Boots & Hearts Festival 2025 – Day Three Recap & Photos

By the time Saturday rolled around at Burl’s Creek, lightning and thunder was a thing of the past and the sun was back in full force, already claiming its victims. Red shoulders, parched throats, and hats lost the battle against dust. But that did not slow down the fans. Day Three of Boots & Hearts Festival 2025 sold out before the gates even opened, and the Burl’s Creek grounds felt like every country fan in Ontario had shown up with one mission: make it a day worth losing your voice over.

While we didn’t manage to catch all the amazing artists performing that day, here are the highlights of the ones we saw:

Kelsi Mayne wasted no time firing up the Front Porch stage, jumping between country grit and surprise genre shifts. One minute she was tearing through her own songs, the next she was blending Kings of Leon with Coolio. It was the kind of set that makes early arrivals grateful they skipped sleeping in.

Right after, Karli June kept the energy glowing in the mid-afternoon sun. Warm, conversational, and with vocals that could carry across the field without a mic, she turned her set into something intimate, even pulling in Justin Legacy for a duet that felt like a small-town porch jam with a few thousand friends watching.

Hailey Benedict was the first act on the Main Stage and proved why she’s being called one of country’s fastest-rising stars. She balanced high-energy confidence with the charm of someone who still looks genuinely grateful to be there. Her cover of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” got the crowd belting so loud you almost forgot it was still daylight.

As evening crept in, Chase Rice rolled in with swagger, striding down the catwalk like it was his own front driveway. His set jumped between party anthems and heart-tugging moments, with “Eyes on You” sending the crowd into one giant, swaying chorus of couples and friends.
At one point, he cracked open a bottle of Jack Daniels, tossed it into the pit, and promised the band wouldn’t stop until the bottle was drained. It was reckless, and perfectly on brand.

The night’s closer, Sam Hunt, took the stage like a man ready to finish the festival in style, but fate had other plans. A sudden power outage hit early in his set, halting the momentum. Hunt shook it off, came back swinging, and had the crowd screaming even louder… until it happened again. Unfortunately, this time the lights stayed out, cutting short what was shaping up to be an incredible headline set.

That didn’t stop the after-hours chaos. Down With Webster turned the late-night party into a full-body workout, with a spin on “A Thousand Miles” that somehow had more energy than any daylight set all weekend. By the time the last beat dropped, the festival grounds looked less like a tired crowd and more like a second wind had just kicked in.

Saturday at Boots & Hearts had it all: heat, hiccups, and a whole lot of music worth remembering. The only question now is how Sunday could possibly top it!

Stay tuned for our review of Sunday and our artist portraits!

Check out our favourite photos of the day below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!

SAM HUNT

DOWN WITH WEBSTER

CHASE RICE

HAILEY BENEDICT

KARLI JUNE

KELSI MAYNE

All Photo Credit: Kieran Delport