Vancouver’s Heart of the City Festival is a time-honoured fall tradition that celebrates local art, artists, and community in the Downtown Eastside. Now in its 22nd year, the festival brings together neighbours and visitors alike for a chance to explore the community’s stories, culture, and heritage through over 100 events across 40 local venues. This includes intimate concerts, poetry readings, art talks, history walks, dance performances, gallery exhibits, and so much more.
This year’s theme is Dignity in Community, which organizers say honours “the everyday and extraordinary ways people care for each other, resist displacement, and make space to belong.”
By reflecting on what it means to “live with dignity,” the festival aims to foster community strength, creativity, and connection.
2025 festival highlights
Looking for a taste of what’s to come? Festival organizers have already doled out a ton of highlights.
For one, Gerardo Avila’s latest theatrical performance features shadow puppetry, storytelling, comedy, dance, and music in a production entitled Spirit Encounters.
SHELTER is a new community-engaged art show featuring striking visual reflections on housing and homelessness by thirty marginalized, culturally and socially diverse DTES artists. The project is led by Gunargie Ga’axstasalas O’Sullivan and produced by Radix Theatre in partnership with the festival.
Other highlights include an Indigenous Cultural Exhibition hosted by Two-Spirit Grass Dancer Larissa Healey and Powwow Dancer Pavel Desjarlais, Jonathan Paterson’s award-winning comedy How I Met My Mother, and much more.
So mark your calendars and stay tuned for more festival details as they come, including ticket info for individual events.
When: Oct. 31 to Nov. 8, 2025
Time: Various times
Where: Various locations throughout the Downtown Eastside
Cost: Free and ticketed events
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