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When Tarun Nayar graduated from high school and told his parents—both scientists—that he wanted to pursue the arts, their answer came easy.

“My dad was like, ‘No way in hell,’ which is a pretty classic Indian dad thing to say,” Nayar remembers with a laugh.

Instead, he got a master’s degree in biology and played in bands on the side. Nayar had been studying classical Indian music since he was seven years old, and his band, Delhi 2 Dublin, became a Vancouver favourite for its fusion of Bhangra and Celtic music. But when COVID hit the live music scene hard, he (like many of us) turned to a new hobby.

“While other people were making sourdough, I was playing with synthesizers,” Nayar recalls.

The biologist brought together his scientific knowledge and artistic passion: using a variety of synthesizers and instruments, he tapped the bioelectric signals of plants and mushrooms to make music.

“We’re turning electrical changes into sound,” he explains, adding that those changes vary depending on the time and place—whether the plant is photosynthesizing or whether it’s been watered recently. Plants with waxy leaves (like conifers) are trickier to tap into; a succulent is easier to work with than a fern.

Don’t get it? Don’t worry. Modern Biology, Nayar’s stage name for his “mushroom music”, is a show many have to see to believe. And the next opportunity to see him live happens to be in a truly spectacular venue: the VanDusen Botanical Garden during Indian Summer Festival.

“We’re really lucky to have him,” says Am Johal, Indian Summer Festival’s executive artistic director.

Johal has been a part of the festival since its inception 16 years ago when he worked at SFU in community engagement and the university was a festival partner. He served as a board member and festival curator before taking on his current role.

He stresses the multidisciplinary mandate of Indian Summer Festival: not only does the festival “take a broad understanding—a kind of borderless idea—of what South Asian might mean”, it’s also a festival that meaningfully and purposefully celebrates all kinds of arts, including dance, film, writing, poetry, visual arts, and music (in both mushroom and non-mushroom genres).

The 2026 fest, taking place July 9 to 19 in various venues across the city, is hosting some notable international guests. Sri Lanka-born, London-based comedian Vidura Bandara Rajapaksa will be making his Vancouver debut for the opening night, while Rashmeet Kaur, a singer on a meteoric rise in India, will also be performing for the first time in Vancouver, appearing at the Playhouse on July 11.

Nayar (whose parents, of course, are now ecstatic about him pursuing music and science at the same time) is one of many artists grateful for Indian Summer Festival’s continued support of singers, dancers, writers, and musicians closer to home.

“I think it’s fantastic that a local festival has prioritized staging local artists,” the plant synthesizer says.

Events showcasing British Columbian talent include a conversation with Indigenous writer and filmmaker Julian Brave NoiseCat (July 10 at Waterfront Theatre), visual art by Farheen Haq (on display on Grunt Gallery’s Community Art Screen at Broadway and Kingsway), and a performance from sitarist Mohamed Assani (July 18 at the Ismaili Centre Vancouver). The festival closes with a free party in Punjabi Market on July 19.

“I think in this moment in time, there’s a lot of instability in the arts,” says Johal, noting that the recent live music venue shutdowns, lack of event sponsorship, and the arrival of FIFA are driving up costs for everything. He says arts organizations have had to choose whether to “go smaller to ride out the risk” or “put it all on the table and hope that the audience will come with you”.

“We’ve chosen the latter,” he affirms.

This July’s festival brings together over 90 artists under the theme “Ragas for a Ruptured World”. A raga, Johal explains, is a melodic framework used as a structure for improvised music.

“We’re using it metaphorically,” he offers, “in the sense of how we’re all trying to get by and make way in this world that’s changing underneath our feet.”

Nayar describes VanDusen as “the ultimate place to do what I do”. Surrounded by swaying trees and blooming flowers, listening to a mushroom tell you how hydrated it is through electricity—it sounds like something you’d experience high, but it doesn’t get more grounded than that. GS

Indian Summer Festival runs at venues across the Lower Mainland from July 9 to 19.