PuSh Festival returns in 2026 with  “Art That Meets the Moment”

Imagine walking into a theatre and realizing the rules you thought you knew about performance don’t exist here. That’s the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Vancouver’s playground for the culturally fearless. For more than 20 years, PuSh has been shaking up expectations: dance collides with theatre, music sparks conversation with multimedia and ideas you thought were familiar twist, crack and open new worlds.

From January 22 to February 8, 2026, 25 presentations from 17 countries take over the city in several venues, from the Scotiabank Dance Centre to the Roundhouse, Annex, the Nest, the Playhouse and more. Vancouver itself becomes part of the show: a stage for wandering, discovering and being surprised at every corner.

Why This Year Feels Different

That sense of discovery arrives at a moment when live art feels especially necessary. Artistic director Gabrielle Martin says this year carries extra weight.

“When I said this year feels like a big deal, I meant it quite literally. In the last year alone, we’ve seen multiple significant threats to arts funding in Canada… Layer that onto a global moment of political volatility, environmental crisis and rising authoritarianism, and it becomes clear how vulnerable cultural expression is right now,” says Martin.

“PuSh isn’t just a festival; it becomes a rare space of orientation and possibility in a world that’s tightening around us.”

For Martin, the thrill of PuSh is the unfamiliar.

“Most of the festival is filled with projects that excite me in that way. PuSh’s goal isn’t to make people uncomfortable but to expand our realms of familiarity—helping us know the world and ourselves differently through the encounter.”

Highlights include Jezebel, which dives into identity and representation; Tanya Tagaq’s Split Tooth: Saputjiji, a fusion of myth, music and storytelling; The Motha’ Kiki Ball, celebrating Black LGBTQ+ performance and fashion and Skin, performed by Roland Walter and Renae Shadler, which challenges what it means to move, dissolves notions of “more” or “less” able bodies and leaves audiences seeing the body and art differently.

Tickets range from $39 to $59 per show, with passes designed to increase accessibility, including a Youth Pass (four shows, $20) and adult passes ($120 to $165). Martin reflects on the real cost of attending live performance.

“Since having a child… I’m much more conscious of what it means for people, especially caregivers, to carve out a night to come to PuSh. It’s a real investment.”

A Festival That Invites Reflection

For Martin, PuSh is more than a collection of performances—it’s a journey across time, memory and imagination.

“Some works stretch us into deep, ancestral timelines; others imagine futures still forming; others stay rooted in the intensity of the present moment. Across that journey, the hope is that people feel invited into alternative ways of knowing and relating—where imagination isn’t escape, but a way of orienting ourselves toward what comes next.”

PuSh 2026 invites audiences to experience the unexpected, see the world differently, feel deeply and leave reminded why live art still matters.

January 22 to February 8, 2026
Multiple Vancouver venues
$39 to $59 per show; passes $20 to $165
25 performances from 17 countries
Full schedule:PuSh International Performing Arts Festival | Vancouver, B.C.