Car Free Day on Main Street

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.

The 2025 event takes place on Sunday, September 14th.

See our September Calendar of Events to learn about what else is happening this time of year. Continue reading for information about Vancouver’s Car Free Day event on Main Street in September.

Click on any of the following to skip to a specific section:

About Main Street Car Free Day | Entertainment Lineup | Event Video | Other Car Free Day Events | Other Information

Car Free Day on Main Street in 2025

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 2025 the event takes place on Sunday, September 14th. It runs from 12:00 pm to 7:00 pm and covers eight blocks from 1st Avenue to Grandview Highway. The event is smaller in 2025 than previous years.

At the event there are live bands, street performers and market vendors. Mini beer gardens, food trucks, and extended restaurant patios are there too.

Of all of Vancouver’s various Car Free Day Festivals, the Main Street event is normally the largest (but it might not be in 2025).

2025 Main Street Car Free Day Lineup

This year’s live entertainment takes place on three stages, which is fewer than last year. The full performance schedule is listed below.

Jefferson’s Barbershop Stage

The Jefferson’s Barbershop Stage is near the 4th Avenue and Commercial Drive intersection.

12.10 pm – Second Rodeo With Shiloh Lindsey
12.40 pm – Bitchilante
1.10 pm – IRA Stevens Band
1.40 pm – Muncho
2.10 pm – 20 Million People
2.40 pm – Bush Hucker
3.10 pm – Young & Sexy
3.45 pm – Pen Pal Aloha
4.30 pm – Those Things
5.15 pm – Taken By Force
6.00 pm – Bad Beats

The Project Vancity Stage

The Project Vancity Stage is at the 2nd Avenue and Commercial Drive intersection.

11.50 am – Indigenous Welcome
12.30 pm – Melifawn & Chris Clute
1.10 pm – Adam Ambrose & David Doyle
1.50 pm – Lia Lexa & Aulani Murray
2.30 pm – Jeanette Peake & Britney Cheng
3.10 pm – Drew Fields & Hum4nborn
4.30 pm – Matias Roden & Earl Jenkins
5.10 pm – Laryssa Vachon & D.L. Forrest
5.50 pm – Emily Erhart & Jacob Regehr

Support The Scene Stage

This stage is situated close to 5th Avenue and Commercial Drive.

12.30 pm – The Lunchtime Band
1.30 pm – Dusty Pines
2.30 pm – Drag Of It All: Percy Pegg, Skim Heathen, Yuen Young, As*Trix
3.30 pm – Virgulins
4.30 pm – Like Whatever
5.30 pm – Math Club

Ayla Tesler-Mabe in New Westminster — Ayla Tesler-Mabe (at Uptown Live in New West)

Main Street Car Free Day Video

Check out the video below for a better idea of what to expect at Main Street Car Free Day. The video 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 6th, so a couple weeks 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, it was cancelled last year and it didn’t happen in 2025 either. Whether it happens again in 2026 is to be determined.

Other Car Free Day events include Car Free Day Port Coquitlam in early September, and events in Surrey, Port Moody, New Westminster and North Vancouver (the last of which is part of that city’s Shipyards Festival).

It’s not an official Car Free Day event, but a similar street festival happening on Main Street in the summer is the Pleasant Day Festival. The inaugural day for this new event was on August 9th and was in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood.

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 on 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.
TAIWANFest – an Asian-themed cultural festival that takes place along Granville Street in downtown Vancouver on the long weekend in September.