Arts & Theatre Festivals in Toronto

Next Stage Theatre Festival

The Next Stage Theatre Festival (NSTF) is the premiere winter theatre event in the city. Produced by the Toronto Fringe, NSTF is a platform for past Fringe artists to take groundbreaking work to the next level – and a gathering place for discerning culture lovers in the city. Details

Toronto Tango Marathon

Enjoy an amazing weekend of Tango in Toronto. With great music, lots of dancing and delicious refreshments. We have invited outstanding DJs to keep you dancing to the wee hours. Get ready for an amazing three days and nights of pure tango in Toronto! Details

Dance Ontario Dance

DanceWeekend’17 will be nothing short of fabulous! See an eclectic array of performances by Toronto’s established and emerging companies and get inspired by rich traditions from around the globe viewed through this city’s unique lens. Not to be missed: two world premiere commissioned works from edgy contemporary creators! Details

Toronto Design Offsite Festival

Toronto Design Offsite Festival (TO DO) takes design out of the studio and into the city, transforming Toronto into a hub for all things design. As an annual Festival, TO DO is a space to engage in design that’s unpretentious, exciting, accessible, and fun. Storefronts display exciting exhibitions, galleries host immersive installations, and local and international designers spark discussion with lectures and workshops open to everyone to participate and learn. Details

RHUBARB FESTIVAL

Canada’s longest-running new works festival returns for a 39th year. For two weeks, Buddies is transformed into a hotbed of experimentation, with artists exploring new possibilities in theatre, dance, music, and performance art. Rhubarb is the place to see the most adventurous ideas in performance and to catch your favourite artists venture into uncharted territory. Details

Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival

The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival is Toronto’s comedy festival, highlighting the best live, scripted comedy in North America all in one place. Since 2005 the Festival has brought sketch comedy to wider audiences with ticketed and free performances showcasing hundreds of artists in acts such as Kate McKinnon, Kids in the Hall, Michael Ian Black, Gavin Crawford, Sassy Gay Friend, FrankenMatt, Picnicface, and The Irrelevant Show. Details

New Ideas Festival

The annual New Ideas Festival is a three-week, juried festival of new writing, works-in-progress, and experimental theatre with a different program of plays each week and staged readings on the three Saturdays. Details

Toronto Story Telling Festival

Stories and art activities for families, led by emerging community storytellers, professional storytellers, and artists. Details

Fashion Art Toronto

Fashion Art Toronto is an arts & fashion week that celebrates contemporary art + design through runway shows, live performances, fashion films, photography exhibits and art installations. This annual multi-arts event, held every April, features 200 Canadian and International fashion designers and artists each year, and welcomes over 5,000 guests; including buyers, curators, the media, and fashion and art lovers in general. Details

Paprika Festival

Performing arts festival of new work by young artists. Details

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival

Every year the Toronto Comic Arts Festival showcases Canada’s incredible comics talent on a world stage by promoting some of our best and brightest creators and publishers, and inviting the attention of the global cartooning community. Details

SOULO Theatre Festival

The SOULO Theatre Festival is Toronto’s annual One-Person Show Festival that celebrates the best of Solo Theatre with top notch workshops and panels that teach people how to create their own solo show. Details

COMBUSTION festival

Presented by Bad Dog Theatre. This week-long comedy party will bring together some of the most exciting, talented, boundary-pushing, genre-bending, industry-leading improvisers in North America and beyond – to showcase what they do best and to collaborate on festival-exclusive projects and shows. Details

InspiraTO Festival

Canada’s largest ten-minute play festival. With ten days of exciting theatre, it’s worth planning. Details

Toronto Festival of Clowns

The Toronto Festival of Clowns aims to bring together clowns and physical theatre artists of all disciplines and backgrounds and provide a common space to showcase their work. Details

Toronto Tango Festival

Toronto Tango Festival is a four day celebration of Argentine Tango, with workshops for all levels, practicas, milongas, performances and more. Explore and enrich your passion for this captivating dance at the biggest Argentine Tango event in Toronto. Details

Luminato Festival

One of the preeminent arts festivals in North America! Luminato Festival is Toronto’s international multi-arts festival for people open to having art change their outlook on the world. Each June, Luminato Festival transforms Toronto’s theatres, parks and public spaces with hundreds of events celebrating theatre, dance, music, literature, food, visual arts, magic, film, and more. Details

Indigenous Arts Festival

The Indigenous Arts Festival celebrates traditional and contemporary music, dance, theatre, storytelling, spoken word, visual arts, crafts, and food created by indigenous artists. Energizing the grounds and buildings of Fort York National Historic Site in downtown Toronto with powerful ancient traditions and compelling contemporary creations. Details

Fringe Festival

Toronto’s largest theatre festival caters to people’s eclectic tastes with 1,100+ fresh, innovative and often jaw dropping performances! Choose Your Own Adventure denotes the ability to craft your own experience from a diverse list of theatre, comedy and dance performances, venues, Tent Talks, Visual Fringe, Shed Shows and Fringe After Dark programming. Details

Guild Alive with Culture

Arts & Music Festival. Details

Summer Works Performance Festival

Theatre, Dance, Music, and Live Art. 11 days of Canada’s most innovative and original performance, the latest and greatest in performance making and breaking. Details

Word on the Street

Participate in hundreds of author readings, discussions, and activities, and shop in a marketplace that boasts the best selection of Canadian books and magazines you’ll find anywhere. There’s plenty to see and do at Canada’s largest FREE book and magazine festival! Details

EDIT

Step inside a world where crickets combat global hunger, medical supplies are 3D-printed in outer space, drones deliver blood to remote communities, and shipping containers are the future of farming. Produced by Design Exchange, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme – UNDP, EDIT: Expo for Design, Innovation & Technology is a 150,000-square-foot immersive experience that envisions a world transformed by unparalleled design, innovation and technology solutions. Details.

Culture Days

Culture Days invites everyone to explore, discover and participate in arts and culture in every community across the country. The event will feature free, hands-on, interactive activities that invite the public to participate “behind the scenes”—and to discover the world of artists, creators, historians, architects, curators, and designers at work in their community. Details

Nuit Blanche

In addition to the downtown exhibition sites, on September 29, 2018 art enthusiasts will be able to experience artworks from local, national and international artists in a dedicated City-produced Nuit Blanche Toronto exhibition at Scarborough Civic Centre, Scarborough Town Centre and neighbouring institutions within the community. Details

#JFL 42

Toronto’s Comedy Festival. Details

TUDS Festival of Urban Dance Culture

La crème de la crème in Urban Dance reunite for TUDS Festival of Urban Dance Culture 9th edition. [Powered by Gadfly] – Professional All-styles Dance Battle, Urban Dance Theatre Shows, Workshops, Dance Debates, Awards. Details

Fall For Dance North

Fall for Dance North is an annual international dance festival. Details

Big City Improv Festival

Big City Improv Festival (BCIF) is Canada’s largest improv showcase, featuring the best performers from across North America. No scripts allowed at BCIF! Every act will make everything up on stage with the help of audience suggestions, meaning every show is a one-night-only event. Details

International Festival of Authors

Each fall, the International Festival of Authors brings together the world’s best writers of contemporary literature for 11 days of readings, interviews, lectures, round table discussions, public book signings and a number of special events, including celebrations of the Governor General’s Literary Award and Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize finalists, as well as the awarding of the Harbourfront Festival Prize. Details

The FireWorks Festival

The FireWorks Festival offers new full-length plays developed at Alumnae, associated workshops, panel discussions and other events, offering a rare opportunity to explore behind-the-scenes issues and aspects of the productions. Details