The Indian Summer Festival begins this week and there are events and discussions bringing you everything from food to music. Vancouver’s ‘festival for the curious mind’, marks its 12th edition with a return to in-person experiences from July 7 to July 17, 2022, with both ticketed and free events. The carefully curated festival speaks to the theme of ‘Inner / Outer Climates’ with events hosted on Granville Island and the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. For event details and to purchase tickets, please visit www.indiansummerfest.ca.

From the Festival:

2022 Indian Summer Festival event schedule includes: 

“The O Show” –  Film Screening, Discussion & Dance Party
Date:               Friday, July 8, 2022, at 8 pm
Venue:             Performance Works, 1281 Cartwright Street, Vancouver
Tickets:                       $5/25/45, purchase at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/349181821227
“The O Show” documentary looks at the work and life of Orene Askew as a motivational speaker, Squamish Nation Councillor, DJ and inspiration to youth and Queer/Two-Spirit people. The film is followed by a conversation with filmmaker Sharad Kharé and Orene Askew. After an intermission, DJ O Show gets behind the console and the event turns into a summer dance party.

Imaginarium: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, hosted by Sirish Rao and Jarrett Martineau
Date:               Saturday, July 9, 2022, 7 pm
Venue:             Performance Works, 1281 Cartwright Street, Vancouver
Tickets:                       $10/30/50, purchase at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/353390579737
Imaginarium features a discussion between some of the world’s most noted writers and thinkers. Naomi Klein, Amitav Ghosh, Robyn Maynard and Leanne Simpson will discuss the personal and political forces that shape our lives and the world, from the global supply chain to colonialism, policing and climate change. Together, they make a vital demand for a different way forward and a poetic call to dream up new ways of ordering earthly life.
The evening features live musical performances by Juno award-winning oud/guitarist Gordon Grdina and sitar maestro Mohamed Assani.
Imaginarium is a new conversation format curated and hosted by Sirish Rao and Jarett Martineau.

Modern Biology – with Tarun Nayar
Date:               Sunday, July 10, 2022, at 4 pm
Venue:             Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright Street, Granville Island, Vancouver
Tickets:                       $10/30/50, purchase at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/353322235317
Former Delhi 2 Dublin band founder Tarun Nayar’s latest adventures in music have gone viral on social media. In Modern Biology, he explores the bioelectricity of plants and the sound they produce once connected to a synthesizer. This unique outdoor sonic experience on the grassy seaside amphitheatre at Ron Basford Park, with wireless headsets, sees Tarun bringing music-making mushrooms together with sitar player Sharanjeet Singh Mand in a rare musical collaboration of the natural and human world.

OFF CENTRE A Dance Performance by Sujit Vaidya
Date:               Tuesday, July 12, 2022, at 6 pm
Venue:             Performance Works, 1281 Cartwright Street, Vancouver
Tickets:                       $5/25/45, purchase at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/353370439497
A stunning and provocative dance performance by noted dancer and choreographer Sujit Vaidya, OFF CENTRE is an exploration of queer identity through dance. The performance is followed by a post-show talkback with dance luminary Lee Su-Feh.

Grammy Award-winning Musician Arooj Aftab in Concert, Co-presented by Indian Summer Festival and the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
Date:               Wednesday, July 13, 2022, at 8 pm
Venue:             Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, University of British Columbia,6265 Crescent Rd, Vancouver
Tickets:                       $30/45/60, purchase at https://chancentre.com/events/arooj-aftab/
Arooj Aftab was recently nominated for Best New Artist and Best Global Music Performance at the 2022 GRAMMY Awards. Winning the prestigious award for Best Global Music Performance for her song Mohabbat, the singer, songwriter and composer made history as the first Pakistani artist to win a Grammy. Vulture Prince’s release has been named to multiple ‘Best albums of 2022’ lists. This is her first appearance in Vancouver and tickets are going fast!

Song of the Breath: an immersion in mindfulness, art and healing with Yogacharini Maitreyi

Date:               Thursday, July 14, 2022, at 7 pm
Venue:             Performance Works, 1281 Cartwright Street, Vancouver
Tickets:                       $5/25/45, purchase at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/353380680127
 An intimate, meaningful integrative healing session led by Indian Summer Festival’s inaugural ‘Artist as Healer’ Yogacharini Maitreyi. The evening starts with a short film screening Karma: Song of the Breath, and a discussion on the complex art of inner and outer healing.

5×15: The Art of the Wild
Date:               Friday, July 15, 2022, at 8 pm
Venue:             Performance Works, 1281 Cartwright Street, Vancouver
Tickets:                       $10/30/50, purchase at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/353401873517
Since 2014, the Indian Summer Festival has hosted the only Canadian iteration of the global speaker’s series, 5×15, with speakers like Eden Robinson, Reza Aslan, Ben Okri, Wade Davis, Pico Iyer and Vivek Shraya. The 2022 edition returns with a stellar lineup of writers, musicians, filmmakers, and activists to speak of our complex relationship with the wilderness in our inner and outer worlds. Expect a heady, stimulating evening of mind-expanding perspectives.

12th Anniversary Closing Party

Date:               Saturday, July 16, 2022, at 8 pm
Venue:             Performance Works, 1281 Cartwright Street, Vancouver
Tickets:                       $10/30/50, purchase at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/353405624737
The 2022 Indian Summer Festival wraps its programming with a star-studded musical finale featuring local and global musical alchemists, audiovisual magicians, and a party to be at and remember. 

Free Weekend Indian Summer Festival Programming:

ISF Sound System – Free Music Sundays
Date:               Sunday, July 10, 2022, from 11:30am – 3:30pm
Venue:             Granville Island Public Market – Courtyard, 1689 Johnston Street, Vancouver
Date:               Sunday, July 17, 2022, from 11:30 am – 3:30 pm
Venue:             Granville Island Public Market – Courtyard, 1689 Johnston Street, Vancouver
ISF Sound System brings the sounds of classical and contemporary South Asia to the Granville Island Public Market courtyard over two Sunday afternoons. Featuring established as well as emerging artists, expect to catch the likes of the uplifting duo Glow Motive, the sublime Mohamed Assani Trio, the thumping Surya Brass Band, sitar virtuoso Sharanjeet Singh Mand, tabla maestro Amarjeet Singh and many more. What’s more – it’s free! Just show up, grab some delicious food from the market, and listen to music in what might be one of the most stunning urban locations in the world.

Art Installation by Kimira Reddy:
Dates:              July 7 -17, 2022
Venue:             Ocean Artworks Pavillion, 1531 Johnston Road, Vancouver
ISF Featured Artist set designer Kimira Reddy’s work will be featured in the Ocean Artworks Pavilion throughout the festival run, turning it into a gathering place reminiscent of rural India.

About Indian Summer Festival:

Established in 2011, the Indian Summer Festival (ISF) is a multi-disciplinary arts festival produced by the Indian Summer Arts Society, a not-for-profit charitable arts organization based in Vancouver, Canada, on the unceded Coast Salish territories of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. This year’s festival runs from July 7 to July 17, 2022. Its mission is to offer multi-art experiences of exceptional calibre, thoughtfully curated through a South Asian lens. ISF connects rich and complex pasts with the emerging future, delighting audiences while provoking necessary dialogue and debate.