Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival unveils 2026 edition, October 30 to November 7
Offerings range from Indigenous drum and dance performances to videos that spotlight the Overdose Prevention Society
SPONSORED POST BY Vancouver Moving Theatre
lexwst'i:lem drum group. Photo by Tracy Moromisato
Vancouver Moving Theatre has just announced the lineup for the 23rd annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, taking place from October 30 to November 7.
Since its inception, the Heart of the City Festival has been grounded in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. With a focus on listening and learning from the community, the festival carries forward stories, ancestral memories, cultural traditions, lived experiences, and artistic processes.
This year’s theme, Belonging, celebrates the experience of being seen, heard, respected, and valued. At the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, belonging is fostered through sharing stories, laughter, grief, and joy. Artists and community members gather to present music, poetry, theatre, ceremony, films, dance, readings, forums, workshops, discussions, gallery exhibits, art talks, history tours, and more.
Among the highlights is Electric Company Theatre’s Epigone, running at the Russian Hall; the new play is about complicated grief, stigmas of addiction, and responsibilities to the dead. In a run-down mobile home on the outskirts of a small northern town, an epic tale unfolds about a pair of siblings trying to escape a labyrinth built of shame and secrets. The brother’s mission is to save his sister; the sister’s mission is to save the world at a time of plague and widespread fear.
Overdose Prevention Society. Photo by Tracy Moromisato
The 2026 lineup also features video installations created by The Circle Project, a Vancouver-based association of people with lived experience of incarceration committed to creating provocative art. Produced in collaboration with artists Adad Hannah and Jin-me Yoon, the installations are stimulating riffs on classic theatre that invite viewers to reimagine justice.
More standout events to catch are Life at OPS, a collection of videos by Nathaniel Canuel aimed at raising awareness about the importance of the Overdose Prevention Society; Indigenous Exhibition, hosted by 2-Spirit grass dancer Larissa Healey, women’s northern traditional dancer Tanisha Shawna Pahtayken, and powwow dancer Pavel Desjarlais; and From the Archives of Sid Chow Tan, featuring videos by the late, legendary Downtown Eastside documentarian, compiled by his collaborator Byron Peters.
Vancouver Moving Theatre presents the Heart of the City Festival in association with the Carnegie Community Centre. Learn more and purchase tickets here.
Post sponsored by Vancouver Moving Theatre.
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