The Sam Roberts Band, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, Tanya Tagaq, BROS and Basia Bulat are among the musical artists announced Thursday for the ninth annual Supercrawl.

The free three-day festival takes place Sept. 8 to 10, on James Street North in downtown Hamilton. Supercrawl director Tim Potocic unveiled a major portion of the musical acts set to perform at the festival during a pop-up event Thursday evening in Toronto called the Hamilton Consulate.

Potocic said Montreal rocker Sam Roberts will be the headline act on the main stage Saturday, Sept. 9, backed by BROS, the pop-rock side project of Saskatchewan rockers The Sheepdogs. John K. Samson of popular Winnipeg indie-rock band The Weakerthans will close the Exclaim stage at James and Murray on Saturday.

"Samson will be with a full band and they'll be doing some Weakerthan tunes, which is awesome because since Day One I've been trying to book the Weakerthans at Supercrawl," Potocic said. "Unfortunately they stopped doing major touring at about the same time we got off the ground. Samson is the next closest thing."

Tanya Tagaq, the Polaris Prize winning singer-songwriter who blends Inuk throat singing with ethereal pop, will close the Exclaim stage at James and Murray on the Sunday night, supported by Toronto indie-folk artist Basia Bulat.

"People will be blown away by Tanya Tagaq," Potocic said. "She is a very powerful performer."

Blackie and the Rodeo Kings — the Juno-winning roots collaboration between songwriters Tom Wilson, Stephen Fearing and Colin Linden — will perform for the first time at Supercrawl, headlining the main stage Sunday.

Other national performers announced Thursday include Juno-nominated singer-songwriters like Donovan Woods and Andy Shauf, indie rock band The Acorn and southern-fried rockers White Cowbell Oklahoma.

More performers, including the Friday main stage acts will be announced in Hamilton in July.

Potocic said he was particularly proud of the number of local musical acts involved this year, including the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Hamilton Children's Choir, Steve Strongman, The Vaudevillian, Thompson Wilson, Dan Edmonds, Hamilton Youth Steel Orchestra, Hello Harvard, The Medicine Hat, Mother Tareka & the Rebel Funktion, Jessie Bower and Ginger St. James.

As well as the return of the popular Circus Orange to the Supercrawl, Potocic said he plans to increase the number of performing arts groups on the street.

"We're doing a lot more live theatre this year, Fringe style performances, and pop-up circus performances," Potocic said. "The street will be much more animated this year."

Potocic admitted he has taken some flak on social media for announcing the initial line up in Toronto and not Hamilton. He noted that the announcement was part of a two-day initiative the part of the city to raise Hamilton's profile and attract investment.

"We're here to promote Hamilton," Potocic said, noting that several local musicians, including Terra Lightfoot and members of the HPO, performed live during the announcement. "We've always promoted Hamilton. Hamilton arts and culture is our major mandate."

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"I think there were some people who were questioning why we would do it in Toronto. It seemed a good opportunity to put Hamilton bands in front of a Toronto audience, which is always positive, to get the word out on what's happening in Hamilton."

Supercrawl organizers estimate the festival drew about 200,000 people to the downtown core last year, with more than 10 per cent of that number coming from Toronto.