Langley Arts Alive Festival

The Arts Alive Festival is a free arts festival that takes place in the City of Langley along the Fraser Highway between 204th and 206th streets in August.

In 2023, the festival happened on August 19th. Other events that take place around the same time include Ribfest Langley at McLeod Athletic Park and Symphony in the Park in Abbotsford. Also in the Fraser Valley are the Chilliwack Pride Festival, Chilliwack Flight Fest, Chilliwack Corn Maze and Abbotsford Summer Flower Festival. In Vancouver there is also Dance Dance Dance outside the Queen Elizabeth Theatre as well as the Irish Fusion Festival and PNE Fair. In North Vancouver there is the Shipyards Night Market.

The festival returns in 2024, although the exact date is to be confirmed.

To learn more about what’s happening elsewhere in the Lower Mainland, see our August Calendar of Events. To learn more about Langley’s Arts Alive Festival, continue reading.

Arts Alive Festival

The Arts Alive Festival returned for the first time since before the pandemic on August 20th in 2022 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. It ran at the same time in 2023 on Saturday, August 19th.

The event includes musicians, artists, art demonstrations, food vendors, market stalls and as many as 25,000 participants over the course of the day. It’s not a huge event, but it is a nice one and of a fair size.

The festival didn’t happen in 2021. In its place, however, was City Summer Beats. The new event took place on Saturday, August 14th, at Douglas Park Spirit Square. That was the same day that the Arts Alive Festival would have been, had it not been cancelled. In 2022 City Summer Beats shifted to about a month before Arts Alive.

In 2023 City Summer Beats happened between 5:00 pm and 9:00 pm on July 15th. It featured live music and admission was free. The schedule of performances at the City Summer Beats event this past year was the following:

5:00 pm – Nite Brite
6:15 pm – The Motown Show
7:30 pm – Dr. Strangelove

LANGLEY RIBFEST IN 2023

Langley Ribfest is an awesome, family-friendly community event at McLeod Athletic Park which is about a five-minute drive east of the downtown core of the City of Langley where the Arts Alive Festival takes place. Ribfest is a fundraising event that features barbecued rib vendors, food trucks, adult beverages, live entertainment and kid-friendly activities. It’s hosted by area Rotary Clubs and admission is free.

Festival Activities

At the Arts Alive Festival there is live music, art displays and market vendors. The art exhibits feature dozens of area artists including jewellery designers, potters and painters of all kinds. The artists have stalls along the two blocks of the highway, which is really just a small town main street. It’s a family-friendly event with face painting, crafts and various other fun activities for kids.

Performance Schedule

The live music and entertainment lineup for the Langley Arts Alive Festival in 2023 is listed below.

(Note: Performance times and other details were subject to change.)

On the Main Stage

10:00 am to 11:00 am – Dani Camacho
11:30 am to 1:00 pm – Krystle Dos Santos Band
1:30 pm to 3:00 pm – Jackson Hollow
3:30 pm to 5:00 pm – Ryan McAllister Band

On the Children’s Zone Stage

10:30 am – Choose Your Own Adventure the Musical w/ Molly Wilson
11:30 am – The Great Gordini Magic & Comedy Show
2:00 pm – Yuki & Elliot Juggling Duo
3:30 pm – Van City Bhangra Dancers

Other Things to Do

The Arts Alive Festival is a community event that’s popular with locals as well as folks visiting from out of town. People traveling to the area from a distance may want to combine their trip with a visit to other attractions in the area (or other events, like Langley Ribfest or the Abbotsford Summer Flower Festival.

Also happening on the same Saturday most years is the Fort Langley Village Farmers Market which happens between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm at 9025 Glover Road in Fort Langley. A little further afield, the Abbotsford Farm and Country Market also takes place from 9:00 am until 12:00 pm in downtown Abbotsford.

Also important to note is that August is the start of the harvest season for area vineyards, making mid-August to October the best time of the year to visit local wineries, some of the best of which are located in Langley. Click Lower Mainland Wineries for details.