The New Leaves Festival of Arts and Culture is returning to the Okanagan this March.
The second annual event will include a three-day weekend filled with music, literature, and performances taking place around 麻豆精选鈥檚 downtown core, with events offered in both English and French.
Starting at BNA Burger on March 6, Inspired Word Cafe (IWC) co-founder Rawle James will headline an open mic night, which includes multilingual music and storytelling, a workshop with two-spirit, Oji-Cree poet and novelist Joshua Whitehead, and ends with the PONY! Cabaret.
PONY! Cabaret, now in its ninth year, is a crowd favourite that is expected to sell out.
IWC executive director Cole Mash explained that last year the New Leaves theme was 鈥淨ueer Art as Resistance,鈥� in response to a local rise in anti-LGBTQ2SIA+ sentiment in the Okanagan and elsewhere.
The 2024 event featured a number of performances and workshops that celebrated queerness in the arts through drag, hip-hop, poetry, punk rock, and more.
鈥淚n 2025, the theme is 鈥淵our Backyard.鈥� While no literal backyards will be featured, the festival wants to celebrate the vibrant literary and performance art right here in 麻豆精选, focusing both on local artists and celebrating Inspired Word Cafe鈥檚 15th Season as a fulcrum of the arts scene,鈥� said Mash.
Marsh added that things have been tough for the arts since the pandemic, so IWC wanted to use the platform of New Leaves to showcase, 鈥渢he incredible community we have right here in our own (figurative) backyards.鈥�
For a full list of events, and show times and to purchase tickets, visit www.inspiredwordcafe.com/events.
