About Garden City Grooves Festival

Garden City Grooves Festival is a grassroots community event originally founded by local promoters and groove aficionados, Nathan Ambrose and Groovin’ Reuven Sussman in 2013. The creation of this festival was inspired by the rise of soul music and Daptone Records in the USA with artists such as Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones in the earlier to mid 2000s. 

In 2018 the Garden City Grooves Festival came under the umbrella of the Victoria BC Ska and Reggae Society which produces Victoria's Annual Ska & Reggae Festival - the largest and longest running festival of its kind in North America. 

The first year of the festival featured the Vancouver Island debut of Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio. Since then the event has grown into an annual three day festival with all ages free and ticketed performances and workshops. International and national artists such as Soul Rebels Brass Band, Ozomatli, Tanika Charles, Balkan Bump and Cadence Weapon, as well as regional gems such as The Capital Collective, The Boom Booms, Kutapira, Downtown Mischief, XL the Band, Jonnie 5 Brass Band ft Kia Kadiri and The New Groovement have built up the festival to what it is today. 

Overall the goal of the Garden City Grooves Festival is to celebrate soul and funk which are the foundation on which it was built, however, over the years the festival has expanded to include diverse sub-genres such as Afrobeat, Latin, hip hop and other forms of global roots music.

Garden City Grooves Festival 2026 returns Thursday, March 19 to Saturday, March 21, 2026 at White Eagle Polish Hall, delivering three nights of genre-defying music in the heart of Victoria. Across three distinct nights, Garden Grooves will represent artists from all spectrums of the world’s cultural pastiche— from powerful expressions of identity and resilience, to soulful global celebration, and  bold, experimental soundscapes that push music forward.