For twenty-three years, the Heart of the City Festival has been grounded in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and focused on listening and learning from the community’s cultural practices. The Festival works with, for, and about the Downtown Eastside community to carry forward our community’s stories, ancestral memory, cultural traditions, lived experiences, and artistic processes, illuminating pathways of resilience.

This year’s theme, Belonging, celebrates the experience of being seen, heard, respected, and valued for who you are. At the Festival, Belonging is something we create together; it’s sharing stories, laughter, grief, and joy. Belonging reminds us that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity, compassion, and respect.

Join us at the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, where we gather to share music, poetry, theatre, ceremony, films, dance, readings, forums, workshops, discussions, gallery exhibits, art talks, history walks, and more!

From October 30 to November 7, the Festival brings together more than 100 events at 30+ local venues — music, poetry, theatre, ceremony, films, dance, readings, forums, workshops, discussions, gallery exhibits, art talks, history tours, and more — all rooted in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside!