Car Free Day on Main Street is a Vancouver street party-style festival with live music, market vendors, family-friendly entertainment and thousands of people.
In 2024, the event takes place on Sunday, September 15th. The day before, there is also Maple Ridge Car Free Day which is a part of Our Neck of the Woods which is a large, free event celebrating the City of Maple Ridge’s 150th anniversary. On the same day as Main Street Car Free Day, there are also Circo Osorio Circus shows in Surrey, the Stɑl’əw̓ Pow Wow in Langley, and Terry Fox Runs all over the Lower Mainland.
To learn about what else is happening this time of year, see our September Calendar of Events. For information about Vancouver’s Car Free Day event on Main Street in September, continue reading.
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About Main Street Car Free Day | Entertainment Lineup | Event Video | Other Car Free Day Events | Other Information
Car Free Day on Main Street
Car Free Day on Main Street is just one of several Car Free Day events in the Lower Mainland. Other Vancouver Car Free Day events typically take place on different days in the summer or early fall on Commercial Drive and Denman Street.
The above events are all put on by the same organization. Elsewhere in the Lower Mainland there are other car free day events including ones in Surrey, Port Moody and Port Coquitlam.
About Main Street Car Free Day
Main Street Car Free Day used to happen on the afternoon of the Father’s Day Sunday in June. The last couple of years, however, the event has shifted to September.
In 2024 Main Street Car Free Day takes place on Sunday, September 15th. The event runs from 12:00 pm until 7:00 pm. This year’s event covers 20 blocks from 10th to 30th Avenue.
At the event there are live bands, street performers and market vendors. Mini beer gardens, food trucks, and extended restaurant patios are usually there too.
Of all of Vancouver’s various Car Free Day Festivals, the Main Street event is normally the largest.
2024 Main Street Car Free Day Lineup
In 2024 live entertainment takes place on six stages. This year’s lineup of performers is listed below. As of early September, the full schedule is to be confirmed.
- 15th Field Artillery Band
- Baby Boy & the Earthly Delights
- Burnaby Mountain Boys
- Carolyn Mark & Her New Best Friend
- The Circus In Flames
- Clare Twiddy
- Cookin’ With Brass
- Count Cupid
- Cursed Words
- Danny Echo
- Doobie Howser
- The Drink Tickets
- Dusknote
- Elsinore
- Energy Slime
- Ever Plenty
- The Frolickers
- The Great Outdoors
- Guyliner
- Jillian Lake
- Jess Vaira
- Jody Glenham
- Jolene Queen Sloan
- Kylie V
- Lemonx
- Lunchtime Band
- Mya
- The Quixotic Neurotics
- The Roosters
- Space Queen
- Terminal Station
- Theo Rhetical
- The Time We Died
- The Walk-Ins
- West Coast Fiddleheads
- Willow Child
- Yuen Young
Main Street Car Free Day Video
For a better idea of what to expect at Main Street Car Free Day, check out the video below. It was filmed at the 2022 event. As you can see, there were lots of market vendors, food trucks and live performances to enjoy.
Other Car Free Day Events
Elsewhere in Vancouver, Commercial Drive Car Free Day happens on September 7th, so one week before the Main Street event. West End Car Free Day usually takes place on Denman Street, from around English Bay to Robson Street. In 2023 that event happened on September 24th, so a week after Main Street Car Free Day. Sadly, its cancelled in 2024.
Other Car Free Day events include Car Free Day Port Coquitlam on September 7th, and events in Surrey, Port Moody, New Westminster and North Vancouver (the last of which is part of that city’s Shipyards Festival).
Non-Car Free Day Street Parties
The Main Street, Commercial Drive and Denman Street Car Free Day events are all “official” Car Free Day events. There are a number of other major events in Metro Vancouver that are similar. They aren’t, however, a part of the official “Car Free Day” family.
Instead of purposefully celebrating the pedestrian way of life and having a slightly anti-car and pro-environmental theme, the following other street parties look pretty similar. They have more of a cultural, music and/or ethnic focus though.
- Vancouver Vaisakhi Parade and Surrey Vaisakhi Parade – East Indian cultural events that draw hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets in both South Vancouver and Surrey. They happen on subsequent Saturdays around the second and third weekends in April.
- Italian Day on the Drive – an Italian-themed street party with extended restaurant patios, live music, vendor stalls, food trucks and crowds of people in the street on Commercial Drive. It happens on a Sunday in early to mid-June.
- Greek Day on Broadway – a major street festival with a Greek theme that takes place in Kitsilano along Broadway Avenue in late June.
- Khatsahlano Street Party – another massive street party in Kitsilano. It takes place along West 4th Avenue in early July. Instead of having an ethnic cultural theme, the Khatsahlano Street Party is a music and arts festival that just happens to take place along the middle of a major road.
- Uptown Live – a free street party and music festival with family-friendly things to see and do in New Westminster in July.
- TaiwanFest – an Asian-themed cultural festival that takes place along Granville Street in downtown Vancouver on the long weekend in September.
Other Information
For more information about the Main Street Car Free Day event, see the Car Free Days website.
To learn about other similar events, see our article about Car Free Days in the Lower Mainland.
And for a list of major events in the Lower Mainland throughout the year, see the Festivals & Events Calendar.
To see what else is happening in the same month, check out Vancouver’s September Calendar.
