The music wasn’t the only thing setting the tone at the Magnetic World Music Festival.
At the Garrison Grounds on Sept. 25 and 26, festival-goers arrived dressed for the artists they had come to see, turning the festival grounds into a riot of colours, silhouettes and styles that reflected the event’s global lineup.
Some fans wore red for Sexyy Red. Others leaned into blue while attending Quoia States’ set. Oversized, baggy silhouettes reminiscent of the 1990s and early 2000s appeared among fans waiting for Ne-Yo and Akon, while streetwear, graphic pieces, boots, dresses and statement accessories filled the grounds.
For many young Halifax residents, getting ready was part of the concert experience.
Magnetic World brought Sexyy Red, Alesso, Swae Lee, Ne-Yo, Akon, Khalid, Mother Mother, Classified, Carolina Liar and Quoia States to Citadel Hill for two days of hip-hop, EDM, R&B and pop.
The lineup offered Halifax audiences something that has traditionally required travelling outside the city: the atmosphere of a large-scale music festival featuring internationally recognized artists.
For young festival-goers, that global experience is part of the appeal.
For fans, getting ready can mean choosing an outfit inspired by an artist, an era or simply a particular mood. At Magnetic World, those choices were visible throughout the crowd.
Festival fashion has become part of the larger concert experience, with social media making outfits almost as visible as the performances themselves.
Dalhousie University student Krystel Stephens is an avid music festival attendee. She attended Magnetic World to see Sexyy Red. For her, the festival was both a music experience and an opportunity to put together a look.
“For university students, buying the tickets to festivals is an expense, and also traveling to festivals is an expense,” Stephens says. “Wearing a cute outfit is very important to me.”
“The price I would spend on a music festival fit is comparable to the price I would spend at a music festival anywhere around the globe; I want a cheap outfit that looks sexy on Instagram,” she says.
For Stephens, affordability is an important part of that decision. She says she chooses retailers such as Shein because the clothing is inexpensive, works for the festival and gives her the opportunity to put together a look she likes.
While she understands that Shein is a fast-fashion retailer that rips off small artists and doesn’t pay labourers fair wages, she says, “I am working within a student budget, call me selfish, but it is what it is.”
Her approach reflects one side of a broader conversation around festival fashion.
Festival clothing can sometimes be treated almost like a costume, a chance to temporarily adopt a different aesthetic or persona. Social media has also made the visual aspect of attending festivals more prominent, with outfit planning, getting-ready videos and festival photos becoming part of the experience.
A report cited by Teen Vogue found that 7.5 million festival outfits were purchased and worn only once, highlighting the growing connection between festival culture, social media and single-use clothing. The report also pointed to rewearing, vintage shopping and reworking existing clothing as alternatives.
But festival fashion is not limited to buying something new.
Mixing it up
For Mia Green, a Halifax fashion and lifestyle content creator who has worked in fashion retail for five years, getting dressed for a festival has become an exercise in mixing old and new.
Green says her understanding of festival fashion has changed over time.
“Yes, I think in the past, what it meant to me was kind of wearing something you don’t have the chance to wear every day.”
She still believes festivals are a chance to experiment, but comfort has become equally important.
“But more recently, it’s that with comfort, I want to be comfortable. I want to be warm, but still look cool and stand out.”
That balance was visible in Green’s own Magnetic World wardrobe.
This year, she wore a mini dress from Aritzia that she had owned for years, paired with faux-leather Zara boots that have lasted four years and been worn to multiple festivals and concerts.
She also added a large graphic zip-up she found at JD Sports at Mick Mac Mall.
The pieces illustrate Green’s approach to festival dressing: combining older wardrobe staples with one or two statement pieces rather than treating every festival as a reason to start from scratch.
That approach has also pushed her toward thrifting.
“I think it’s good to hit all the places first because you honestly never know what you’re gonna find.”
heritage while keeping her style fun, fashionable and trendy. Credit: Warren D'Silva
Green says secondhand shopping offers the opportunity to find distinctive pieces without necessarily paying the price of a new statement item.
“Statement pieces are so fun to thrift and statement pieces can be expensive sometimes if you buy them new.”
Her advice is not to enter a thrift store with an overly specific idea of what an outfit has to look like.
“I think it can be hard sometimes because you can have a vision in your head for what you want for a festival outfit. Keep an open mind.”
For Green, the search itself can become part of the experience.
She recommends visiting several thrift stores before deciding what to buy, including Threads in Dartmouth, the Dartmouth Value Village and smaller independent shops downtown.
She also encourages shoppers to look beyond the bigger and most familiar thrift stores.
Green says the approach can also help shoppers avoid accumulating clothes that are purchased for one occasion and rarely worn again.
“I’m just not down to buy a bunch of stuff and then not end up using it. I hate having a closet full of stuff that I don’t touch.”
Still, Green understands why fast fashion remains appealing, particularly for young people looking for an inexpensive outfit on short notice.
“Oh, I think it’s just the ease of it.”
Social media is a major part of that convenience, she says.
“You’re scrolling people making all these ads for these fast fashion brands and then you click it and it says, oh, you order this much, get free shipping comes in this many days. And I think that just seemed a lot easier for people.”
Research by Seas Side Sustainability noted that festival-goers typically spend between $100 and $1,000 on each outfit, and a three-day festival generates over 500 tons of carbon emissions.
For Green, the alternative is not necessarily about taking the fun out of festival fashion. Instead, she sees the process of finding an outfit as something that can happen through existing wardrobes and secondhand shopping. Her approach reflects one way some festival-goers are navigating the balance between affordability, personal style, repeat wear and sustainability.
Research cited by the Center for Biological Diversity says the fashion industry accounts for a significant share of global carbon emissions, while worldwide fashion consumption has increased substantially over the past two decades.
The conversation around festival fashion, however, is not simply a choice between buying expensive sustainable brands and never buying anything new.
For Green, her own approach starts with making the most of what she already owns.
Green also sees Halifax itself as a source of fashion inspiration.
She recommends following local creatives including Oghale Fredrick Emmanuel Ovah, Jared N Dopedroo, Annabelle Iyoha and Adri Marie.
Of Ovah, Green says, “He’s so cool. I think his like, he just has an insane style.”
She says Jared N Dopedroo’s use of thrifted pieces is another reason she follows his style.
Green also highlighted Annabelle Iyoha, whose fashion she has followed both online and from working with her.
For DJ Adri Marie, “I love how her style is very. It’s versatile. Like she dresses like in a lot of different ways, but I love her like baggy, oversized street style look.”
The four names are part of the Halifax fashion and creative community Green follows for inspiration.
For a city that is smaller than many of the global music and fashion capitals, she believes Halifax’s size does not need to limit how people dress.
“I think just for fashion in general, especially in Halifax, it’s a smaller city, I think it’s important for people to just kind of dress how you want, dress how you feel.”
Green recalled seeing a TikTok post mocking Halifax fashion. While she says it was difficult to see, she was encouraged by the people who responded by defending Halifax’s fashion community.
“But you just gotta put that shit in the back of your mind and just direct what you want, do what you want, and try not to care about other people’s opinion.”
At Magnetic World, that attitude was visible throughout the festival grounds.
Fans were not all dressing alike. Instead, they were drawing from different eras, artists and personal styles to create looks that made sense to them.
As Magnetic World continues to bring international performers to Halifax, the event is creating another space where global music culture and local fashion culture meet.
For the young people in the crowd, that global connection is part of what makes Magnetic World worth returning to.
They can see artists they might otherwise have travelled to another city, or another country to experience, while getting ready with friends, planning their outfits and documenting the weekend from Halifax.
For Stephens and Green, the festival represents different parts of that experience: Stephens’ focus on finding an accessible outfit that feels right for the occasion, and Green’s emphasis on rewearing, thrifting and finding individual pieces.
Both approaches show how personal festival fashion can be.
There is no single way to dress for the music.
What connects them is the desire to make the experience their own highlight of their annual calendar.
They both shared that the anticipation has already begun for next year’s festival.
