You can feel the life of a city through its arts and entertainment and Victoria is alive with culture. Victoria and Vancouver Island boast a year-round schedule of cultural entertainment bursting with talent. Experience live theatre, art exhibits, music concerts, summer festivals and film. Be moved. Be inspired. Be entertained.

The performing arts are well represented in Victoria and on Vancouver Island. Professional and amateur theatre and dance companies perform in historical playhouses, modern arts centres and small, quaint community theatres. Victoria is also home to the acclaimed Pacific Opera Victoria.

Victoria and Vancouver Island are home to numerous art galleries, exhibits and studios. You can walk from gallery to gallery in Victoria’s downtown core or drive the country roads to visit artisans’ studios. Paintings, prints, sculpture, glass, wood and pottery can all be found and the traditional art of the First Nations peoples is also prevalent throughout the Island. Salt Spring Island and the Gulf Islands are also world-renowned as creative centres.

Music for all tastes fills local concert halls, cathedrals, nightclubs and pubs. The Victoria Symphony entertains audiences all year long, the highlight of its season, and a Victoria tradition, is the Bayview Residences Victoria Symphony Splash: a by-donation concert performed from a barge in the Inner Harbour to over 40,000 people.

Music and arts festivals throughout the summer and throughout the Island celebrate jazz, blues, r&b, folk, independent film, Shakespeare and fringe theatre. Buskers and street performers add colour to Victoria’s streets and Inner Harbour. During the summer, bring a lawn chair and a blanket and enjoy classic movies at the harbour boardwalk. A number of movie theatres deliver Hollywood blockbusters and Independent films to residents and visitors, and the National Geographic IMAX Theatre brings images to life on a screen over six storeys tall.

Please see the Tourism Victoria member businesses offering Arts and Entertainment. For a complete listing of all Tourism Victoria businesses, please visit our Business Directory.