Powell Street Festival Society

Join us for Return to Paueru Gai: Celebrating 50 Years of Powell Street Festival at Vancouver Public Library. Featuring a conversation with Editor Emiko Morita, Charlie Smith, and Julia Aoki, moderated by Margaret Gallagher plus special performances by UBC Bujutsu and Uzume Taiko. Wednesday May 20th, 2026 Alice MacKay Room, Lower Level of the Central Vancouver Library Ticket registration available online through VPL, link in our bio #booklaunch #returntopauerugai #vpl #powell50 #powellstreetfestival

We are deeply honoured and grateful. At our 50th Anniversary Dinner & Celebration, the Hirai family presented a landmark gift of $250,000 to the Powell Street Festival Society. This extraordinary contribution reflects a shared commitment to Japanese Canadian arts, culture, and community; values that have connected the Hirai family, Fujiya, and PSFS for nearly five decades. From the earliest days of the Festival, Fujiya has been more than a neighbour and supporter; it has been a gathering place and a cultural anchor within Paueru Gai on Powell Street, helping shape the spirit of community, resilience, and celebration that defines this neighbourhood. We extend our heartfelt thanks to the Hirai family and Fujiya for their generosity, and for their enduring belief in the importance of community-led cultural spaces. Their support goes far beyond this moment, it is part of a long-standing relationship built on care, trust, and shared history. This transformative gift will establish PSFS’s inaugural endowment fund, strengthening the long-term sustainability of the Festival and helping ensure that Japanese Canadian arts, culture, and community programming continue to thrive for generations to come. We are deeply grateful as we look ahead to the next 50 years, inspired by this legacy of generosity and connection. #powell50 #powellstreetfestival #JapaneseCanadian #fujiya #celebration

🎊 PSFS 50th Anniversary Dinner 🏮 It was an honour for us to celebrate this incredible milestone of @powellstfest alongside generations of community members, families, and friends. The evening was a meaningful reminder of Fujiya’s long-standing connection with the festival and the vibrant community that continues to keep its spirit alive 🎌❤️ We’re excited to continue supporting the “Next 50 Years Campaign” with PSFS. Cheers to the past, present, and future together ✨ #powell50 #powellstreetfestival #JapaneseCanadian #fujiya #celebration

Here's to 50 years and the people who helped us get here! We raised our sake cups, savoured every bite of salmon, danced the night away, and felt the warmth of a community that truly makes this all mean something. Thank you to everyone who joined us, you made the evening unforgettable. More photos coming soon to our website, so stay tuned. photos by Matthew Chun #powell50 #powellstreetfestival #community #japanesecanadian #celebration

Our Next 50 Years! As we step into our next chapter, we're launching our inaugural endowment fund with the Vancouver Foundation to secure our programs to and sustain our festival for generation to come. This journey belongs to all of us, volunteers, artists, attendees, mentors, advocates, and friends. Lets build the next 50 years together! Learn how you can be part of our future with the link in our bio. #PowellStreetFestival #JapaneseCanadian #PSFS #CommunityAndCulture #Vancouverfoundation

TICKET GIVEAWAY! We’re excited to partner with @doxafestival for the chance to win 2 free tickets to an all ages film by Shingo Ota called Numakage Public Pool “For over 50 years, Numakage, a public swimming pool complex called the “ocean” within a landlocked city in the suburbs of Tokyo, has served as a much-loved place for the elderly to improve their health, as a leisure facility for children and families, and as one of Japan’s best-known cruising pools for gay men. However, the urban development plan forces the pool to be demolished, ignoring the opposition of many residents and generating a sense of loss in the community. With Numakage Public Pool, Shingo Ota explores the nature of grief by using five psychological processes of denial, anger, negotiation, depression and acceptance, as examined by the psychiatrist Kübler-Ross, and questions the importance of loss that is usually only associated with human death.” To enter: - Follow @powellstfest + @doxafestival - Like this post - Tag someone you’d bring to this screening (each comment = 1 entry) WIN: 2 tickets to the screening plus Q&A at VIFF Centre Saturday, May 2 5:00pm - Giveaway Closes: Next Thursday, April 30th at 4pm - Winner announced via social media message! #DOXA2026 #VancouverEvents #Ticketgiveaway #powell50 #powellstfestival

ENEMY LINES | MAY 6 - MAY 9 Enemy Lines is a live dance performance that looks at how a climate of fear led to the incarceration of Japanese Canadians. The performance elucidates our hardwired need for each other, and the way that disconnection can hinder our growth. Enemy Lines is a tender reminder of the fractures of our collective past and the possibilities for our shared future. 🎭 Enemy Lines 🎬 Choreographed by Mayumi Lashbrook 📍 Firehall Arts Centre 🗓️ May 6 to May 9 Get your tickets at the link in our bio or at www.firehallartscentre.ca! #yvrdance #japanesecanadianart #firehall #vancouverdance #enemylines

We’re hiring 🎉 The Powell Street Festival Society is looking for 3 Production Assistants to help bring the 50th Annual Powell Street Festival to life! From May 19 – August 21, you’ll be part of a collaborative, fast-paced team supporting one of Canada’s longest-running community arts festivals. ✨ Gain hands-on experience in event production ✨ Work alongside artists, vendors & community leaders ✨ Build real skills in logistics, outreach & festival operations ✨ Be part of a milestone 50th anniversary celebration 📍 Vancouver Hours: (35–40 hrs/week) Pay: $21-23/hr (commensurate with experience) Apply by 11:59pm May 10, 2026 If you’re organized, adaptable, and excited about community-based cultural work, we want to hear from you. More information can be found on our website! Send your resume + cover letter to [email protected] #VancouverJobs #ArtsJobs #Powell50 #PowellStreetFestival #CanadaSummerJobs

Join us at Anvil Theatre for an evening of music and memory with Sharon Minemoto’s Goodbye, Strawberry Hill, a deeply personal album tracing family stories shaped by Japanese Canadian internment. Saturday May 2nd, 2026 7:30 PM Tickets available on the Anvil Theatre site!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Return to Paueru Gai Exhibition Opening at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre. It was a great evening for reflection and excitement for the next 50 years ahead! If you haven’t had a chance yet, there’s still time, the exhibition is open to the public through September 27 2026 and is a great way to learn more about the Powell Street Festival and society! Come by during open hours or join us for our 50th Anniversary Dinner to explore the exhibit! Photos by Matthew Chun, 2026 #japanesecanadian #Powellstreetfestival #Powell50 #YVRarts #museum #returntopauerugai

RETURN TO PAUERU GAI, edited by Emiko Morita, celebrates the remarkable history of Vancouver’s Powell Street Festival (@powellstfest ) and the proud Japanese Canadian community behind it. Paueru Gai, the Powell Street neighbourhood in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, was a place of early settlement and forced removal for Japanese Canadians during the shameful years of internment in World War II. But Paueru Gai is also a site of regeneration: Since 1977, a diverse array of people gathers every August in Vancouver’s Oppenheimer Park and the surrounding neighbourhood to honour and celebrate Japanese Canadian history, art, and culture. Powell Street Festival is an act of empowerment that defines and redefines Japanese Canadian identity. In RETURN TO PAUERU GAI, essays, photographs, archival images, and a chronology articulate the festival’s crucial role in uplifting Vancouver’s Japanese Canadian community and affirming its place in the history of the city (and our country). From taiko drumming and sumo wrestling to community food vendors and human rights advocacy, the festival and the people who make it happen come brilliantly alive in this wide-ranging, vibrant book. Essay writers include Musqueam Elder Mary Point, the seniors of Tonari Gumi (the Japanese Community Volunteers Association @tonarigumi.ca ), cultural worker Julia Aoki, journalist Charlie Smith, writer Angela May, and members of the Japanese Canadian Art and Activism Project (@_jcaap ). 🌟 “A 50-year anniversary book could simply serve as a commemorative collectible, but RETURN TO PAUERU GAI is so much more than that—it chronicles the ongoing evolution of the diverse communities of people who share Japanese ancestry, history, and cultural artistic connections. It shows us the passion, the heart, and the political commitment to both memory and change. This book blazes a trail toward the future.” —Hiromi Goto, author of SHADOW LIFE 👉 Out now in Canada (USA May 5, 2026). Get your copy from your favourite local bookstore, or order direct from ArsenalPulp.com

Tickets are now live 🎉 Join us for a special evening celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Powell Street Festival Society. This milestone brings together years of community, supporters, and friends to honour our shared history and look ahead to the future. Inspired by the original 1977 Centennial Stage, this year’s design reflects our roots while marking 50 years of community and culture. Enjoy cultural performances, festival themed dinner, and meaningful connections as we celebrate past, present, and future. 🎟️ Purchase your seat via the link in bio 📅 May 8, 2026 📍 Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre, Hayashi Hall 📷 Tamio Wakayama, 1977