Garden City Grooves

Garden City Grooves Van Island’s home of soul, funk, hip hop and global groove! Garden City Grooves Festival March 19-21, 2026! We're also welcoming incredible DJs like Mt.

We are excited to announce the return of Garden City Grooves 2023! Running February 23-25, 2023, Garden City Grooves XI is set to deliver one of its most expansive, impressive lineups yet, gathering up one of the most unique festival rosters on the west coast. Garden City Grooves will once again be hosted at beautiful White Eagle Polish Hall (90 Dock St.) in James Bay, with three nights of all-age

s programming (and adult beverages for those 19+). Coming up the coast from Oakland, CA, Balkan Bump returns to Victoria for their first-ever headline show in the city and their Garden City Grooves debut. Combining live instrumentation with big, heavy bass, Balkan Bump is one of the most engaging, unique acts in music today – and they'll be landing at Garden City Grooves as a trio, bringing something wholly new to Victoria. One of Vancouver's most talented party-rockers, Australian-transplant, Slynk will be returning to the city for the first time since before the pandemic. Slynk's yearly appearance at Shambhala's legendary Fractal Forest have become a sort of pilgrimage for funk lovers around Canada and we are so excited to have this master of the party at Garden City Grooves for the first time. Rounding out our headliners this year is Victoria's reigning funk monsters, The New Groovement. Armed with some of the best musicians in the city and a
renewed, infectious energy, The New Groovement has been on an absolute tear lately, lighting up dancefloors around the city. They were on the very first Garden City Grooves and we're so excited to close out this years festival with their headlining performance on Saturday, February 25. The rest of this years Garden City Grooves is packed to brim with some of the coolest, grooviest acts we could find including Winnipeg's 9-piece psychedelic jazz-rock outfit Apollo Suns, the jazz-rap fusion of Jonnie 5 Brass Band feat Kia Kadiri, the world beat bass of Adham Shaikh and Buckman Coe's MonkeyDragon and the Ruze Records Crew. Doyle and
Canadian DMC-champion DJ All Good to our stage to add even more flavour to our groovy gravy. If you like groove, in any of its many guises, Garden City Grooves is once again the festival for you! See you on the dance floor!

Congratulations to Souls Of Mischief for being inducted into The National Hip-Hop Museum Hall of Fame! Catch them at Vic...
04/20/2026

Congratulations to Souls Of Mischief for being inducted into The National Hip-Hop Museum Hall of Fame!

Catch them at Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival on Saturday, June 27th at Ship Point Inner Harbour in Victoria BC,

16 likes, 3 comments. "Souls of Mischief Induction Ceremony 2026"

We're still buzzing from Garden City Grooves 2026! Here are some wonderful captures by Johanna Vanderpol / Dodge and Bur...
03/27/2026

We're still buzzing from Garden City Grooves 2026! Here are some wonderful captures by Johanna Vanderpol / Dodge and Burn Photography to help you to reminisce if you were there or remind you to not miss GCG 2027!

Garden City Grooves Festival so far has been a smashing success! From our Kick off all Indigenous hip hop, funk and soul...
03/21/2026

Garden City Grooves Festival so far has been a smashing success! From our Kick off all Indigenous hip hop, funk and soul show to last night's sold out with Alex Cuba Trio, TK the Artist and DJ SUAR3Z this Island has been treated to some world class music in these past 48 hours.

And now the finale show is about to go down tonight featuring Shabazz Palaces, Sargeant X Comrade and Trippycals. Take advantage of this opportunity to see artists like Shabazz Palaces who are coming exclusively to Garden City Grooves Festival. They are the masters of experimental hip hop. Sargeant X Comrade's mix of neo-soul and hip hop lead by Yolanda's crisp vocals will be a pleasant surprise for those that have not seen her. Finally Trippycals mix Latin, hip hop and soul beautifully. They are going to be a solid first band to set the tone for the rest of the evening.

It's going to be busy again tonight but tickets are still available on ticketweb.ca and will also be available at the door. Doors 7:30pm

Also don't forget we have Garden City Grooves Festival merchandise available (hoodies and t-shirts) at the show!

03/20/2026

🤯 Day ☝🏽 of was SO GOOD 🔥

Big love to all the people that came out to vibe with us and a huge shout out to the incredible line up we had!

The Spiritual Warriors Music KAPOK KAYA KO KIVA MH The Melawmen Collective

🎥 Blackwing Visual Media

THANK YOU VICTORIA and the rest of BC and people coming from beyond. We are happy to announce that our Garden City Groov...
03/18/2026

THANK YOU VICTORIA and the rest of BC and people coming from beyond. We are happy to announce that our Garden City Grooves Festival show featuring Alex Cuba Trio, TK the Artist and DJ SUAR3Z is now sold out!

Although the concert is sold out you can still attend the free keynote event prior to the show starting at 6pm titled "Conversations with Alex Cuba: Decades of Navigating the Music Industry"

Also remember we have free programming starting tomorrow Thursday, March 19th with The Melawmen Collective, KIVA MH, KAPOK & Kaya Ko and The Spiritual Warriors

And remember we still have tickets left for Shabazz Palaces, Sargeant X Comrade and Trippycals for Sat. March 21st.

Everything takes place at White Eagle Polish Hall in Victoria starting tomorrow evening!

For more information please check out www.gardencitygrooves.com

and fans Are YOU ready for Thursday's FREE kick off show with The Melawmen Collective, KIVA MH, KAPOK, Kaya Ko and The...
03/18/2026

and fans Are YOU ready for Thursday's FREE kick off show with The Melawmen Collective, KIVA MH, KAPOK, Kaya Ko and The Spiritual Warriors? We sure are!

Friday is the sensational Alex Cuba, Tk The Artist & DJ SUAR3Z

Saturday is the amazing Shabazz Palaces, Sargeant X Comrade and Trippycals

Also a reminder that we have two free workshops (Thursday & Friday)
All information can be found here: https://www.ticketweb.ca/search?q=garden+city

This week: Garden City Grooves 2026 kicks off with a free show Thursday March 19, 2026 and then ticketed shows Friday and Saturday.

Full details at https://victoriaskafest.ca/

We are so excited to have KAPOK and Kaya Ko aka Kayla Abigail Vargas at Garden City Grooves Festival FREE Kick Off this ...
03/17/2026

We are so excited to have KAPOK and Kaya Ko aka Kayla Abigail Vargas at Garden City Grooves Festival FREE Kick Off this Thursday, March 19th at White Eagle Polish Hall in Victoria BC!

Indigenous Mayan emcee and songwriter KAPOK originally from Toronto, but now settled in Vancouver is recognized for his deep roots in hip-hop and collaborations with respected artists such as Moka Only, illa J, T3 of Slum Village, and Posdnuos of De La Soul. His music blends introspective lyricism with rhythmic innovation.

KAPOK will be joined by Kayla Abigail Vargas aka Kaya Ko (in Tagalog means “I can” or “I am capable”). She is a multi-talented vocal sourceress, street soul songstress and creative visionary. Her singing mixing soul, R&B and hip hop with KAPOK is a sight to see.

Don't miss this show! It's free, all ages and licensed for 19yrs+ w/ID. And there is a free keynote event prior to the show at 6pm. For more information visit gardencitygrooves.com

Whether you're a hip hop head or you appreciate the genre even if you're not a head, you'll definitely want to check out...
03/16/2026

Whether you're a hip hop head or you appreciate the genre even if you're not a head, you'll definitely want to check out Garden City Grooves Festival.

The best thing about this festival is we're bringing artists that you may not ordinarily see on tour and the combination of artists on each bill creates a special blend of music that flows from one artist to the next.

Almost all the acts on the kick off free show on March 19th featuring The Melawmen Collective, KIVA MH KAPOK & Kaya Ko will have hip hop in their sets.

KIVA MH is becoming one of the most celebrated Indigenous hip hop artists in Canada. And KAPOK & Kaya Ko blend R&B and soul so well. When you see them perform together you can see how much love they have for each other.

If you're a fan of Digable Planets and/or you enjoy experimental hip hop and conscious lyrics, do yourself a favour and check out Shabazz Palaces. Ismael Butler is the founding member of Digable Planets who are still playing shows. But it took us three years to bring Shabazz Palaces but we made it happen because people kept telling us how dope their last Victoria was.

Finally Sargeant and Comrade will be making their Garden City Grooves Festival debut coming from Calgary. Yolanda's crisp vocals mixed with the band's neo-soul and hip hop blend make them the perfect direct support for Shabazz Palaces.

Be sure to check out the whole festival March 19 - 21st but if you love hip hop DO NOT MISS our all Indigenous kick off show on Thursday March 19th (free show) and Shabazz Palaces, Sargeant X Comrade & Trippycals on Saturday, March 21st (ticketed show). 😌💯

Tickets available now on ticketweb.ca or from Destination Greater Victoria (Tourist Info Centre on Wharf Street in Victoria).

We were so grateful to work with Brianna Bear (Lekwungen Indigenous artist) to finally have the first ever merchandise f...
03/14/2026

We were so grateful to work with Brianna Bear (Lekwungen Indigenous artist) to finally have the first ever merchandise for Garden City Grooves since we started producing the festival 8 years ago. Brianna was such a joy to work with and her design really pops!

Brianna said on her Instagram page, "I had the honour of designing a new logo for the upcoming Garden City Grooves event happening in just a couple of weeks! 🌸🎶
It was such a pleasure connecting and collaborating with Dane to bring this design together. The logo features a **dogwood flower** as the main image, layered over a **record background** as a nod to the original logo and the music that brings this event to life.
I’m always grateful for opportunities like this to create and collaborate within community. If you’re heading to the show, keep an eye out for the design!"

We will be making another post later today to show you what this design looks like on t-shirts and hoodies which will be for sale at the festival March 19 - 21, 2026!

Tickets to Garden City Grooves Festival on sale now at Ticketweb.ca or at Destination Greater Victoria Tourist Info on Wharf Street.

More news on this to come!

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