OVO Fest will be back this summer, according to Drake. The Toronto superstar made the announcement during a surprise guest appearance at British rapper Central Cee’s concert on May 24. Central Cee was performing at History—a live music venue in the Beaches neighbourhood, part-owned by Drake—and the Toronto rapper was sitting in a VIP section on one of the balconies when he surprised the crowd. In videos posted to social media, Drake can be seen with a mic in hand before he starts performing his song “Nokia.” After the performance, he spoke to the crowd for several minutes. “Thank you for having me, you know I love you all and I’ll see you this summer, by the way,” Drake can be heard saying on video. “I haven’t had a chance to say this yet, but OVO Fest is back this year, so we’ll need [Central Cee] there for that.” Typically held in August to coincide with Toronto’s Caribbean Carnival and featuring a star-studded lineup usually filled with surprise guests, Drake hasn’t held OVO Fest since 2022. That edition saw rappers Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj hit the stage, as well as a number of Canadian artists including Kardinal Offishall, Shawn Desman, and Nelly Furtado. No other details about this summer’s OVO Fest have been released.
