This years Indian Summer Festival will feature the fearless Kiran Doel, a sharply funny voice redefining what it means to be a South Asian woman in comedy. A Harvard-educated comedian, actor, writer, and filmmaker, Kiran brings a rare blend of intellect and irreverence to the stage—delivering blistering commentary on politics, identity, and the absurdities of modern life.
Opening the show is master sitarist, Mohamed Assani, who’s music doesn’t just cross borders— it flows across geographies, marrying ancient traditions with modern resonance at the Vancouver Playhouse on July 8.
Alam Khan, son and disciple of Maestro Ali Akbar Khan and the grandson of Ustad Allauddin Khan, following in his esteemed family’s footsteps with his mastery of the sarod, a lute-like 25-stringed fretless Indian classical instrument, related to the sitar and one of the primary instruments of classical Indian music, will be at the Surrey Art Centre on July 12.
The 48th Annual Vancouver Folk Music Festival will take place from July 18 to 20, 2025, featuring a diverse lineup of over 40 artists at Jericho Beach Park.
Vancouver based Haram, Arabic for “forbidden, will be the opening act on the main stage. Described as “Arabic music, from Iraqi folk to Egyptian radio music, lovingly reinterpreted by Vancouver’s most creative musicians”, Gordon Grdina’s Haram is a sterling example of this very thing. JUNO Award-winner and Canadian oud virtuoso Grdina leads a 10-piece powerhouse Arabic/avant-garde ensemble from our very own city that will knock your socks off!
Using Arabic music from great composers like Farid Al-Atrache and Oum Khalsoum as a starting point, Haram’s music constantly shifts directions while building to euphoric crescendos. This cross-cultural, boundary-annihilating music will appeal equally to lovers of world, folk, jazz, avant-garde, and indie music–a brilliant mix of effortless cohesion and wild abandon.
“The music’s backbone is traditional, but wild outbursts of free improvisation and subtle injections of noise make it quite unlike anything you’d hear in the shisha dens of Cairo or Baghdad.” – Alex Varty, The Georgia Straight.
Haram is a Vancouver super-group of outstanding musicians, many of whom have played the festival in the past–on their own and in other contexts. Haram is Gordon Grdina guitar/oud, Emad Armoush vocals/ney, Tim Gerwing darbuka, Liam MacDonald riq, Tommy Babin bass, Kenton Loewen drums, Chris Kelly saxophone, François Houle clarinet, JP Carter trumpet, and Jesse Zubot violin.
Tanzania’s The Zawose Queens will be the closing act on the opening night on the main stage. The music of the Wagogo or Gogo people of central Tanzania is percussion-driven with gorgeous vocal polyphonies, featuring traditional instruments like thumb piano (illimba) that are often homemade.
Pendo and Leah Zawose come from a dynasty of Gogo musicians. Pendo’s father was Hukwe Zawose, an internationally known musician who recorded for Real World Records and made WOMAD appearances. Pendo joined her dad’s band when she was 14 but as a woman she was not permitted to sing lead vocals or play certain instruments.
Now, with The Zawose Queens, she and her niece Leah are front and centre, showing generations–young and old–that women can be lead contributors in Gogo music.
“The women were always in the background,” Pendo says. “We would travel and perform with family members but the women have always been sidelined. This is an opportunity to be at the forefront, prove myself, and shine.”