Welcome to the 17th Annual DTES Heart of the City Festival!

This year's Festival will be experienced both live and online, as the Downtown Eastside community shares with each other, and our guests, our stories, history, heritage, culture, concerns, hopes, dreams and visions for the future. This Gives Us Strength is our 2020 Festival theme: those sources that our community draws upon as we, like others across the land, cope with a worldwide pandemic, physical distancing and isolation, ongoing and growing displacement, the tragic realities of the fentanyl crisis, and the legacies of systemic racism.

There's a lot to take in, much of it from the comfort of your home (or one of our screening rooms or viewing outposts), so take a few minutes to explore this website and start filling in your calendar. Many of this year's events are set up through EventBrite and you are able to reserve a spot ahead of time, which offers some great benefits, including the opportunity to interact with many of the events through Zoom.

In case you are not able to pick up one of our printed program guides (available throughout the Downtown Eastside) you can peruse it online HERE (view full screen for the best experience).

Enjoy!

NEED HELP? Contact boxoffice.heartfestival@gmail.com