HOLD ON LET GO Festival 2026

Independent Performance, Theatre & Dance in Vancouver

Vancouver’s boundary-pushing performance scene takes centre stage at HOLD ON LET GO 2026, a five-day gathering of experimental theatre, dance, and interdisciplinary performance that invites audiences to lean into uncertainty, imagination, and connection.

📅 Festival Dates

February 3–7, 2026

📍 Venue

Russian Hall
600 Campbell Avenue, Vancouver

For five days and nights, the Russian Hall transforms into a shared creative studio — an open, porous space where artists test new forms, cross disciplines, and present work that resists easy categorization.

🎭 About the Festival

HOLD ON LET GO celebrates the persistence and imagination of independent artists at a time when creating experimental performance is increasingly challenging. This festival protects a fragile but vital space for contemporary work that asks both artists and audiences to sit with complexity, embrace uncertainty, and imagine new possibilities in a rapidly changing world.

Across the program, artists explore deeply personal ecosystems while holding larger systems to account. Performances zoom in and out — from intimate reflection to expansive social questions — revealing how collapse can also hold transformation, connection, and renewal.

Festival gatherings are designed to create room for reflection, agitation, dialogue, and shared experience. And yes — there will be music, too.

🌟 What to Expect

• Innovative theatre, dance, and interdisciplinary performance
• Works that cross genres and challenge traditional formats
• A collaborative festival atmosphere that encourages conversation and connection
• Emerging and established artists sharing bold new ideas
• A welcoming space for audiences curious about contemporary experimental art

🎟 Tickets & Passes

The best way to experience the festival is with an All Access Pass:

All Access Pass – $55
Attend as many events as you wish (up to 11 performances — less than $5 per event if you see them all).

Emerging Artist All Access Pass – $35
Includes access to the Emerging Artist Series curated and hosted by Amanda Sum.

👉 Buy passes and view the full schedule on the official festival website

HOLD ON LET GO is more than a festival — it’s a gathering space for artists and audiences to hold on, let go, and stay with each other through everything that is shifting.

🔗 Discover more arts and cultural events happening around the city on Vancouver Page, your local guide to events in Vancouver.