In Canada, the development of music education in public schools has a long history of involvement from both private entities, such as corporations, and social economy organizations (SEOs), such as advocacy groups and professional associations (Green & Vogan, 1991; Woodford, 2009). Within this context, music festivals—that is, events at which school ensembles perform and are adjudicated by professionals—offer a vantage point for studying the complex political economy of education. As events deeply embedded in Canadian public education yet often run by not-for-profit organizations and sponsored by private entities, music festivals warrant particular attention as sites at which the interests of public education, private entities, and SEOs compete.To examine the involvement of private entities and SEOs in Canadian public education, I focus my attention to music festivals in Ontario, Canada. I ask: How have private entities and SEOs been involved in the development and institutionalization of music festivals as part of public education in Ontario since the end of World War II? How has private and social sector involvement in public education been represented in the academic literature? Guided by these questions, I conduct a literature review of secondary sources providing historical accounts about music festivals in the context of public education in Ontario between 1945-2025, paying particular attention to mentions of private entities and SEOs involved. Conceptually, I employ Ball & Junemann’s (2012) notion of network governance to analyze the relationships between public, private, and social sector actors involved. I also frame my analysis in relation to historical and contemporary shifts in the political economy of education in Canada, drawing upon Rollwagen’s (2016) investigation of practical education in the post-World War II period and Winton’s (2022) examination of educational privatization in recent decades. I read with two analytical aims: First, I compare what scholars have already said about the involvement of private entities and SEOs, such as their roles (as organizers, sponsors, promoters, etc.), actions, impact, and changes in these aspects over time. Second, I compare how scholars have framed and discussed the involvement of non-public sector actors in public education. Taken together, I present a synthesized perspective of how private and social sector involvement in public music education has been understood and portrayed in the existing scholarship and consider the implications for contemporary music education policy discourse.