The Year the Noise Comes Home: Must-See Rock, Metal & Alt Tours of 2026
A field guide to the tours and festivals defining the year ahead
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
There is a difference between hearing a song and feeling it pulse in your chest.
Live music collapses the distance between sound and self, turning memory into muscle and strangers into co-conspirators.
This year’s calendar is stacked with festivals that feel mythic, tours that read like cultural milestones and one-off shows that you’ve got to see.
We’ve curated a list of confirmed festivals, announced tours and verified 2026 performances, alongside anticipated moments already lighting up ticket platforms.
See you there.
House of Steam: Inside Canada’s Most Haunting Winter Hydro Spas
The Canadian winter is a creature of contrast: frozen air that bites, trees stripped to bone, stillness that feels older than snow.
Step into steam rising against that cold, and the world realigns — warmth unfurls muscle tension and settles thought like a cathedral organ.
Outdoor hydrotherapy in the depth of winter feels mythical. Water that heats the skin becomes a balm, cold plunges elicit a sharp intake of breath and the virgin white surroundings focus every sensory moment.
This is not mere relaxation; it is a pilgrimage into sensation, a communion with heat and ice that feels sacred.
Hide Under the Covers: A Goth-Coded Psychological Thriller Watchlist
Fourteen films designed to unsettle the mind
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
National Cuddle Up Day (January 6) does not necessarily require sweetness. It asks for closeness, lowered lights and something unsettling enough to make you pull the blankets higher.
Psychological thrillers thrive in this space.
They trade jump scares for tension, spectacle for intimacy, comfort for proximity; these are films that crawl under the skin slowly.
The Mind, Reframed: A Watchlist Inside the Psyche on Screen
How 26 films portray mental health, harm and healing
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Film has long been fascinated with the complicated workings of our inner selves. The portrayal of mental health on screen ranges from being cast as mirror for our deepest fears to empathetically-driven epilogs or funhouse distortions, depending on who is telling the story.
Some narratives offer care and complexity, while others lean into spectacle at the expense of truth.
This watchlist examines how mental health is framed across genres, decades and tones, from compassion to controversy.
The 2026 Gothic Watchlist: Goth-Coded Film and Television
A year of unhinged storytelling and sequels for the darkly inclined.
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
The year ahead looks deliciously chaotic, which is exactly what we want from our screens. Hollywood is still deep in its remake era, and 2026 leans into the trend with a slate that feels theatrical in all the right ways.
Wuthering Heights rises first with a fresh retelling that promises stormy obsession. Scream 7 follows with blood and meta bravado. The Bride builds upon 2025’s luxurious, heartbreaking retelling of Frankenstein. The Devil Wears Prada makes a high-fashion comeback. The Odyssey gets a modern edge. And, Practical Magic stirs again with renewed enchantment.
Television keeps pace as familiar worlds expand with new chapters. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms adds fresh armour to the Game of Thrones universe. Bridgerton heats up the winter with season four. Euphoria descends later in the year with a long-awaited third season already subject to fan-fic plot theory. House of the Dragon storms again in June. And, The White Lotus is rumoured to be shooting it’s next season in France.
It’s a lineup built for nostalgia, inviting your favourite characters and stories to curl up with you on the couch.
Prompt Journals for an Intentional 2026
Pages that quiet the noise and give you space to map out your style with dark, feminine aesthetic
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
There’s a journal for nearly every facet of your life this year (and beyond). We have curated titles for everything from wellness to witchery, healing to personal growth, sensuality to shadow work, cooking and travel.
Choose what matters most to you and give it a place to land with intention.
The right journal becomes a lethal accomplice, every entry pulling you a little closer to the person you’re becoming and meant to be.
Holiday Movies for the Darkly Inclined
A cinematic feast of noir, nostalgia and winter mischief
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Not everyone feels drawn to the holidays for the sparkle alone — some settle into December with a taste for darker comforts and a preference for stories that don’t pretend that everything is neat and merry.
These are the long nights claimed by the darkly nostalgic, the romantic dark femmes that enjoy pouring a drink and queuing up some atmosphere.
If you’d rather watch a winter tale with teeth, tenderness and a touch of backtalk, this list is for you.
The Unlikely Icons Who Shaped Baby Goth Girls (Millennial Edition)
From Sitcom Sidekicks to Animated Outcasts, These are the Characters and Celebs Who Gave Us Permission to Be Strange
Every goth girl has a story of initiation. It wasn’t always the black eyeliner, the lace corset, or the Nine Inch Nails CD that did it — sometimes the first spark was subtler.
The way we gravitated toward the sarcastic friend instead of the bubbly lead. The way we secretly wanted to be the villainess, not the princess. The way our hearts beat faster at a girl with strange hair, a biting wit, or a dangerous streak.
These were the warning signs of a budding goth: you didn’t want to be Lizzie McGuire, you wanted to be Xena the Warrior Princess, flinging around your Mum’s cross-stitching hoops and calling out her iconic battle cry. You started wearing short shorts and styling your hair like Lara Croft, eager to solve ancient mysteries at a fever-pitch pace. And when everyone else was laughing at Dee Dee wrecking Dexter’s lab, you thought: she’s chaos incarnate, and I love her for it.
Pop culture of the 1990s and early 2000s was full of unconventional female figures — women and girls who weren’t marketed as goth, but who cracked something open for baby goth millennials. They gave us permission to be weird, dark and clever. In hindsight, they were archetypal teachers, each aligning with one of The Lace Ledger’s darkly glamorous gothic archetypes.
Countdown with Decadence: 30 Goth-Coded Advent Calendars for the Darkly Inclined
Because anticipation is an art
Advent began as a solemn Christian countdown — a quiet preparation for light’s return in the depths of winter.
Over time, it became a calendar of joy and curiosity: small doors concealing chocolates, charms or treasures to mark each day until Christmas.
In recent years, the tradition has evolved into an indulgence for adults. Beyond simple chocolate treats, there is a wide variety advents for fragrance lovers, fashion collectors, whisky enthusiasts, beauty devotees and more. It’s a modern ritual of slow pleasure — each day revealing a spark of delight in the dark season.
For the gothic soul, advent is more than countdown; it’s ceremony. A daily offering of mystery and sensory indulgence.
Below, we have curated this year’s 30 most covetable calendars through an alternative lens — moody, opulent, utterly irresistible.
Bound in Lace: 11 Goth-Coded Fashion Books Worth Displaying (and Devouring)
From Mugler to muses, these coffee-table tomes transform style into scripture
To the gothic aesthete, books are portals of devotion and design.
Leather spines, gilded pages and satin bookmarks whisper of eras when reading was ceremony. Fashion books, in particular, turn aesthetics into theology. Each page tells a story through silhouette, revealing identity as confession.
Once reserved for archivists and couture historians, these volumes have become altars of taste. They trace the lineage of sensuality and craftsmanship — the same obsessions that define gothic style. Within them, we find beauty that breathes, darkness that dazzles and glamour reborn.
Crossing Gently: A Dia de los Muertos Conversation with Mikey the Death Doula
Between mortality and myth, the death doula walks where fear of the unknown becomes sacred passage.
While the world often averts its gaze from endings, Death Doula Mikey Marin turns toward them — gently, deliberately, without illusion. Her work lives in the quiet hours before departure, when the veil between life and death thins and love begins its transformation into memory.
In honour of Día de los Muertos, The Lace Ledger sat down with Mikey to explore what it means to die well, to grieve honestly and to recognize the grace in letting go. She spoke to us about the beauty of ritual, the mystery of “the other side” and the ways death can teach us to live with greater reverence.
Touchdowns & Tulle: A Goth Girl’s Guide to NFL Game Day
Just because your closet is 87% black doesn’t mean your Sundays can’t sparkle with a little team spirit. Whether you’re in it for the snacks, the suspense, or the bloodsport—football might just be more gothic than you think.
For some, NFL football scratches a primal itch written deep in our DNA, a hunger for contest that feels ancient and sacred.
Each clash on the field is a small testament to the human spirit’s refusal to yield, bodies colliding in pursuit of something larger than personal glory.
Around it, grows a community—strangers drawn together by colours and chants, united in the pulse of the same play. In the roar of the stadium or the quiet of a living room watch party, fandom becomes a shared ritual that dissolves solitude and forges belonging.
Here are three delightfully dark teams worthy of your devotion and how to embrace your inner sports siren without sacrificing your edge.
Blood-Stained Obsession: 9 True Crime Docs For The Romantic Goth
There’s something seductive about true crime—its brutal intimacy, its whispered warnings, its perverse proximity to the lives we lead. But for the romantic goth, it's never about gore for gore’s sake.
We’re not voyeurs—we're empaths.
We watch for answers, not entertainment.
We seek patterns, not panic.
We study the dark to better understand our light. Still, not all true crime is created equal.
For every documentary that honours the victim, a dozen more glorify the killer. The Lace Ledger believes in ethical consumption: no romanticizing monsters, no re-traumatizing survivors. Just hauntingly thoughtful storytelling.
So, draw the blinds, pour a glass of red wine and settle in. These are the seven true crime documentaries that cut so deep, you’ll feel them for days to come.
Grit & Glamour: TV for the Corporate Goth Unwind
After a long week of boardroom battles, what you need is a TV ritual that whispers of power and decay. These are the nights when corporate ladders don’t just rattle — they creak under the weight of intrigue and moral rot.
Goth-Coded Fall/Winter Watchlist: Cinema for the Dark Season
From castles to conspiracies, this autumn’s films and series echo our gothic archetypes
As the air chills and nights grow long, the Fall season begs for stories that keep us spellbound and indoors.
The kind of stories that belong beside red wine or beneath candlelight, where narrative risk feels like ritual.
This watchlist was curated with The Lace Ledger’s gothic archetypes in mind. Each title was chosen for how it resonates with the Vamp’s seduction, the Brat’s rebellion or the Romantic Goth’s hunger for love that lingers.
These works don’t simply fill time, they invite you into moods you can inhabit as the season unfolds.
Bloodlines & Broken Mirrors: A Vampire Watchlist for the Beautifully Damned
There’s a certain romance in the vampire — the eternal hunger, the elegance of immortality, the silk-and-blood seduction of those who live by night. Vampires are not just monsters; they are metaphors for desire itself.
This watchlist is for those who savor crimson wine, nocturnal longing and the thrill of surrender. Each film and series is more than a story — it’s an invitation to step into the crypt and dress your wounds in decadence.
Gothic Gains: Archetype-Aligned Workouts for the Darkly Inclined
From ballet to boxing, discover goth-coded workouts for fitness with flourish (not fluorescent lights
Fitness should not feel like a punishment under harsh gym lighting–it should feel like a wellness ritual, an adventure, even, play! Movement is more than exercise; it’s embodiment, a way to inhabit your archetype fully.
Whether you’re a Vamp seeking strength and control, a Brat craving chaotic bursts of energy or a Dark Academic searching for discipline through form, there’s a workout designed to channel your gothic identity.
Here, we’ve curated archetype-aligned activities that make staying active feel less like a chore and more like living poetry in motion.
Enchanted Screens: A Witchy Watchlist for Shadowy Nights
Not all spells are cast with cauldrons and cloaks. Some are conjured in flickering light — whispered through film reels, stitched into satin costumes, spoken by women accused of being too powerful, too strange or too free.
For those who feel the call of the coven, we’ve gathered a watchlist of films and shows where witchcraft, mysticism and the dark feminine take centre stage.
This is not all about broomsticks and caricatures. It’s about seduction, sovereignty and shadow work — the kind of witchcraft you can taste in a cup of tea or feel in the echo of a blood-red moon.
Darkly Devoted: Elevated Hobbies for Every Goth Archetype
A guide to rituals of pleasure, power and poetic obsession—tailored to your truest self.
Personal style is more than fabric—it’s folklore. Your goth archetype doesn’t just inform what you wear, it shapes how you move through the world, what you collect, how you express devotion and what lights your inner fire.
Here’s some inspiration on how you can honor your shadow self with elevated hobbies that match your aesthetic.
Male Muses by Goth-Coded Archetype: The Lovers Who Match Our Darkness
The Lace Ledger’s archetypes are defined by power, poetry and presence — so it’s only fitting that each has a counterpart who can meet them in the shadows while also keeping pace in the light.
Below, we pair each archetype with her most compatible “male muse type,” offer celebrity examples and design the perfect date night — complete with a look worthy of the occasion.