Our Recommendations
Indulge your appetite for arts and culture.
With so many exciting arts and culture events happening you can feel overwhelmed. The Music on Main Team is here to help! We’ve carefully chosen a list of wonderful digital and live events to discover and experience. Whether you’re looking for a theatrical diversion or a blockbuster art show, some new dance or a classical concerto, our recommendations is a list of must-see events whenever you’re looking for a hit of culture. Make sure to check back often, as we are always scouting fun events that we think you’ll love!
Our Recommendations are must-see events, some from our Vancouver home base and a few from across the globe that we think you’ll enjoy. We’re your trusted source that you’ll want to come back to every time you’re looking for something new and exciting to discover. If you’re looking for only Music on Main events check here.
Revitalizing Radio!
EARTH DAY, Tuesday, April 22, 2025
Join a growing Earth Day tradition. Tune in to the 9th annual 24-hour Wetland Project slow radio broadcast. Artists Brady Marks and Mark Timmings invite you to fill your home, work, vehicle and leisure spaces with the resonant sounds of birds, frogs, insects and airplanes! Immerse yourself in the vitality of the 24-hour circadian rhythm of the ṮEḴTEḴSEN marsh in unsurrendered W̱SÁNEĆ territory (Saturna Island, British Columbia). The broadcast engages its audience in real time and stimulates a powerful re‑engagement with the living environment. At a time when the world is in great turmoil, slow radio offers us a life-affirming space to reflect on a more lucid and caring future.
WORLDWIDE STREAM: wetlandproject.com/stream in sync with your local time wherever you are. Join the conversation on the 24-hour stream.
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Mechanical Hymns
Mechanical Hymns is an exhibition of factory machines repurposed into custom-made instrument(s). The cathartic and droning machine hymns recreate soundscapes from the artist’s childhood experience of visiting her mother at a garment factory featuring the sounds of machines, women’s voices in multiple languages conversing in harmony all at once (but often seen as noise and disruptive), and a cassette player running droning religious music in the background – an interesting contrasting of the meditative with aggressive machines.
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LOVE YOU WRONG TIME
A hilarious, no-holds-barred song cycle featuring two friends looking for love while contending with the fetishization of Asian women.
Using music, true stories, bar games, and stand up, Maddie Bautista and Deanna H. Choi’s inventive, interactive show serves as a battle cry in the wake of mass violence against Asian femmes, creating a space for rage, grief, tenderness and ruthless comedy. It’s a good time, with teeth.
This smart, hilarious comedy sold out before the opening of its world premiere—don’t miss your chance to see it at The Cultch!
Winner of 2 Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Outstanding Sound Design & Composition, Outstanding Performance in an Ensemble)
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where you go
Continuing our work with Indigenous choreographer Olivia C Davies, we return to tell more of the story of Where You Go weaving together voices, dance, lighting and costume design, to create an immersive journey through love, friendship and devotion. Davies’ writes: “In a world where the only event that keeps you moving forward is the potential that you will meet your beloved once again, haunted by words said and unsaid, and by regrets and hopes unfulfilled, abandoning the struggle for power in a field of possibility after the loss, they wander here where damages are repaired, love knows no bounds and the only way to go is up. Climbing forever up towards the stars that only shine for them, falling ever so softly back to the earth to start all over again. This pair of star-crossed lovers, reunited in the Afterlife, carry forward the agreement of the heart, ’til death do us part.’”
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30th Anniversary Concert and Reception
Celebrate Standing Wave’s 30th Anniversary at the Annex with what is sure to be Vancouver’s new music event of the year! This extraordinary evening will feature no fewer than five world premieres by composers with deep ties to the ensemble: Peggy Lee, Nicole Lizée, Matthew-John Knights, Russell Wallace, and Jacqueline Leggatt. These brand new works showcase the innovative spirit that has defined Standing Wave for three decades. Join us for an unforgettable night of cutting-edge music, and stay for a celebratory reception to toast the ensemble’s remarkable legacy. Tickets are limited, so secure yours early!
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Gamelan Gita Asmara
Vancouver’s only 25-piece Balinese gamelan ensemble performs in New Westminster for the first time! Immerse yourself in the shimmering percussive sounds of Balinese music, accompanied by intricate dances and colourful costumes. With three international guest artists, Gamelan Gita Asmara (GGA) will perform a range of traditional and contemporary works of music and dance.
Gamelan Gita Asmara celebrates its 23rd season with a stunning concert of dance and instrumental music from the classical traditions of the island of Bali, Indonesia. Artistic director Michael Tenzer and guest director I Putu Swaryandana Ichi Oka have programmed a collection of works that provide a cross-section of the styles and forms of gamelan music and dance.
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