Friday, June 5th, 2026
The Rio Theatre

DOORS: 6:45pm | SHOW: 7:00pm

Join us for Indian Summer Festival’s Box Office Launch Party! This special evening will include a one-time only screening of the iconic, genre-defining classic, Sholay (1975), starring Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra. 

Thursday, July 9th, 2026
Vancouver Playhouse

DOORS: 6:00pm | SHOW: 7:00pm

Kick off our 2026 Festival with comedian Vidura Bandara Rajapaksa in his Vancouver debut with Paradise Gothic, a sharp new hour exploring immigration, modern spirituality, and the absurdities of trying to stay human.

Friday, July 10th, 2026
Waterfront Theatre

DOORS: 6:30pm | SHOW: 7:00pm

Join acclaimed writer and filmmaker Julian Brave Noisecat in conversation with Indian Summer Festival’s Executive Artistic Director Am Johal, as they discuss Noisecat’s bestselling debut book We Survived the Night.

Saturday, July 11th, 2026
Vancouver Playhouse

DOORS: 6:00pm | SHOW: 7:00pm

Journey through a musical reimagining of classical and contemporary South Asian expression starring Rashmeet Kaur in her Vancouver debut, featuring Asad Khan’s Sammah Project opening the night.

Sunday, July 12th, 2026
Ocean Artworks Pavilion

THREE TALKS FROM:
12:00pm - 2:00pm
3:00pm - 5:00pm
6:00pm - 8:00pm

Tiffin Talks is a dialogue series that brings together diverse thought leaders, artists, innovators, and change makers across disciplines. Panelists gather to exchange knowledge, share projects and ideas, then join the audience for a warm, nourishing meal.

Monday, July 13th, 2026
VanDusen Botanical Garden

DOORS: 6:00pm | SHOW: 7:00pm

Set against the lush, contemplative landscape of VanDusen Botanical Garden, Modern Biology’s special open air offering for Indian Summer Festival 2026 will unfold as an immersive meditation on sound, ecology, rupture and possibility.

July 9th - 31st, 2026
Intersection of Broadway & Kingsway

SUNDAY - THURSDAY: 9:00am - 10:00pm

FRIDAY & SATURDAY: 9:00am - 11:00pm

Indian Summer Festival and Grunt Gallery present two works by Farheen Haq: Inclination (2024) and Forgiveness (2022). The works are presented at Grunt Gallery’s Community Art Screen (Kingsway and W Broadway intersection), in Vancouver.

July 13 - 19, 2026
Ocean Artworks Pavilion

WEEKDAYS: 12:00pm - 6:00pm | WEEKENDS: 2:00pm - 7:00pm

The Gong Library is an immersive listening space featuring a curated collection of gongs, chimes, and other resonant instruments from around the world. Set amongst the filtered sunlight and gentle seabreeze of Ocean Artworks Pavilion, visitors are invited to enter freely and play the instruments themselves, or simply sit and rest within the custom soundscape woven through the space. The installation offers a rare opportunity to encounter these instruments directly, at your own pace.

Wednesday, July 15th, 2026
The Rio Theatre

DOORS: 7:00pm | SHOW: 8:00pm


Join the Indian Summer Festival at the legendary Rio Theatre for a gut-busting night of laughter from two breakout comedians. Pushing 30 is Abby Govindan’s internationally touring, hour-long special exploring aging, dating, and breaking generational curses.

Wednesday, July 15th - Saturday, July 18th, 2026
The Fishbowl

Multiple showings

Why We Work Out invites the audience into the ways in which Anita Majumdar’s embodied relationship with exercise has become entwined with major events in her life.

Thursday, July 16th, 2026
Waterfront Theatre

DOORS: 5:30pm | SHOW: 6:00pm

Acclaimed novelist, professor and essayist Sonora Jha brings her electrifying new novel Intemperance to the Indian Summer Festival. In conversation with award-winning author Minelle Mahtani, Jha will delve into the novel’s provocations and its urgent questions.

Thursday, July 16th, 2026
Waterfront Theatre

DOORS: 8:00pm | SHOW: 8:30pm

IGNITE! weaves together a dynamic assemblage of five emerging artists for an inspiring Pecha Kucha–style evening. Lightning round presentations explore how memory, migration or resistance shape contemporary diasporic artistic practices. Uplifting us through the evening is Arthur Flowers, Memphis-born storyteller, novelist and musician.

Friday, July 17th, 2026
Ocean Artworks Pavilion

DOORS: 5:00pm | SHOW: 5:30pm

For one night only, the Gong Library transforms into the departure lounge for a site-specific, immersive performance of Imaginal Airlines' flagship Flight A108, a sonic experience through imaginal airspace. Performed live by the Imaginal Cells and a full airline crew, the experience is part concert, part active meditation, and part return-journey to the Self.

Friday, July 17th, 2026
Surrey Arts Centre

DOORS: 6:30pm | SHOW: 7:30pm

Ragas Reimagined brings together two boundary-pushing ensembles: the newly founded, instantly unforgettable Raga Echoes and the Juno-nominated, critically acclaimed Raagaverse with special guest Cassius Khan. These two groups join forces at Surrey Arts Centre to bring Indian Summer Festival 2026’s curatorial theme, Ragas for a Ruptured World, to life.

Saturday, July 18, 2026
Lobe Studio

START: 3:00pm | END: 7:00pm

HYDRONE is a transdisciplinary spatial audio installation by Ruby Singh exploring water as memory, force, and connective tissue. Presented through the 4DSOUND system at Lobe Studio, the work combines hydrophones, environmental recordings, modular synthesis, poetry, and climate data sonification to create an evolving sonic ecosystem that moves through elemental states of ice, river, rain, ocean, and mist.

Saturday, July 18th, 2026
Strawberry Hill Elementary Park

START: 3:00pm | END: 7:00pm

Apna Mela is a joyful, intergenerational event, taking over Surrey’s Strawberry Hill Park, bringing together youth, seniors, families, and community members for a day brimming with cultural pride, meaningful connection, and community spirit.

Saturday, July 18th, 2026
The Ismaili Centre Vancouver

DOORS: 7:30pm | SHOW: 8:00pm

Led by Mohamed Assani, a two-time Western Canadian Music Award nominee for Instrumental Music, the Quartet delivers a genre-defying sound that blends diverse musical landscapes with authenticity and emotional depth. Set within the captivating design of Ismaili Centre Vancouver’s Social Hall, soak in the intentionally crafted domes, geometries, and calligraphies which inform the Islamic Architecture of the venue.

Sunday, July 19, 2026
Punjabi Market Plaza at Main & 50th

START: 4:00pm | END: 7:00pm

Step into a living archive of expression at Rishta, a vibrant, outdoor closing to the Indian Summer Festival in the heart of Punjabi Market, curated by Ruby Singh. Rishta invites audiences into an afternoon where poetry, qawwali, memory, and community entwine through sound and word.

July 4th, 2026 - August 30th, 2026
Surrey Art Gallery

This summer, Surrey Art Gallery, in community partnership with Indian Summer Festival and DIVERSEcity, presents If Gardens Could Dream, a solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Keerat Kaur, opening July 11 as part of the Gallery’s summer exhibition opening.