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Take Back the Night 2026
Save the date for Take Back the Night 2026!
Take Back the Night is a global rally and march held to reclaim the streets, raise awareness, and build solidarity against sexual violence.
Come raise your voice for change on Thursday, September 17 at 6:30pm, starting at Marianne’s Park (176 Gordon Street, Guelph). Join us for speakers, a rally and our annual march.
Then head over to Royal City Mission (50 Quebec St.) at 8pm for a fiery free concert with OLEXA and headliners Bonnie Trash.
The event will be livestreamed on Facebook and Instagram for those who can’t make it in person.
All are welcome and all are welcome to march!
Bring your own sign or make a poster when you get there. Art supplies will be on hand.
Stay up to date on the latest by following @gwwic on Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky.
Call for Submissions!
We are looking for speakers, poets and musicians to take the stage at the rally and share their thoughts on ending sexual violence. 5-minute time limit. Please be mindful that this is an all-ages event and that survivors who are actively processing traumas may be in attendance.
Thanks to all who submitted their work. We will be reaching out shortly to confirm our selections.
Still want to have your say? Come out to Take Back the Night Elora for an open mic evening. Happening Friday September 18 at Bissell Park from 7:30-9:30pm.
March Route
Meet the Artists
Bonnie Trash
Bonnie Trash is the project of twin sisters Emmalia and Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor, wedding post-punk’s steeley-eyed austerity to goth rock’s brooding grandeur. Rather than fashioning nightmares into reality, the band paints reality as a nightmare; rife with pain, suffering, and gothic theatre.
Like their forebears Joy Division, Black Sabbath, or John Carpenter, Bonnie Trash understands that everyday atrocities haunt the periphery of our lives. A black cloud looming on the edge of our vision. Curses abound. You can’t ward them off. You’d best make an unholy racket.
Where their first full length, Malocchio (2022), shrouded Bonnie Trash’s nightmares in dusky dreamlike reverb, Mourning You (2025) is vivid and immediate. Mourning You is less a post-mortem fantasia than a sudden, swift dagger to the heart. This is sorrow not as a lingering bruise, but a gushing wound.
Bonnie Trash has toured across Canada, the UK, USA, (including a sold-out Reeperbahn set in Hamburg), sharing stages with TRAITRS, Chastity, Dilly Dally, Bria Salmena, and The OBGMs. They have earned praise from Guitar World, Metal Hammer, Classic Rock Magazine, Exclaim!, BrooklynVegan, and The Line of Best Fit.
OLEXA
OLEXA is the goth, post-punk solo project of Guelph-based musician, Olexa Brisson. She uses this project to dive deeper into her identity as an Indigenous queer woman, expressing darker themes of trauma, grief, isolation, and social commentary through an 80s inspired, gothic sound.
Her debut EP ‘close to you’ was released in May 2025, and is available on all streaming platforms.
Sound of the Drum
Sound of the Drum is a passionate OPIRG action group. Our mission is social change, community bonds, and joy. As part of the global movement Rhythms of Resistance, our beats resonate with and amplify social justice voices in our community.