22nd Annual Downtown Eastside HEART OF THE CITY FESTIVAL Announced

Vancouver Moving Theatre, in association with Carnegie Community Centre and the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians, will present the 22nd Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival from Friday, October 31 through Saturday, November 8, 2025. This year’s festival features more than 100 events at over 40 local venues, ranging from music, stories, poetry, and theatre to ceremony, film, dance, readings, workshops, art talks, history walks, and more.

The 2025 festival theme, “Dignity in Community,” honours the everyday and extraordinary ways people in the Downtown Eastside care for each other, resist displacement, and make space to belong. The Festival celebrates the strength and creativity found in these connections and asks: What is possible when dignity is a shared foundation for us all?

Festival Highlights

Among the highlights of this year’s Festival is the DTES Halloween Festival Kickoff on October 31 at Carnegie Community Centre, an evening of costumes, dancing, and masquerade magic hosted by Lance Lim of the Pigeon Den Art Collective. The same night, Famous Last Words at SFU’s World Arts Centre will bring a playful spoken word comedy show featuring poets, puppetry, and even a unicorn interpretive dance.

On November 1, the Festival presents Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again, an award-winning documentary by Stellat’en filmmaker Lyana Patrick, followed by a special talkback. November 2 features Spirit Encounters, Gerardo Avila’s Día de Muertos performance with shadow puppetry, flamenco, and live music, following a community mask-making workshop and procession.

The program continues with a theatrical triple bill To Mum with Love XO on November 5, showcasing works by Jonathon Paterson, Jacques Lalonde, and Jim Sands, each exploring themes of caregiving, family, and musical legacy. November 6 brings the Indigenous Exhibition and Celebration with performances by 2Spirit Grass Dancer Larissa Healey and powwow dancer Pavel Desjarlais, alongside shared food and an Indigenous art market.

On November 7, Maraschino Tonight with host Cherry Maraschino will blend variety, cabaret, and satire in a community theatre setting, paired with the avant-pop duo Reveal Yourself. The festival also features Shelter, a city-wide community art installation led by Gunargie Ga’axstasalas O’Sullivan that highlights the realities of housing and homelessness through large-scale artworks.

Grassroots theatre returns with Mayor of Oz, a community-led reimagining of The Wizard of Oz through the lens of the Downtown Eastside, exploring housing instability, climate change, and resilience. The Festival concludes November 8 with Rhythms of Thunder: An Evening of Taiko, featuring GO Taiko, Taiko 55, and more for a powerful evening of Japanese drumming.

Additional programming includes Finding My Own Voice, a new folk opera-in-progress by Beverly Dobrinsky; Live Painting and DTES Art Sale featuring Smokey D, Ken Foster, Dempsey, and others; staged readings presented by Theatre in the Raw; and numerous walking tours of the neighbourhood.

About the Festival

For twenty-two years, the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival has been rooted in the voices and stories of the DTES community, celebrating cultural traditions, artistic practices, and lived experiences. The Festival is shaped and led by the neighbourhood, offering audiences an opportunity to engage with its wealth of art, culture, and history.