Indian Summer Festival 2022

ISF2022 Inner / Outer Climates brings you some of the world’s most powerful thinkers on climate change and social justice, a 2022 Grammy Award-winning musician, a boundary-pushing dance performance, a science-meets-art experience that brings you music from mushrooms, doctors and healers forging new pathways in the complex art of healing, award-winning filmmakers, sitar maestros, tabla wizards, brass bands, human-animal hip hop collaborations, outdoor art installations, Indigenous and South Asian DJs reclaiming their languages while making new ones. There will be food for thought and for the stomach, celebration and provocation. We’re honoured to present a galaxy of artists who lead us to examine and dream new ways of living our lives, and to healing our inner and outer climates.


Thu July 7:
Under The Banyan Tree
Ocean Art Works Pavilion 1531 Johnston St, Vancouver
July 7 @ 10:00 am - Sunday, July 17 @ 5:30 pm

The Banyan Tree (ficus benghalensis) with its aerial roots, and the ever-spreading canopy is a hugely important tree in India. Not only is it India’s national tree, but it is also often at the heart of many Indian villages. It is the place where the village parliament takes place, but also where friends gossip, stories […]

Thu July 7
Opening Party – Inner / Outer Climates
Performance Works 1218 Cartwright St, Vancouver
Thursday, July 7 @ 7:00 pm - 11:00 pm

"There's not another event like it on the summer calendar in Vancouver" — The Georgia Straight Our legendary art-filled party always signals the start of ISF season, and we’re back in person for the first time in two years! Speaking to our festival theme of Inner / Outer Climates are a roster of musical and […]

Friday, July 8 @ 8:00 pm - 10:30 pm
The O Show
Performance Works 1218 Cartwright St, Vancouver
$5 – $45

"Orene has stepped up to the plate to represent her communities, and her brilliance has not gone unnoticed." — Stir Vancouver Orene Askew aka DJ O Show has many identities – a sought after DJ, vibrant motivational speaker, a two-spirited Afro-Indigenous person, a former Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) councilor, and a pillar of Vancouver’s LGBT+ […]


Saturday, July 9 @ 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Imaginarium: Parables for a Planet in Crisis
Performance Works 1218 Cartwright St, Vancouver
$10 – $50

Imaginarium is an electric evening of ideas, conversation and music hosted by award-winning Indigenous broadcaster and curator Jarrett Martineau and visionary artistic director Sirish Rao. Together, they invoke a long continuum of storytelling to weave present and past into intimate interviews with some of the world’s most noted writers and thinkers. For this inaugural edition […]

Sunday, July 10 @ 11:30 am - 3:30 pm
ISF Sound System (July 10 and July 17)
Granville Island Public Market Courtyard 1689 Johnston St, Vancouver

ISF Sound System is our free music stage in the heart of Granville Island’s Public Market courtyard. Over two Sunday afternoons (July 10 and July 17), we bring the sounds of classical and contemporary South Asia to the island. Featuring singer/songwriters, sitar virtuosos, tabla gurus and even a brass band, this is a musical Thali […]

Sunday, July 10 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Modern Biology
Performance Works 1218 Cartwright St, Vancouver
$10 – $50

“…his videos of mushrooms making calming ambient soundscapes, have already racked up more than half a million Tik Tok followers and 25 million views.” - The Guardian, UK Modern Biology is the new project of veteran musician Tarun Nayar. Formally trained in Indian Classical music and educated as a biologist, Modern Biology sees him turn […]

Tuesday, July 12 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
OFF CENTRE
Performance Works 1218 Cartwright St, Vancouver
$5 – $45

"A luscious celebration of all things sensual and erotic, full-throttled defiance of heteronormative clichés, and a loving embrace of self.” — A.A. Cristi, Broadway World Created by award-winning dancer and choreographer Sujit Vaidya, OFF CENTRE is a stunning and provocative dance performance. Two dancers - Sujit Vaidya and Arun Mathai - work in marvellous harmony […]

Featured Wednesday, July 13 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Arooj Aftab in Concert
The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts ​​6265 Crescent Rd, Vancouver
$30 – $60

Fresh from a win at the 2022 Grammy Awards, Arooj Aftab, one of the rising stars of the music world performs for the first time ever in Vancouver.

Thursday, July 14 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Song of the Breath
Performance Works 1218 Cartwright St, Vancouver
$5 – $45

Supported by "Maitreyi has deep knowledge of artistic practices as well as traditional healing practices and philosophies.” — Dr. Arun Garg, MD FRCPS Yogacharini Maitreyi is both a trained artist and a master yoga practitioner with a dedicated following in Vancouver and around the world. In this special event, she invites us to a space […]


Friday, July 15 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
5×15: The Art of the Wild
Performance Works 1218 Cartwright St, Vancouver
$10 – $50

"If 5x15’s packed soirees feel like an evening of offline, communal surfing, it’s due to the eclectic menu of speakers." 5×15 is a global speakers series that has hosted some of the world’s most highly regarded thinkers. Quite simply, it features five stellar speakers, speaking for fifteen minutes each on a topic they are deeply […]


Saturday, July 16 @ 8:00 pm - 11:30 pm
Closing Party feat. Madison McFerrin
Performance Works 1218 Cartwright St, Vancouver
$10 – $50

“This is Soul-capella!” - Questlove (about Madison McFerrin) Our 12th festival edition wraps its indoor programming with a fabulous, celebratory musical finale. Headlining the evening is the transcendental Madison McFerrin, who comes in from Brooklyn. Her critically acclaimed a cappella EP series, Finding Foundations, led Questlove to dub her sound “soul-cappella.” After making her debut […]
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