Canada’s pop-punk princess Avril Lavigne paid homage to her roots to close out the 2025 All Your Friends Fest on Sunday, June 29, in Burl’s Creek, Ontario.
“It probably doesn’t get any more Canadian than this,” Avril told the audience.
“So from my point of view, there’s a whole bunch of like, poutine… Poutine Supreme, Poutine And More… I know what I’m having when I get off stage tonight is poutine.”
Avril added: “Speaking of Canadian, I know they play the Burl’s Creek Festival in the lot next to us, and a couple of years ago, I went and saw Shania Twain headline. It was super cool but also, really cool, true story, when I was 14-years-old, I was listening to a radio station in Ontario and they said, submit a tape of yourself singing a Shania Twain song. So I went home, sang one of her songs. Long story short, I won a contest to sing on stage with Shania Twain when I was 14-years-old and it was really cool. So, because it’s Canada Day weekend and all, I thought we should perform a Shania Twain song… the Canadian Queen of Country.”
The crowd ignited when Avril and her bandmates performed “Man! I Feel Like a Woman”.
Keeping with the Canadian theme, Avril brought fellow Canadian rockers Simple Plan on stage with her in Burl’s Creek to perform their recently released collaboration, “Young and Dumb”.
“We just went on the road this last couple of months, we just did a whole tour together and we did last year as well,” Avril said about her Montreal friends.
“But it’s really cool because Simple Plan and I, we toured together on our very first tour, like, 20-plus years ago, and now we’re back out on the road again. So because we get up on stage, we do all this touring together, I was like come on guys let’s write a fucking song before we go out on the road.”
The Napanee, Ontario-born singer performed all of her hits from across her 20-plus-year career, including “Girlfriend”, “What the Hell”, “Complicated”, “Here’s to Never Growing Up” and the crowd favourite “Sk8er Boi”.
She closed her set with a trio of ballads that showcased her dynamic vocals: “Head Above Water”, “When You’re Gone” and “I’m With You”.
Here are SWOMP’s photos from her performance:
Follow Avril at https://avrillavigne.com/.