What to know<\/p>\n
Canadian National Exhibition returns August 21\u2013September 7 with a newly announced lineup featuring major international and Canadian artists.<\/p>\n
Headliners include Lupe Fiasco and Shaggy, alongside Canadian acts like Tom Cochrane and The Trews.<\/p>\n
Additional performers include Lights and Silverstein, with more acts expected.<\/p>\n
The 2026 fair will feature five stages, including a new NXNE Stage for emerging artists and a renamed Bandshell stage celebrating its 90th anniversary.<\/p>\n
The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) is set to return this August, and with its annual fair comes live performances from a list of star-studded artists.<\/p>\n
The CNE dropped a portion of their line-up on Thursday, three months ahead of opening day, garnering excitement with some international names making an appearance.<\/p>\n
World-famous singers scheduled to perform include Grammy-winning Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco, known for his hit songs \u201cThe Show Goes On,\u201d and \u201cBattle Scars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jamaican-American artist Shaggy will also perform, known for hits like \u201cIt Wasn\u2019t Me,\u201d and \u201cMr.Boombastic,\u201d the singer is expected to perform his well-known reggae-pop songs.<\/p>\n
The fair will also see performances from Canadian greats, including Canadian music Hall of Fame inductee Tom Cochrane, best known for his iconic song \u201cLife is a Highway,\u201d famously covered by Rascal Flatts, while also appearing in Disney Pixar\u2019s Cars.<\/p>\n
The Trews, best known for Canadian forces tribute \u201cHighway of Heroes,\u201d will also perform their discography of rock songs.<\/p>\n
Canadian icon and electropop singer Lights will be taking the stage, as well as Canadian rock sensation Silverstein, known for their hit \u201cMy Heroine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CNE said they will continue to drop the names of expected performers as the city gets closer to opening day.<\/p>\n
This year, the CNE will see five different stages across the fairgrounds, including the new NXNE Stage that highlights breakout artists on their rise to fame.<\/p>\n
The existing CNE Bandshell stage will also be renamed to Bell SOUNDSTAGE at the Bandshell, ahead of the CNE\u2019s plan to commemorate the Bandshell\u2019s 90th anniversary.<\/p>\n
In a media release, CNE\u2019s CEO Mark Holland shared his excitement ahead of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis summer, we\u2019re not just celebrating that legacy, we\u2019re expanding it,\u201d he said in part. \u201cPartnering with Billboard Canada and Rolling Stone Canada to reimagine what this stage means is how we ensure music becomes an even bigger part of what the CNE means to Canadians. We can\u2019t wait to welcome fans back to the grounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CNE runs from August 21 to September 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What to know Canadian National Exhibition returns August 21\u2013September 7 with a newly announced lineup featuring major international…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[12777,12778,12779,12780,12781,12782,12783,12784,48],"class_list":["post-26414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-canadian-national-exhibition","tag-cne","tag-lights","tag-lupe-fiasco","tag-shaggy","tag-the-ex","tag-the-trews","tag-tom-cochrane","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}