Music on Main and the Roundhouse launch Vancouver's inaugural BIG BANG Festival, February 16

Event designed specifically for youth features hands-on activities, surprise performances, and mini concerts by local and international artists

BIG BANG Festival. Photo by Jonathan Lorange

AN ADVENTUROUS, INTERNATIONALLY based music festival designed specifically for young audiences is coming to Vancouver in the new year in a presentation by Music on Main and the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre.

Called the BIG BANG Festival, the event created by Belgium’s Zonzo Compagnie will bring a mix of mini concerts, hands-on activities, and surprise performances to the Roundhouse during the Family Day long weekend on February 16 starting at 12 pm. Children ages five and up are invited to the event, which centres interactive musical experiences.

While a full lineup for the festival will be announced in the coming weeks, so far audiences can expect to hear from international voices like Belgian singer Naomi Beeldens and local musicians such as Iranian Canadian santour player Saina Khalediand and Taiwanese-born, Vancouver-based zheng player Dailin Hsieh (both of whom recently performed in Music on Main’s The Tempest Project).

The BIG BANG Festival is hosted each year in several cities around the world. Canadian stops include Ottawa and Quebec, while European host cities span The Hague, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Rennes, Reykjavík, Copenhagen, and beyond.

Tickets to the fest’s inaugural Vancouver edition will be on sale as of January 15. Guests can purchase single tickets or reserve event-specific tickets (many of which are free or $5). Music on Main also offers a limited number of complimentary tickets for all self-identifying Indigenous folks, which can be reserved by contacting the box office.

Music on Main’s 2024-25 season programming continues into spring and summer, with concert highlights including A Month of Tuesdays at the Fox Cabaret from April 8 to 29 (featuring Alfredo Santa Ana, Dálava, Eve Egoyan, and Chloe Kim), the Kessler Academy string orchestra on August 10 at the Roundhouse, and the free Summer Pop-Up Concerts in Mount Pleasant Park from August 18 to 20.

Featured

Emily Lyth

Stir editorial assistant Emily Lyth is a Vancouver-based writer and editor who graduated from Langara College’s Journalism program. Her decade of dance training and passion for all things food-related are the foundation of her love for telling arts, culture, and community stories.

Articles

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra announces first European tour in April

Stops include a three-night residency at Austria’s Salzburg Easter Festival, as well as Croatia, Slovenia, Liechtenstein, and Germany

Rising German piano star Julius Asal makes his Canadian debut with the Vancouver Recital Society, February 8

Among the 28-year-old’s recent achievements is winning the Terence Judd-Hallé Award for young pianists on the cusp of international fame

Cosí fan tutte gets a vintage-Canadian refresh under director Robert Herriot at Vancouver Opera

The Winnipeg artist brings experience as a tenor to a Mozart opera reimagined in a 1930s Rockies resort, complete with Mounties and log drivers

Shadbolt Centre hosts Burnaby Lyric Opera’s The Barber of Seville this February

Romance, deception, and mistaken identities abound in Gioachino Rossini’s beloved comic masterpiece

Theatre review: You’re Just a Place That I Know is a moving musical reflection on family and memory

Based on Adrian Glynn McMorran’s album of the same name, the show at the Arts Club’s BMO Theatre Centre is more than just a concert

Cellist Henry Shapard plays Prokofiev with the VSO at Beethoven’s Eroica, February 20 to 22

Han-Na Chang conducts Beethoven’s revolutionary Third Symphony

Corey Payette spotlights songs from his acclaimed musicals at Closest Thing to Home, January 28

The renowned theatre artist and composer offers a stirring collection of tunes from acclaimed shows such as Children of God and Starwalker

Ghanaian music scholar Kofi Gbolonyo leads upbeat Celebrate Africa! event at BlueShore at CapU, January 30

Long-time UBC and CapU faculty member puts on a show featuring dozens of local musicians, plus vocalists Dawn Pemberton and Khari McClelland

Collaboration opens new sonic horizons for jazz guitarist Jocelyn Gould

The Winnipeg-based artist looks forward to onstage exchanges with diverse musical peers on International Guitar Night

You're the Top! brings the songs of Cole Porter to the Anvil Theatre, February 14

Event hosted by Michael van den Bos features Hollywood film projections and live music by the Laura Crema Sextet

Vancouver New Music hosts Artifacts I: Zero Input Enclosure Movement, February 14

Sonic architecture of Winnipeg’s AO Roberts explores the interplay of performance, installation, and layered auditory experiences

Folk-rooted string quartet the Fretless finds a voice in singer-songwriter Madeleine Roger

Collaborating with vocalists taught the acclaimed, formerly all-instrumental group new ways of listening and working

UBC Opera performs Leonard Bernstein’s satirical operetta Candide, February 5 to 8

Rarely presented in Vancouver, the production blends musical theatre and opera with a philosophically rooted storyline

Ariel Barnes brings nomadic spirit and intense curiosity to classic and contemporary cello works

The adventurous artist sees his upcoming program with Vetta Chamber Music as a way of expressing music’s power to console and cheer, even in dark times

Ralph Moore Quartet headlines sixth edition of Jazz at the Bolt, February 13 to 15

Hosted by the Cellar Music Group at the Shadbolt Centre, festival opens with a special concert by the Vancouver Jazz Orchestra with Champian Fulton and Klas Lindquist

Vancouver Chamber Choir concludes 46th annual Conductors' Symposium with Neighbo(u)rs, February 13

Five emerging conductors lead a program of pieces by both Canadian and American composers, from Amy Beach to Stuart Beatch

You’re Just a Place That I Know retraces a refugee story through song, at the BMO Theatre Centre from January 21 to February 1

Adrian Glynn McMorran’s moving theatre-concert pays tribute to his Ukraine-born grandparents, complete with a choir and traditional instruments

Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 shows to startle and spellbind at PuSh International Performing Arts Festival

Productions that “push” forms include dance works that play with props and stereotypes, as well as ethereal odes to nature and the northern lights

Violinist Gil Shaham joins the VSO for Brahms & Tchaikovsky 5, February 13 and 14

Musician rises to the challenge of Brahms’s sole Violin Concerto on program that also features guest conductor Han-Na Chang

Vancouver Chamber Choir performs Timothy Takach’s nature-rooted multimedia piece We Are Phoenix, January 24

Under the inspiring title I Fall, I Rise, the concert also features the Focus post-secondary choir and winners of the Young Composers’ Competition

Fierce fiddling to contra dance, as Festival du Bois unveils program for March 6 to 8

Aleksi Campagne, Bagatelle, Nicolas Pellerin et les Grands Hurleurs, and the Jocelyn Pettit Band are among offerings at celebration of Maillardville’s francophone roots