For twenty-one years, the Heart of the City Festival has been grounded in the Downtown Eastside and focused on listening and learning from the community's cultural practices. The Festival works with, for and about the Downtown Eastside community to carry forward our community’s stories, ancestral memory, cultural traditions, lived experiences, and artistic processes to illuminate pathways of resistance and resilience.

Guided by the theme Threads of Connection, the 2024 Festival features 100 plus live and online events showcased at 40 plus local venues over twelve days - both indoors and out – including music, stories, poetry, theatre, ceremony, films, dance, readings, forums, workshops, discussions, gallery exhibits, art talks, history walks and more.