Harrison Festival 2026
Harrison Festival of the Arts Launches its 2026 Program
47th Harrison Festival Promises Blues Roots, Canadiana, and Global Sounds
The 2026 HarrisonFestival of the Arts is announcing its July festival lineup. The 47th edition of this well-loved annual summer event takes place July 10-19 in Harrison Hot Springs, featuring a range of global music styles from across Canada and around the world. The multidisciplinary festival also includes a live artisan market along the stunning waterfront, an Evening of Theatre, a visual arts exhibit, a midweek Children’s Day, and hands-on workshops.
Tickets will go on sale Thursday April 16 for concerts in the Memorial Hall. The diverse program will please dancers and focused music listeners alike, and will feature a coast-to-coast range of Canadian performers alongside some international touring artists. The whole week kicks off in the Memorial Hall with a barn dance on Friday July 10, with music and dance calling by East Coast trio Marrow Bones. Saturday night the 11th will bring the brass-funk party of Ontario’s My Son the Hurricane, and the weekend will close out July 12th with Grammy Award winning Cuban-Canadian songwriter Alex Cuba. The week begins Monday the 13th with one of Canada’s folk music icons, Saskatchewan’s Connie Kaldor. Tuesday the 14th is the Evening of Theatre, with a hit play of the Vancouver Fringe Festival, Camp Goneaway. One of Canada’s top blues artists, guitarist and singer Sue Foley performs Wednesday night, followed Thursday by New Orleans funk band The Rumble, with a sound reminiscent of The Meters or The Neville Brothers. The second weekend launches Friday night with well-known Canadian songwriter Hawksley Workman, and on Saturday the 18th the festival continues its tradition of bringing in world class African music with Benin Music International from West Africa. The festival closes out Sunday July 19th with virtuosic west coast folk music stalwarts The Bills.
The accessibly-priced ticketed hall shows are just one aspect of the festival. The waterfront Beach Stage will present music on both weekend afternoons, along with midweek evenings, in an intimate, ungated area with the beautiful Harrison Lake as a backdrop. 21 acts will perform on the free-access stage over the 9 days, ranging from the bhangra of Abbotsford’s Rangla Punjab Academy to farther afield artists like Ontario’s Medusa Quartet, who play forgotten folk fiddles of various countries, and the East Coast, Mi’Kmaq, Juno winning fiddler Morgan Toney. The Beach Stage is a chance to check out compelling new artists such as Scotland’s Bridghe Chambeuil, who explores new frontiers of sound on the Scottish small pipes, or the Mexican-Arabic fusion of Quebec’s El Balcon. And of course dancers will revel in groups such as Vancouver’s marimba band Kutapira, Quebec’s lively La Deferlance, or Toronto’s Waleed Kush Afro-Jazz. BC is well represented, with Vancouver’s Headlong Hearts, northern BC’s Sm’algya̱x language rock trio G̱a̱mksimoon, and Chilliwack’s own Chilliwack Rock Choir.
While live performance is the largest part of the Harrison Festival, the visual arts play an important part, with a juried artisan market stretched along the waterfront on July 11, 12, 17, 18 and 19. There will also be an art exhibit by Toronto-based artist and musician Soozi Schlanger in the Ranger Station Gallery, in partnership with the Kent Harrison Arts Council. Soozi will be conducting her own hands-on art workshop as well, “Postcards from Newfoundland” on each Saturday of the festival. Other workshops at the festival include a drum making workshop with Sts’ailes elder Darren Charlie, as well as a ukulele song circle and music workshops by some of the performing artists.
Children’s Day, which has traditionally been held on the Wednesday of the festival week, will be moved to Thursday July 16th s, and will feature bilingual French/English rapper Missy D, who is a well known hit on the school circuit in BC. Other perfomers on the bill will be returning performers Norden the Magician and Bollywood dancer Karima Essa. Tickets to the Children’s Day site provide access to all concerts and activities, including arts and crafts and a climbing wall.
About the Harrison Festival Society
Known worldwide for its professional artistry and small town hospitality, the Harrison Festival Society has long been a beacon for growing acceptance of diversity and purpose fueled programming. Each July for more than 45 years the Society has produced the internationally acclaimed Harrison Festival of the Arts, a nine day, cross disciplinary, multicultural art event set amidst the small town atmosphere and breathtaking scenery of Harrison Hot Springs, BC. A non-profit, grass-roots organization, the Society also presents an annual Season of the Performing Arts from September to May and works closely with a number of Fraser Valley partners in continuing to bring high quality, inclusive and accessible performing arts into the area.
More info:
https://harrisonfestival.com/
