Fall Arts Preview 2025: 30 things to do, read and watch in Metro Vancouver

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Nothing suits sitting inside a concert hall like fall and winter weather.

Shorter days, cooler temperatures and the inevitable rain mean the laid-back outdoor vibes of summer gigs are going away until next year. All good, since the coming season is consistently one of the best for tours coming through Vancouver venues.

Having played those more perfunctory hit-oriented festival sets, there is more chance to hear artists dropping deep cuts and oddities into their headlining shows. This makes for a more complete concert experience for both hardcore fans and first timers to really savour the flavour of a particular artist.

Here are five shows that really stand out from now to 2026.

Kaytranada and Justice

When: Oct. 16, 6:30 p.m.

Where: Rogers Arena

Tickets and info:livenation.com

Talk about a double-whammy for fans of contemporary EDM. Montreal’s Kaytranada dropped Ain’t No Damn Way! Out, the followup to his Grammy-nominated Timeless, in August with the hot lead single Space Invader. French duo Justice released its EP for the single Mannequin Love full of remixes of the song by noted artists and both Kaytranda and Justice have worked with each other. In other words, you can be sure to hear lots of hits by both acts and the many, many other artists they’ve collaborated with on this dance night out.

Haim: I Quit Tour

When: Sept. 20, 7:30 p.m.

Where: UBC Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre

Tickets and info: Ticketmaster.ca

It’s been some time since the Haim sisters rocked out in town and five years since 2020s Women in Music Pt. III. During that time, Alana has launched an acting career starring in director Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2021 feature Licorice Pizza, Danielle has contributed to albums by B.C.’s star Carly Rae Jepsen and Bon Iver and Este has been composing scores for film and TV, as well as serving as music consultant for season two of The White Lotus. Is it possible that the title of the group’s fourth album I Quit might actually reflect the future of the chart-topping crew? Probably not one to miss.

Mad Professor: Mad Professor vs. Massive Attack’s No Protection Remix 30th Anniversary

When: Oct. 5, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, UBC

Tickets and info: chancentre.com

An extremely rare local appearance, which is part of VIFF Live, by one of the most influential artists in dub and electronic remix music history celebrating an album that charted entirely new directions in pop. Guyanese-born producer and engineer Mad Professor has worked with everyone from Sade and Grace Jones to Perry Farrell and so many more. His discography numbers well over 200 personal projects and as many commissions for other artists. His 1995 remix of Massive Attack’s seminal Protection album reimagined that trip hop classic as something far more spatial and instrumental. No Protection is still one of the best-selling dub platters in the reggae sub genre’s long history.

Eric Church: Free the Machine Tour

When: Nov. 6, 7 p.m.

Where: Rogers Arena

Tickets and info: Ticketmaster.ca

His new album Evangeline Vs. The Machine was introduced to fans via the song Darkest Hour, about the damage hurricane Helene caused to his home state of North Carolina. Now Church is out on the road in support of his eighth album playing Vancouver with warm up act Charles Wesley Godwin. Having been the first performer to appear at Rogers Arena when COVID protocols were lifted, Church has a bit of local history behind him as well as warm reviews for his particular brand of “humanist” country music.

Lola Young

When: Dec. 1, 8 p.m.

Where: UBC Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre

Tickets and info: Ticketmaster.ca

Since her first appearance in town at a small show at Fortune Sound Club, U.K. singer Young has been on a steady upward trajectory. It’s no surprise either. Her particular brand of honest, confessional pop blended with R&B has seen songs like Messy topping global charts and elevating the singer to stages at Coachella, Glastonbury and others. Her third studio album, I’m Only F — king Myself dropped in June and has already generated a trio of well-received singles in One Thing, Not Like That Anymore and Dealer. Her show should be a great way to wind out the year before holiday events take over people’s calendars.

Visual arts

Photography fans are the big winners this fall as major exhibits open with work by local lights Tamio Wakayama and Christos Dikeakos, and American luminary Lee Miller. This fall also sees the opening of a new art space, the Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum on SFU’s Burnaby Campus, with an inaugural exhibit — and, yes, the show has a photography component.

NDN Giver

When: Sept. 17-Jan. 25, 2026
Where: Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, 639 Hornby St., Vancouver
Info:billreidgallery.ca

Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art presents the world premiere of NDN Giver, an exhibit that looks at potlatch traditions. Contemporary potlatch gifts such as prints and mugs will be displayed alongside archival records of historical potlatches. Some pieces are from the personal collection of the gallery’s assistant curator Amelia Rea, a Haida Nation scholar, as well as works by artists from communities across the coast.

Edge Effects

When: Sept. 20-Feb. 15, 2026
Where: Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum, SFU Burnaby Campus, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby
Info:gibson.sfu.ca

This month marks the grand opening of a new gallery at SFU’s Burnaby campus. Designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects, The Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum is a 12,100-square-foot space. Inaugural exhibition Edge Effects is a group show featuring 15 Canadian artists and a combination of new commissioned works and projects never before seen by audiences in Canada. These include Liz Magor’s Blue Students/Alumnos en azul (1997), a project centred on photographic portraits of students along the San Diego-Tijuana border.

Enemy Alien: Tamio Wakayama

When: Oct. 3-Feb. 22, 2026
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby St., Vancouver
Info:vanartgallery.bc.ca

The first major solo exhibition and retrospective of late documentary photographer Tamio Wakayama includes a feature documentary and nearly 300 photographs spanning more than five decades. As a child, Wakayama and his family were among the 22,000 Japanese Canadians interned during the Pacific War and labelled “enemy aliens.” Wakayama spent much of his career documenting social justice movements and countercultures across Canada and the United States, from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s to Vancouver’s Japanese Canadian Redress movement in the 1980s. Award-winning Vancouver artist Paul Wong, who knew Wakayama for decades, curates the exhibition. Cindy Mochizuki’s documentary Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama (2024) further illuminates the photographer’s life and work.

Christos Dikeakos: The Collectors

When: Sept. 20-Dec. 14
Where: Griffin Art Projects, 1174 Welch St., North Vancouver
Info:griffinartprojects.ca

The Collectors features more than 40 portraits and photographs by Greek-born Vancouver photographer Christos Dikeakos. The work is drawn from over a decade of visits with influential figures from B.C. and beyond to reveal the inside world of collectors and their collections. In addition to influential collectors, the portraits also depict artists, curators, writers, and more. Dikeakos captured the images within artist studios and private homes. Also included are nods to museum collections and the stories they carry, in addition to images of contemporary and historical artworks from First Nations across B.C.

Lee Miller: A Photographer at Work (1932–1945)

When: Nov. 7-Feb. 1, 2026
Where: The Polygon Gallery
Info:thepolygon.ca

The West Coast premiere of this survey exhibition showcases more than 100 images taken during the renowned American photographer’s time as a highly sought-after studio portraitist, a commercial photographer for cosmetics, and then as the Second World War correspondent for the British edition of Vogue. Though Miller was previously best known for her collaboration with Man Ray and her close ties to the 1920s Surrealist movement, the exhibition offers a complex portrait of the celebrated photojournalist, who was portrayed by Kate Winslet in the 2023 movie Lee.

Dance

The 2025/26 dance season features some returning favourites and exciting premieres. Local dancer/choreographer Alvin Erasga Tolentino debuts a showcase of newly commissioned pieces by Indigenous Coast Salish-based choreographers, while Australian duo Omer Backley-Astrachan and Jana Castillo bring their piece Common Place to North America for the first time. The annual Vancouver International Flamenco Festival is back, and Ballet B.C. presents a remount of the 50-dancer strong Bolero X. But the show that may have the most tongues wagging is Amour, acide et noix (Love, Acid and Nuts), considered by those in the know to be Quebec choreographer Daniel Léveillé’s masterwork. One reviewer called the New York remount earlier this year a “stark and unflinching meditation on the human form.”

Ballet B.C.: Trilogy

When: Nov. 6-8
Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 630 Hamilton St., Vancouver
Tickets:balletbc.com

The season’s opener features a world premiere from Italian choreographer Sofia Nappi, who has been wowing the dance world with pieces like Pupo, inspired by the story of Pinocchio; the repertory piece SWAY from Ballet B.C. artistic director Medhi Walerski; and the 50-dancer Bolero X by Shahar Binyamini. Bolero X premiered in 2023 and features the entire company plus dancers from Arts Umbrella Dance.

Vancouver International Flamenco Festival

When: Sept. 20-28
Where: Various venues
Tickets and info:vancouverflamencofestival.org

Highlights of this year’s other VIFF include Soulfulness, featuring festival presenter Flamenco Rosario and international guest artists in an evening of ensemble pieces and solos in both traditional and contemporary flamenco. Others are Karen Flamenco’s Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, which blends classical music with flamenco; Palabra Flamenco’s Dark Sounds, an exploration of poetry and flamenco from Victoria; and Seffarine. The latter features Moroccan singer Lamiae Naki and flamenco guitarist Nat Hulskamp, and combines Moroccan and Arabic-Andalusi music with Manuel Gutierrez’ flamenco footwork. Along with the live performances, including free outdoor events Sept. 20 and 21 at Picnic Pavilion on Granville Island, the 35-year-old festival presents master classes and workshops.

Co. ERASGA: Eternal Gestures

When: Oct. 9 and 10 at 8 p.m.
Where: Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie St., Vancouver
Tickets: $37/$28 students, under 30s and seniors + $1 facility fee, and series subscriptions available at thedancecentre.ca

In this world premiere, Co. ERASGA Artistic Director Alvin Erasga Tolentino performs a trilogy of solo works commissioned from Indigenous Coast Salish-based choreographers Starr Muranko, Michelle Olson and Margaret Grenier. The production celebrates Co. ERASGA’s 25th anniversary and demonstrates the company’s commitment to cross-cultural, experimental dance which explores identity, ancestry and the environment.

Daniel Léveillé (DLD): Amour, acide et noix (Love, Acid and Nuts)

When: Oct. 24 and 25
Where: Vancouver Playhouse, 600 Hamilton St., Vancouver
Info:dancehouse.ca

Considered to be Quebec choreographer Daniel Léveillé’s masterwork, Amour, acide et noix (Love, Acid and Nuts) won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for best new choreography in 2004. Set against a score of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, pop music, and birdsong, four nude dancers perform solos, duets, and ensemble work.

Common Place

When: Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre, 950 W. 41st Ave., Vancouver
Tickets & info:chutzpahfestival.com

Chutzpah! presents the North American premiere of Common Place. Australian dancers Omer Backley-Astrachan and Jana Castillo perform the duet, which That Show Blog calls “a compelling display of contemporary dance.” Common Place is part of the 24th Annual Chutzpah! Festival (Nov. 13-23).

Books

Fall is just around the corner, time to pull out the cosy sweaters, order up a pumpkin latte — or not — and head inside.

A great way to make your return to the indoors more appealing is to create a new “to read,” list.

To help you with inspiration here are five new B.C. books that would make make welcome additions to that fresh fall list.

The Hunger We Pass Down

By Jen Sookfong Lee (Penguin Random House, Sept. 9) 

This new novel from this Vancouver author is a horror-tinged intergenerational saga that sees single mother Alice awaken one morning to discover her usually messy world has taken a topsy turvy turn. Suddenly with more time on her hands, Alice uses it to connect with her children and with her difficult mother, who shares with her daughter the legacy of violence that has shaped women in their family.

War Resisters

By Joline Martin (Caitlin Press, Sept. 12)   

This book offers a contemporary look at American Vietnam War resisters who resettled on Vancouver Island. Through interviews with resisters, author Martin, who calls the Comox Valley home, shares stories about what it was like for them to start anew in Canada while facing the realities of opposing the divisive war that caused political unrest in the U.S.

The Hitchhikers 

By Chevy Stevens (St. Martin’s Press, out Oct. 7) 

The Vancouver-Island author of the bestsellers Still Missing and Those Girls is back with a chilling, twisty tale.  Set in the summer of 1976, Alice and Tom, hoping to heal broken hearts after a tragedy, set out on remote Canadian roadways in their new RV.

The trip is planned to perfection. The only unscheduled event is the picking up of a pair of young hitchhikers. And, surprise, Simon and Jenny aren’t foot-loose, fancy-free young people looking to experience the open road. Nope, they are a pair of really bad people and soon Alice and Tom are trapped with nowhere to turn.

John Horgan His Own Words: A Memoir  

By John Horgan with Rod Mickleburgh (Harbour Publishing, October) 

There was a huge public outpouring of grief and respect when former NDP Premier John Horgan died in 2024 at age 65. Now those who felt close to, and  respected the former premier can learn about his life direct from the politician’s mouth in this new, unvarnished, candid, and often funny memoir.  The book reveals the path that transformed Horgan from the son of “an Irish scrapper” to the first two-term NDP premier in B.C. history. The memoir, written with veteran reporter (The Vancouver Sun, The Province, the Globe and Mail) Rod Mickleburgh, covers Horgan’s personal life and tracks the forging of an impactful career in public service.

By Meg Todd (Nightwood Editions, October) 

After a summer full of light reads this novel from Vancouver Island’s Todd delivers a story painted by trauma and, in general, just screwed up family stuff. Crystal is a single mother who is struggling on every level as she tries to raise her 14-year-old daughter Becky who may have fetal alcohol syndrome and whose existence is the result of rape. After an awful event at school, Becky is sent to a strict Catholic school and soon lives are completely changed as religion and a devout man enters the picture.

Theatre

Fall theatre in the Lower Mainland is looking a little tentative. Theatre companies are still quietly singing the post-COVID blues as they continue to struggle to recover audiences. You can see it in the Arts Club’s mostly lightweight season, and in the number of remounts being staged. Safer is better seems to be the mantra when trying to get bums back into seats. But the highlights of this fall would be highlights in any theatre season.

Lasa ng imperio/A Taste of Empire

When: Oct. 9-19

Where: Presentation House Theatre, 333 Chesterfield Ave., North Vancouver

Tickets and info: $20-$50 at phtheatre.org

One of the smartest and most entertaining plays around, Jovanni Sy’s A Taste of Empire has been playing on and off since 2010 and was a sold-out hit at last year’s PuSh Festival. It’s part real-time cooking demonstration — the chef and actor prepares a Filipino dish, stuffed milkfish — and part TED talk as she explains the colonial origins of the foods she cooks as well as the people who catch and pick those foods. This rice & beans production is performed by Carmela Sison in Tagalog with English surtitles. And the audience gets to taste the dish at the end of the show.

A Doll’s House

When: To Oct. 5

Where: Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, 2750 Granville St.

Tickets and info: From $29 at www.artsclub.com

In a fall when their other big shows are Frozen, Little Women, and A Christmas Carol, the Arts Club blasts open its season with perhaps the most controversial play of the nineteenth century, Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. This adaptation by American playwright Amy Herzog modernizes the language and takes about an hour off the original, but the story of a housewife trapped in a culture that infantilizes her has lost none of its power to shock with its revolutionary ending. Directed by Anita Rochon with the excellent Alexandra Lainfiesta as Nora.

Fire Never Dies: The Tina Modotti Project

When: Oct. 15-26

Where: The Cultch Historic Theatre, 1895 Venables St.

Tickets and info: From $35 at thecultch.com

A new play from Electric Company Theatre is always a major event. In Fire Never Dies the Electrics’ Carmen Aguirre excavates the life, art and revolutionary politics of Italian photographer Tina Modotti. She was friends with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera in Mexico City, fought in the Spanish Civil War and spied on the Nazis in Berlin in the 1930s. Seven actors portray 25 episodes in Modotti’s life, each in a different theatrical style as Aguirre, who also directs, explores the question: what is the personal cost of political militancy.

Gertrude & Alice

When: Nov. 6-23

Where: PAL Studio Theatre

Tickets and info: From $35 at www.westergoldtheatre.org

One of the best local plays of 2024 gets a remount in the intimate PAL Studio. Alice B. Toklas was Gertrude Stein’s lover and companion for four decades until Stein’s death in 1946. Written by three women from Toronto, the play has the two characters address the audience and each other to try to illuminate the life and weirdly ingenious modernist writings and artistic influence of Stein. Elegantly directed by Lois Anderson with terrific performances by Tanja Dixon-Warren and Kelsi James.

MJ: The Musical

When: Nov. 25-30

Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 630 Hamilton St.

Tickets and info: From $89.80 at ticketmaster.ca

Another theatrical biography of an artistic genius, this Michael Jackson musical from the Broadway Across Canada touring company, with book by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, presents a sanitized version of MJ’s life, from his harsh childhood to the Jackson Five era with Motown to his solo megastar successes. It ends in 1992, before the scandals that finally consumed him. But it encompasses all Jackson’s greatest hits and spectacular choreography, the things for which, at his best, we remember him.

Classical music

After an extended spate of golden summer weeks, it’s time to think about our short fall season of classical music, three months at best before the holidays take over. Although there are no great surprises, our home teams and major presenters offer a solid lineup of events to savour.

Early Music Vancouver: Amanda Forsythe Sings Handel

When: Sept. 27, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Christ Church Cathedral
Info:earlymusic.bc.ca

Early Music Vancouver launches a fall banquet of concerts early with a true blockbuster: Superb American soprano Amanda Forsyth in a mainly Handel program, accompanied by members of EMV’s house band, the Pacific baroque Orchestra. Previous Forsythe visits have delighted audiences, and her way with Handel arias is utterly exemplary. The program also tucks in a commission from T. Patrick Carabré, former director of UBC’s School of Music, plus a Telemann concerto to showcase the orchestra.

Vancouver Opera: Rigoletto

When: Oct. 25 and 30, 7:30 p.m. | Nov. 2, 2 p.m.
Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Info:vancouveropera.ca

Vancouver Opera’s 2025/26 season is an all-favourites affair, starting with Verdi’s Rigoletto, a nasty tale based on Victor Hugo’s essay in power and corruption Le roi s’amuse. While not quite melodrama, this saga is definitely ultra-dramatic and, Verdi being Verdi, full of great tunes, including the soprano showpiece Caro nome — sung by Sarah Dufresne in this production — and the astonishing popular La donna è mobile, as un-PC an aria as you can get. Glynis Leyshon, who mounted an earlier Rigoletto for VO in 2009, directs this collaboration with Pacific Opera Victoria; VO’s music director Jacques Lacombe conducts.

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra: Fauré Requiem

When and where: Nov. 7 and 8, 7:30 p.m., Orpheum Theatre | Nov. 9, 3:30 p.m., Bell Performing Arts Centre
Info:vancouversymphony.ca

The dark days of November often bring programs centred on twin themes of mourning and remembrance. At the VSO, Otto Tausk has assembled a remarkable trio of works: Brahms’ Song of Destiny; Alban Berg’s violin concerto “To the Memory of an Angel”; and Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, a consoling work that nevertheless packs a quietly devastating emotional punch. Maria Milstein, who has recorded with maestro Tausk, is the soloist in Berg’s sublime concerto, and the Vancouver Chamber Choir sings the Brahms and the Fauré.

Friends of Chamber Music: Quatuor Modigliani

When: Nov. 11, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Vancouver Playhouse
Info:friendsofchambermusic.ca

Friends of Chamber Music offers three top string quartets this fall. From a programming perspective, the Remembrance Day program of France’s Quatour Modigliani is truly exceptional. Haydn’s “Lobkowitz” Quartet in F major, Hob. III: 82 is followed by Brahms’ second string quartet. But the opening work compels special attention: contemporary master Gyorgy Kurtag’s 1977 Opus 13 Quartet, comprised of a dozen very short modernist “microludes” — great stuff from one of the treasures of our age.

Vancouver Recital Society: Nicolas Altstaedt, cello and Thomas Dunford, lute

When: Nov. 16, 3 p.m.
Where: Vancouver Playhouse
Info:vanrecital.com

The Vancouver Recital Society’s stock in trade is young performers on the way up, and you can be sure there will be plenty of them in the months ahead. The VRS also takes a broad view of artists and repertoire. Case in point: This pairing of the astonishing French cellist Nicholas Asenstadt with lute player extraordinaire Thomas Dunford. Their program focuses on music by Martin Marais (1656-1728), with other baroque masters added to the mix.