Welcome to the 2026 VKMF Large Ensembles Festival Season
Dear Directors,
Welcome to the 2026 Vancouver Kiwanis Music Festivals – Large Ensembles Season! We’re thrilled to have you join us for another year of inspiring performances, learning, and community music-making.
🎵 Festival Dates & Venue
All Large Ensemble festivals will take place at Bethany Baptist Church (22680 Westminster Hwy, Richmond, BC).
Jazz Festival: February 25–27, 2026
Concert Band & Orchestra Festival: March 2–7, 2026
Choral Festival: March 9–12, 2026
This change allows us to host all Large Ensemble events in one location, with an excellent layout for festival flow and a central position within the Lower Mainland.
As Bethany is a church facility, we ask that all participants conduct themselves with the utmost respect for the venue and its property. Unfortunately, last year we experienced incidents of vandalism and disruptive behaviour from a few groups at Massey Theatre. We appreciate your support in ensuring all students represent their schools and the festival positively this year.
📝 Registration Now Open!
Registration for all Large Ensemble festivals is now open, with an earlier deadline this year — December 12, 2025. Register here.
This earlier deadline will allow us to release schedules to directors in January (Jazz first, then CBO, then Choral) so you can confirm busses and logistics well in advance.
We’ve also switched to a new registration system, which should make the process much smoother than last year. You’ll notice a small $10 increase per registration this year — this covers the new platform cost.
Please note that on the initial account creation screen, the system still uses dance-based terminology, as this software is primarily used by dance festivals. (i.e. “Studio Director” would equate to Music Director.) Once your account is created, you’ll enter the VKMF environment, where the terminology aligns with our music festival structure.
During the registration process, you’ll be asked to enter the name of your Performance Group. Please list it exactly as you’d like it to appear in the festival program and on your certificate. If your ensemble’s name isn’t unique on its own, please include your school name for clarity (for example, Howe Sound Secondary Band 11 rather than just Band 11).
Last year, we know that completing a single registration could take 30–60 minutes. With our new registration system, setup should be much faster — in our testing, it took about 2½ minutes to create a teacher login and another 2½ minutes to register a single ensemble. We hope you’ll find this new process a significant improvement over last year’s experience!
If you have any questions or encounter any issues, please don’t hesitate to reach out — we’re here to help.
⏰ Scheduling Requests
All scheduling requests this year must be submitted through our Google Form, where each submission is automatically time- and date-stamped.
Requests will be addressed in the order they are received. While we cannot guarantee specific placements, we will do our best to accommodate as many requests as possible.
👉 Tip: Submit your requests early for the best chance of accommodation!
🍴 Food Options at Bethany
Bethany Baptist doesn’t have restaurants nearby, so we’re planning to provide on-site food options for participants.
There will be a concession table with snacks and drinks.
We’re also exploring bringing in food trucks during the festivals.
To help us determine feasibility, you’ll see a question on both the registration form and the scheduling request form asking for an estimate of how many people in your ensemble are likely to purchase a meal from a food truck. Your feedback will help us make the decision about whether or not this is possible!
📚 Festival Materials & Reminders
Please make sure to review the 2026 Rules carefully. These documents contain important information about repertoire, copyright permissions, and performance time limits.
We’ll send out Director’s Packages later in the season, and they will also be available for download on our website.
Thank you for your continued support of VKMF and for all that you do to foster music education and performance in your schools and communities. We can’t wait to welcome you and your students to the 2026 festival season!
Warm regards,
Sara Ramsay
Large Ensembles Festival Coordinator
Vancouver Kiwanis Music Festivals
sara.ramsay@vkmfestivals.org
www.vkmfestivals.org