music as a catalyst in our everyday work. Folks were excited to take part in learning, connecting and networking and taking in London’s music scene.
November 6 ended on a high note with Words & Music: A Celebration of Canada’s UNESCO City of Music, in partnership with Words Fest & LMO. Singer-songwriters played and shared the stories behind their songs, including London artists Sarah MacDougall, Anddre Mafra, Patrick James Clark. London’s UCoM exchange artist John Fellner reflected on his recent travels as an ambassador of the city and even played a few songs along with a special performance by Ammoye, a 7x JUNO nominated artist!
We rounded the celebrations with a ton of live music with VENUExVENUE, from November 6-8! Now in its third year, this showcase festival and conference took over Canada’s UNESCO City of Music with over 50 artist performances across multiple venues across the city.
We are looking forward to celebrating a milestone year in 2026!