Gospel music to flamenco, the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival returns for its 21st year
Co-founders Terry Hunter and Savannah Walling announce their retirement after Vancouver Moving Theatre’s 2024-25 season
La Llorona. Photo by David Cooper
Vancouver Moving Theatre, in association with Carnegie Community Centre and the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians, presents the 21st annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival from October 30 to November 10 at various venues and online
THERE’S BIG NEWS out of Vancouver Moving Theatre: not only has the organization announced programming for the 21st annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, in association with Carnegie Community Centre and the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians, but it has also declared cofounders Terry Hunter and Savannah Walling will retire as of July 2025 following VMT’s 2024-2025 season. The pair will pass the stewardship of the festival to new leadership.
With a mandate of promoting, presenting, and facilitating the development of the arts and artists out of the Downtown Eastside, the 2024 fest will host more than 100 events at over 40 venues in the neighbourhood and online, including music, storytelling, poetry, theatre, ceremony, films, dance, readings, forums, workshops, discussions, gallery exhibits, art talks, history walks, and more. The theme of this year’s fest is “threads of connection”.
Terry Hunter and Savannah Walling. Photo by David Cooper
The festival kicks off with the opening ceremony with Hunter, Walling, and special guests Bob Baker/S7aplek (Squamish Nation), Gerry Sung (Scope G), accordionist Pavel Rhyzlovsky, violinist Leonard Chokroun, and grass dancers Larissa Healey and Pavel Desjarlais, among others.
La Llorona on November 1 is a special Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration, featuring the story of Mexican icon La Malinche, told through song, shadow puppetry, and traditional dance.
Ritual-Spective–RE: turning 迴融: 迴歸 is an experimental interactive multi-series media-arts installation that honours the life of painter Jackson Chien, father of local interdisciplinary artist Sammy Chien, from November 1 to 3. Produced by Chien’s Chimerik Collective, the project investigates intergenerational dialogue around artistic, cultural, and spiritual legacy through the lens of an artist child of immigrants.
The Prop Master’s Dream. Photo by David Cooper
The Prop Master’s Dream on November 2 is an inventive fusion opera produced by Vancouver Cantonese Opera and inspired by the real-life story of the late Wah-Kwan Gwan, a little-known Chinese opera performer and prop master born to a local Chinese father and Indigenous mother. Joining the cast are Haudenosaunee-Irish actor and singer Cheri Maracle and Chinese Canadian rap narrator Gerry Sung, along with lighting by Itai Erdal and projections by filmmaker Anthony Lee.
Hearts Beat is the name of a November 3 performance that celebrates the shared traditions of drum, dance, and song between Indigenous and Irish communities, in a collaboration between Carnegie Community Centre Indigenous Programs, DTES Heart of the City Festival, Irish Women’s Network of BC, and Carnegie Community Centre Association.
Keep it Raw Cabaret, Kieran Sequoia. Photo by Katie Keaveny
On November 9 is Kin, an evening of live flamenco that explores looping technology by AJ Simmons and Kelty McKerracher. The artists aim to show the parallels between the fiery dance form and queerness.
The Keep It Raw Cabaret on November 9 is a tribute to the late Jay Hamburger—a teacher, political activist, radio host, and artistic director of Theatre in the Raw—featuring musicians-composers Earle Peach and Bill Sample with a chorus of accomplished voices, stand-up comedy by Ralston Harris, and more, all hosted by Jacques Lalonde and Kieran Sequoia.
The Sojourners.
Bringing the festival to a joyous close is a performance by The Sojourners on November 10, with DTES resident Khari McClelland. The group blends doo wop, R&B, country, and blues into its own gospel sound.
More information is at Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival.
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