The Richmond Maritime Festival returns marking 22 years of community fun. The beloved nautical-themed event will offer visitors a chance to engage in the rich maritime legacy of Steveston through interactive activities, live music, puppet shows, art exhibitions and more. The festival is free for all to attend and is happening from 11:00 to 18:00 on August 23 and 24, 2025.
This year’s festival features its largest music stage ever, with a line-up dedicated to local bands with a maritime flair: Vancouver and Nanaimo-based singer-songwriters Murfitt & Main will perform at the Port of Call stage with original compositions of roots music, featuring bass, guitar, banjo and mandolin. The award-winning Collage Trad, featuring fiddle music with influences from swing, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll. Festival favourites are returning this year as well, including the Irish Wakers, Nautical Notes and The Whiskeydicks.
Families with young children will want to stop by the Seaside Puppet Theatre, featuring music by accordionist Dan Propp and performances by Lulu the Mermaid, Rikki the Rat and more puppet friends. The family-focused Octopus Garden will have free face painting and street-theatre picture-card shows by Stories on Wheels.
This year also sees the return of the Knitting Tree, a community-activated project that pays tribute to this craft’s long history with fishermen and sailors. Visitors can bring their own knitting needles and hooks to contribute to the fabric collage all weekend. Other hands-on workshops will include cyanotype prints with Grace Gihm, net-making with Cat Hart, design-your-own-boat craft with Ralph Heading, and origami with Aiko Matsushiba.
Art installation inside the Seine Net Loft at the Richmond Maritime Festival 2023. Courtesy of the City of Richmond.Down on the docks, visitors can take in the beauty of restored heritage boats. This year will see the return of local favourites, such as the 103-year-old SS Master tugboat—the oldest working wooden-hulled steam-powered tug in the world—and Westcoast work boats like the MV Gikumi, Midnight Sun, Sandra Jean II and Island Provider. Please check the website for dock access hours.
Boat lovers will also want to stop by the Richmond Boat Builders workshop to see Britannia Shipyards’ maritime legacy in action. Explore the current restoration work on the 62-year-old Crystal S, a 37-foot combination gillnetter and troller fishing vessel that was built in Steveston. The wooden vessel has fished on the Fraser River, Johnson Straits, Rivers Inlet and up the coast to Camano Sound.
This year’s festival coincides with the FreshCo Richmond Dragon Boat Festival on Saturday August 23, at Steveston’s Imperial Landing, so there will be even more for visitors to enjoy as they make their way across to the Richmond Maritime Festival.