2023 Unison Festival

The 2023 Unison Festival

Theme: Open Harbour

The Unison Festival is a quadrennial weekend choral festival featuring Canada’s 2SLGBTQIA+ choruses. The first festival was in Edmonton in 1998 and festivals have since been held in Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Calgary.

The festival will bring together around 22 choirs from all over Canada. In addition, there will be invited performers. It is expected the festival will have between 600 and 1,000 participants.

Host Choruses are The WomenNextDoor and the HalifaxGayMensChorus.

May 2023

The schedule for May, 2023 currently includes:

• Friday the 19th: Reception & opening concert with host choruses and special guests
• Saturday & Sunday, 20 & 21: several concerts each afternoon
• Sunday evening: Banquet & dance party
• Monday the 22nd, afternoon: closing concert
• ... and a program of social activities throughout the weekend

Unison Choruses Canada is a national not-for-profit organization that acts as a hub for Canadian 2SLGBTQIA+ choruses. Unison facilitates connections between choruses and provides resources to help choruses with administration, fundraising and programming. This festival is Unison’s flagship event.

The full schedule will be published on their website, unisonfestivalunisson.ca.

History

At the 2018 Unison Choral Festival in Calgary, the WomenNextDoor won their bid to bring this festival to the East Coast for the first time in its 20-year history.