TAIWANfest is a festival celebrating Taiwanese food, music and culture in downtown Vancouver on the Labour Day long weekend in September.
Dates for the festival in 2025 were August 30th to September 1st. The festival happens again in 2026 from September 5th to 7th.
Visit vancouvertaiwanfest.ca for the festival’s official website.
This article contains the following information about TAIWANfest:
When is TAIWANfest? | Where is TAIWANfest? | Festival Activities | TAIWANfest Schedule | TAIWANfest Market | Documentary Films | TAIWANfest Video | Tips & Advice | Other Information
Vancouver’s TAIWANfest Taiwanese Festival
TAIWANfest is a cultural festival that features concerts and other live entertainment as well as talks, films and an artist market. It also has visual arts exhibits, family-oriented activities and a street party with food and market stalls.
Another event organized by the same organization behind TAIWANfest is LunarFest which happens during the Lunar New Year season in January or February. LunarFest is also very interesting and features a number of events and artistic displays.
Click TAIWANfest Vancouver for the festival’s official website.
When is TAIWANfest?
TAIWANfest takes place on the Labour Day weekend in September. In 2025 the festival happened on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday of August 30th to September 1st. In 2026 the festival runs the weekend of September 5th to 7th.
This past year things on all three days included activities along Granville Street. They ran between noon and 6:00 pm. On the Saturday and Sunday, there were also activities in the North Plaza outside the Vancouver Art Gallery from noon until 10:00 pm. On the holiday Monday, the activities and performances in the plaza ran from noon until 6:00 pm.
Where is TAIWANfest?
The festival’s in-person activities take place at various venues in downtown Vancouver. The main locations include šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énk Square (outside the Vancouver Art Gallery), on Granville Street, UBC Robson, Willms Salon and the Annex theatre.
The Vancouver Art Gallery’s address is 750 Hornby Street. Officially called šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énḵ Square, the plaza is the large open square along West Georgia Street between Hornby and Howe streets. In the plaza during TAIWANfest there are food vendors and an artist market as well as live entertainment on the Pancouver Stage.
The Granville Street activities happen along the 500, 600 and 700 blocks of the street. In this area there are exhibitions and workshops as well as market vendors including a number that are Dutch-themed. TAIWANfest partnered with the Dutch Street Market in 2025 with continuation of 2023’s Dialogue with the Netherlands. (Interestingly, the Netherlands had a colony in Taiwan in the 1600s and continues to have strong economic and diplomatic relations with the island.)
UBC Robson’s address is 800 Robson Street, which is in Robson Square, on the other side of the Vancouver Art Gallery from šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énk Square). Willms Salon is at 843 Seymour Street. It’s a performance venue at the VSO School of Music. The Annex, meanwhile, is adjacent to the Orpheum Theatre, at 823 Seymour Street, which is between Robson Street and Smithe Street.
Click TAIWANfest Vancouver for the festival’s official website.
Festival Activities
There are a fair number of things to see along Granville Street during the Taiwanese Cultural Festival. Admission is free for the street party which runs each day.
At the festival, you’ll find lively street activities, cultural exhibitions, and family-friendly workshops. Don’t miss Hope Talks, where you can learn about Taiwan’s vibrant culture and history. You can also enjoy food vendors offering flavours from around the world, along with live performances taking place throughout the weekend.
TAIWANfest Schedule
Below were just some of the schedule highlights of the festival in 2025. Check out the TAIWANfest Program for a full list of what the series of events offered. Performers this year included Tectonic, TRAEGO, RapShark, Tudi-Voice and Lihaw Lihang. The program schedule will likely be similar in 2026, with exact details to be confirmed.
(Note: Times and other details were subject to change.)
Saturday, August 30th, 2025
- 11:00 am – Return Home: The Hakka Table and Journeys (Vancouver Central Library)
- 11:30 am – Breaking Out the “Imprisoned Freedom” with Folk Music (Willms Salon)
- 12:00 pm – Trace of Blue: Indigo Dye (Granville 600)
- 12:30 pm – Behind the Scenes: Creation of 13 Tongues (Annex)
- 12:30 pm – Rally For Taiwan: Music in the Soundscape of Democracy (Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza)
- Rally For Taiwan: Lihaw Lihang (Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza)
- The Rally For Taiwan: TUDI-VOICE (Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza)
- Rally For Taiwan: Traego (Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza)
- 1:00 pm – Echoes of Taroko: Music Carries our Land and Memories (Willms Salon)
- 2:30 pm – Teresa Teng and Gen Z: A Legacy in the Making (Vancouver Central Library)
- 4:00 pm – Pickling Together (Granville 600)
- 7:00 pm – TECTONIC (Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza)
- All Day – Where the Tiles Took Me (Granville 600)
- All Day – Traces of Blue: Weaving Cultural Diversity (Granville 600)
In addition to the above, there was the Artists Market in the plaza outside the Vancouver Art Gallery and activities between the 500 and 700 blocks of Granville Street from 12:00 pm until 6:00 pm.
Sunday, September 31st, 2025
- 11:30 am – Meeting My Connection with Hakka Culture (Willms Salon)
- 12:00 pm – Trace of Blue: Indigo Dye (Granville 600)
- 1:00 pm – Her Voice: The Many Faces of Taiwanese Female Rappers (Willms Salon)
- 1:30 pm – Flamenco in Dialogue (Granville 600)
- 2:30 pm – Edge of Taiwan, Hakka punk from the Mountain City (Willms Salon)
- 4:00 pm – Global Hakka, Local Ties: Taiwan Indigenous-Hakka Relations Reframed (ANNEX)
- 4:00 pm – Whose “Motherland” Is It? Rethinking Taiwan’s History From the Age of Exploration Onwards (ANNEX)
- 4:00 pm – RapShark’s Subtropical Flow (Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza)
- 4:00 pm – Pickling Together (Granville 600)
- 7:00 pm – TECTONIC (Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza)
- All Day – Where the Tiles Took Me (Granville 600)
- All Day – Traces of Blue: Weaving Cultural Diversity (Granville 600)
In addition to the above, there was the Artists Market in the plaza outside the Vancouver Art Gallery and activities between the 500 and 700 blocks of Granville Street from 12:00 pm until 6:00 pm.
Monday, September 1st, 2025
- 12:00 pm – Trace of Blue: Indigo Dye (Granville 600)
- 1:00 pm – One Moon, One Song (ANNEX) with RapShark & Jacq Teh
- 1:30 pm – Flamenco in Dialogue (Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza)
- 4:00 pm – Pickling Together (Granville 600)
- All Day – Where the Tiles Took Me (Granville 600)
- All Day – Traces of Blue: Weaving Cultural Diversity (Granville 600)
Also again on this day, there was the Artists Market in the plaza outside the Vancouver Art Gallery and activities between the 500 and 700 blocks of Granville Street from 12:00 pm until 6:00 pm.
TAIWANfest Artist Market
The festival had its first-ever artist market in 2024. It returned on all three days in 2025, from August 30th until September 1st, between noon and 6:00 pm. The market features artists and artisan vendor stalls in šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énk Square outside the Vancouver Art Gallery. See the TAIWANfest website to learn about the artists who participated at this event in 2025.
TAIWANfest Films
TAIWANfest presented the following four documentary films in 2025, all of which were free to see:
- Dancing Home (August 14th) – in the ANNEX on Level 2 of the Vancouver Civic Theatre from 7:30 pm until 9:30 pm.
- Silenced Sunrise: Taiwan’s Music vs. The China Factor (August 29th) – at the ANNEX from 2:30 pm until 4:00 pm.
- Behind the Scenes: Creation of 13 Tongues (August 30th) – at the ANNEX from 12:30 pm until 1:15 pm.
TAIWANfest Video
Check out the video below for a good idea of what to expect at the next TAIWANfest event. The video shows scenes from the 2024 festivities outside the Vancouver Art Gallery. The band featured in the video is Lilium.
Tips & Advice
Below are some tips and suggestions to help you make the most of your Vancouver TAIWANfest experience.
TIP #1: Although the festival’s main focus is on arts and culture, rather than food, be sure to go with an appetite as there are a good number of tasty Asian treats for sale (as well as a few foods from other parts of the world too).
TIP #2: The live performances are a highlight of the festival. Be sure to stay for some of the performances.
TIP #3: Take public transit if you can. Granville Street is so convenient to get to by public transit from most parts of the Lower Mainland, plus traffic in the area will be busy.
Click TAIWANfest Vancouver for the festival’s official website.
Other Information
See the Taiwanese Cultural Festival website to learn more about this event in general, or its sister event in Toronto.
Check out the following for information about other things to do in the Lower Mainland:
Other Asian-themed events to check out at other times of the year include the following:
- Lunar New Year Celebrations (in January or February)
- LunarFest (in January or February)
- Vancouver Chinatown Spring Festival Parade (in January or February)
- Vancouver’s ExplorASIAN Festival (in May)
- Nikkei Matsuri Japanese Festival (on the Labour Day weekend)
- Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Festival (in late June and early July)
