The BC Django Festival comes to the Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney, BC, on Saturday, October 3, 2026, bringing a beloved style of acoustic jazz back to the community’s main theatre. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Charlie White Theatre, with doors opening at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $46.00 and available through the Mary Winspear Centre.
The festival celebrates the legacy of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli, whose Quintette du Hot Club de France pioneered gypsy jazz in the 1930s. The music draws from Romani traditions, American jazz, French musette, and European classical influences. Sidney has not hosted this festival since November 2023, when a performance under the Seaside Django Festival name helped build a bridge between the town and Victoria.
This year’s lineup features two of Canada’s most acclaimed gypsy jazz ensembles: the Marc Atkinson Trio and Club Voltaire. The Marc Atkinson Trio is JUNO-nominated and a multiple Western Canadian Music Award winner, formed in 2000. Club Voltaire features Richard Moody, Paul Dowd, Adam Dobres, and Oliver Swain, all award-winning musicians with JUNO and Western Canadian Music Award recognition.
The festival has operated for over a decade. It began in 2012 as the Victoria Django Festival and was rebranded as the Seaside Django Festival around 2023 under the Seaside Folkn’fiddle Festival non-profit organization. Founder Oliver Swain has described it as the only festival in Canada entirely devoted to Django Reinhardt-inspired music, and Victoria has long been at the forefront of the genre’s resurgence in North America.
The Mary Winspear Centre is positioning the BC Django Festival as a signature fall arts event for Sidney. The concert gives local music fans a chance to hear virtuosic guitar work, rich vocal harmonies, and joyful improvisation without leaving the Saanich Peninsula.
