From July 5 to 15, Indian Summer Festival returns for its eighth year, bringing global arts and culture to venues across the city

The theme pf this year's festival—which presents a continent-spanning range of artists, from the inheritors of ancient oral storytelling traditions to genre-defying musicians, award-winning novelists, and provocative visual, performance and culinary artists—is "mythmaking".

Artistic director Sirish Rao told the Georgia Straight in a recent interview:

In its entirety, I'm hoping to look at 10 centuries of the human imagination. How have we told stories? How can we continue to tell stories? What stories are important? We do need these narratives to keep us together. In that sense, the festival is a narrative act. It's saying, 'Hey, this is the story, this is the society we would like to see, come in.' It's a conversation. 

Highlights of the 2018 lineup include the "5x15" global speaker series, featuring Jarrett Martineau,cofounder of contemporary Indigenous-music record label Revolutions Per Minute, and prize-winning CanLit luminary Charlotte Gill; "Confluence", an evening of words and music featuring Emmy- and Juno Award-nominated music producer Adham Shaikh, interdisciplinary artist Rup Sidhu, Anishinaabe singer-songwriter Ansley Simpson, and writer and musician Leanne Simpson; a concert by North Indian bamboo flute master Hariprasad Chaurasia; and "Songs for Scheherazade", an outdoor performance by the Allegria Chamber Orchestra and sitar player Mohamed Assani.

For the full event lineup, visit the Indian Summer Festival website.