46th Annual Powell Street Festival
The David Lam Centre at SFU is proud to sponsor the 46th Annual Powell Street Festival to celebrate Japanese Canadian culture with contemporary and traditional artists, community food vendors, and crafters offering Japanese delights, designs, and more! The event aims to connect diverse communities through arts and provide a rich cultural experience for festival goers in a safe, healthy, and respectful manner.
The event will be held in the Powell Street area within Vancouver’s historic Japanese Canadian neighborhood, on the traditional unceded territories of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil- Waututh) First Nations.
This year’s Festival returns to Oppenheimer Park and the surrounding Paueru-Gai neighborhood, located on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people. The Powell Street Festival Society is excited to reconvene with a full-build, in-person festival this year. Applying the lessons from the past years, the festival will have a livestream component, Festival Connect, allowing those of us who are unable to visit in person to stay connected and enjoy select Festival programming from their homes.
A full array of programming is available over the weekend to celebrate Japanese Canadian arts and culture including; live music, dance, and theatre performances on multiple stages, delicious Japanese food booths, martial arts demonstrations, children’s programming, ikebana, community booths, a sumo tournament and our annual lottery. Volunteers and Festival Ambassadors, identifiable by their bright hachimaki headbands and happi vests, are on site to help you navigate and enjoy the festival.
The return to the park celebrates the resilience of our community and the strong relationship we have with the current residents of the neighborhood. The PSFS strives to connect diverse communities through arts and culture. We have persevered through these unprecedented times together and the PSFS continues to provide a rich cultural experience for festival goers in a safe, healthy and respectful manner.
F T