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March 5-7, 2026

Flip your leaf!

The New Leaves Festival of Arts and Culture returns to venues across Kelowna from March 5-7, 2026!

IWC’s annual festival, New Leaves, welcomes myriad artists from the Okanagan and across Canada—including writers, drag queens, filmmakers, musicians and more—for three days of high-calibre performance engaging the idea of how art can be used as a vehicle for sociopolitical resistance and community building. Taking the idiom “turning over a new leaf,” the festival features an annually changing theme that responds to a community-expressed need or topical issue.

This year's theme is “Abundance,” an abstract concept that might be seen as both positive (as in abundant harvest) and negative (as in excessive waste). Responding to issues of abundance in the Okanagan, such as the growing disparity of wealth and the increasing effects of climate crisis, we ask: how might the arts engage the duality of abundance, locally, to affect positive change? In which ways are we taking too much, and in which ways might we give more?

Five exciting events make up this year’s festival: the Spoken Word Sesh with our featured performer and an Open Mic; a multilingual Open Mic hosted in French at UBCO; a double-feature film screening at the Innovation Centre; a hands-on zine-making workshop; and, to close out the festival, the not-to-be-missed 10th annual PONY! Cabaret!

See you leaves on the flipside!