Grounded in Community, Carrying it Forward thematically guides this year's Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival

Co-founded by Vancouver Moving Theatre and the Carnegie Centre, the festival’s collaborative history guides its 20th annual edition

SPONSORED POST BY Vancouver Moving Theatre

Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival. Photo by David Cooper

The Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival marks its 20th annual edition this fall, guided by the theme Grounded in Community, Carrying it Forward. Taking place from October 25 to November 5, this year’s festival will feature over 100 events across 40 local venues and online.

The festival was co-founded by Terry Hunter and Savannah Walling in partnership with the Carnegie Centre in 2004 as a bridge-building force that gives a voice to the Downtown Eastside and its low-income residents, cultural communities, and neighbourhoods.

Programming is developed in collaborative consensus with community partners and artists. This year’s lineup includes music, stories, poetry, theatre, ceremony, films, dance, forums, workshops, discussions, gallery exhibits, art talks, and history walks.

The festival’s roots are interwoven with Hunter and Walling’s story. In 1976, the couple moved into a Downtown Eastside warehouse on Raymur Avenue, looking for an affordable home and rehearsal space for Terminal City Dance. Two years later, they moved into the Lim Sai Hor Kow Mock Benevolent Association Building on Carrall Street, and in 1983, they co-founded Vancouver Moving Theatre.

Three years afterwards, they moved into co-op housing in Strathcona, where they raised a son, founded the Strathcona Kids Dragon Band, taught drum dancing in a nearby dance studio, and co-produced the Strathcona Artist at Home Festival from 1998 to 2004.

Collaborations with community partners opened Hunter and Walling’s eyes to the Downtown Eastside’s rich vein of artists, history, cultures, and stories. Through learning and participation, they became involved, interconnected, and committed to the community.

The Carnegie Community Centre invited Vancouver Moving Theatre to co-produce a play for, with, and about the Downtown Eastside in 2003. With the help of 25 professional artists, 80 community actors, and over 2000 volunteers, the epic-scale play premiered to sold-out houses at the Vancouver Japanese Language School and Hall.

It was so successful that participants wanted more—so, the Carnegie Community Centre sponsored the first Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, co-produced with Vancouver Moving Theatre (which took over as lead producer in 2007). For two decades now, both organizations and the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians have joined forces with a host of community partners to put on the twelve-day festival.

More information is available here.

Post sponsored by Vancouver Moving Theatre.