North By Northeast Announces This Year's Highlights

North By Northeast returns to Toronto for a 13th year from June 6 to 10, with the usual conference, music and film festivals supplemented with a few extra wrinkles.

Things will get underway at 5 p.m. on June 6 when mayor David Miller officially launches NXNE in Nathan Phillips Square. His appearance will be followed by performances by Dr. Draw and Shad K.

The music festival gets underway on June 7. International acts confirmed to appear so far include Dinosaur Jr., Urge Overkill, Fountains Of Wayne, Buffalo Tom, Therapy, The National, Soundtrack Of Our Lives and Voxtrot. Canadian participants will include IllScarlett, Cancer Bats, Kathleen Edwards, Die Mannequin, The High Dials, You Say Party! We Say Die! and the return of The Diodes.

As usual, ChartAttack will provide report cards on dozens of acts taking part.

Director Don Letts will attend the June 7 opening of his new documentary, Rock It To Rio, at the Royal Cinema. Other highlights of the two-night film fest will be Glastonbury, George Clinton: Tales Of Dr. Funkenstein, The Good, The Bad And The Queen, Kurt Cobain: About A Son and Nightclubbing: Live From CBGB's.

The Indie Music Market will be held in Dundas Square from noon to 8 p.m. on June 9. Eight acts, including C'Mon, will perform. A number of others will sell CDs and merchandise.

For those who like sports as well as music, the first annual NXNE soccer game — pitting members of the media against representatives of the music business — will be held at the new BMO Field at 3 p.m. on June 10.

Organizers promise that this year's event will be the most environmentally friendly one yet. For more details and updates, visit the NXNE website.