WITCH CLUB SATAN, WILLIAM BASINSKI, MIZMOR & More Added To Prepare The Ground 2026

Toronto’s Prepare The Ground festival has unveiled the full lineup for its third annual incarnation, set to take over the city from May 29 through 31, 2026. Alongside the announcement comes confirmation that single-day lineups and passes are now available, solidifying the event’s status as one of North America’s most adventurous celebrations of heavy music and experimental art.

Newly added artists include legendary avant-garde composer William Basinski, Norwegian occult black metal trio Witch Club Satan, Texas punk/black metal bruisers Portrayal of Guilt, ambient composer and Flenser artist Kathryn Mohr, and Portland doom standard-bearer Mizmor. These final additions round out a lineup that already reads like a manifesto for extreme, emotional and exploratory sound.

They join a stacked bill led by Amenra, who will perform two distinct sets, one heavy, one quiet; alongside Oathbreaker, reuniting exclusively for North America to perform Rheia in full. Elsewhere, Torche, Oranssi Pazuzu, Pallbearer (Foundations of Burden in full), HELL, Stygian Bough, and …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead (performing Source Tags & Codes in full) anchor a lineup that spans doom, black metal, post-hardcore, ambient and beyond.

Prepare The Ground is a three-day arts and music festival occupying two full blocks of downtown Toronto, featuring an outdoor arts market, four music venues — Trinity St. Paul’s Church, Lee’s Palace, The Cave and Transac — plus a dedicated theatre for film scores, among other multidisciplinary programming. Get your tickets here.

“If the first year drew the blueprint and the second year laid the foundation,” organizers say, “year three promises to establish and adorn its walls to make this festival the home for challenging, promising art for years to come.”

• …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead (Source Tags & Codes + Secret of Elena’s Tomb)
• Amenra (two sets, heavy and quiet)
• Blood Ceremony
• Blood Vulture
• Burner
• Cease
• Conjurer
• Dear Evangeline
• dogwhistle
• Final Gasp
• Habak
• HELL
• Hell is Other People
• Indian Handcrafts
• Kathryn Mohr
• Lowheaven
• Malevich
• Minsk
• Mizmor
• Oathbreaker (Rheia in full)
• Oranssi Pazuzu
• Pallbearer (Foundations of Burden in full)
• Portrayal of Guilt
• Pretty
• Sara Sloan
• Stygian Bough
• Svalbard
• the Keening
• Tómarúm
• Torche
• Tribunal
• Unholy Altar
• Unwell
• UUGGHH
• Wayfarer
• Wiegedood
• William Basinski
• Witch Club Satan
• Wrekmeister Harmonies