TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival has scheduled 100 plus virtual events throughout the summer for you to enjoy, including 52 that are free to attend. This runs from June 25th to July 4th, perfect for incorporating a little music into your Canada Day long weekend! The festival will feature many British Columbian artists and join other streams in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Amsterdam, and Paris.

The free program will feature Dawn Pemberton, Alvaro Rojas, Cat Toren’s HUMAN KIND, DJ Kookum (who is the DJ for another Indigenous artist I’ll talk about later) and Sierra Tasi Baker (Squamish Nation artists, storyteller, and dancer), Jillian Lebeck and many many more.

There will be two daily performances at Ocean Art Works on Granville Island at 12 and 1:30 p.m. A single daily routine from Performance Works on Granville Island at 2:30 p.m., and one daily performance from Ironworks in Railtown 4:30 p.m. There will always be free workshops from Tom Lee Music Hall, daily at 3:30 p.m. via Zoom. Other workshop hosts include various pianists, guitarists, and electronic musicians with dates from June 27th to July 2nd.

For more information, you can head to www.coastaljazz.ca/events/list/ then click the filter choose free and workshops.

Now I did say 52 free events, many concerts require a ticket, but they don’t cost a crazy amount as normal in-person shows do. The majority of the ticketed events are 10 to 11 dollars which is very reasonable pricing. If you don’t feel the need to attend one or any of these concerts, that’s a-okay no one is making you.

But if you do want to check them out, here are some of the artists performing Snotty Nose Rez Kids (hip-hop duo of Yung Trybez and Young D featuring DJ Kookum) who are streaming on June 25th at 8 p.m. The Sun Ra Arkestra is streaming July 4th at 10:30 p.m., and earlier in the night, Dallanah Gail Bowen on at 7:30 p.m.

There are quite a few others, but if you want more information, you can visit www.coastaljazz.ca.

Personally, I’m going to try to check out DJ Kookum and Sierra Tasi Baker on July 4th at 1:30 p.m. and Snotty Nose Rez Kids on June 25th at 8 p.m.