Indian Summer Festival (ISF), Vancouver’s ‘festival for the curious mind’, marks its 10th anniversary by innovating and transforming itself into a spectacular digital season.
To mark 10 years of creativity, the festival presents 10 mega-events, streamed on digital channels at 7:01pm PST every Saturday for 10 weeks, from May 16th to July 18th. All events are free to view, or by donation, with an acknowledgment that this is a difficult time for many.
“It’s an unusual time to be celebrating an anniversary,” says Sirish Rao, ISF’s Artistic Director “but then again, we have always recognized the transformative power of the arts, and our work is all the more urgent now. It’s clear that people have turned once again to music, literature, and film, for levity, for solace, to make sense of our predicament and imagine our futures. In this milestone year, we’re presenting a series of carefully curated events that will help our audience feel a sense of solidarity and purpose in creating a post-pandemic world that is not a return to normalcy as we knew it, but as we can reimagine and remake it.”
The broad theme of this year’s festival is ‘River of Language’ – looking at languages as an ecosystem. Speakers will address the pressing issues of the moment – such as the future of our environment, food security, our financial futures, and the future of community. “We’re excited by the opportunity to bring people together in a digital community. We’ve removed more barriers to accessibility, and hope to reach and engage both our local and an international audience,” says Rao. “I want to really recognize our funders, sponsors, and donors who have stood by us in this difficult time, supported our reinvention, and made all this incredible art available for free while ensuring artists and crew get paid.”
From Grammy Award-winning musicians to emerging poets, Nobel prize-winning economists to visionary environmental warriors, this year’s programming spans literary dialogues, intellectual debates, musical performances, and even culinary experiences.
May event schedule includes:
Date: Saturday, May 23, 2020
Event: ‘The Virus is a Wake-up Call’ Legendary environmental warriors Vandana Shiva and David Suzuki, both winners of the ‘Right Livelihood Prize’ or ‘alternative Nobel’ come together in this rare conversation across continents inviting us to consider the opportunity we have to change our ways of being as a species. We are truly all in this together.
Time: 7:01pm PST
Date: Saturday, May 30, 2020
Event: ‘It Could Be Verse: Poetry for a Pandemic’
For centuries, poetry has been the literary form that has told the stories of our times. A cast of outstanding poets from around the world offer us literature as shelter, medicine and mirror.
Time: 7:01pm PST
For monthly festival highlights, full event lineup, and access to events, visit indiansummerfest.ca
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