The 2018 Ashkenaz Festival will take place Tuesday August 28 through Monday September 3 in Toronto, at Harbourfront Centre and other venues around the GTA. The Festival will once again feature artists from across Canada and around the world, including Israel, Russia, Poland, Italy, Australia, Brazil, and the US. Our weeklong celebration will simultaneously showcase diversity and cross-culturalism within the Jewish music and arts world, while also delving deeply into the Yiddishkayt that has always been at the core of our work. This year’s Festival will shine a spotlight on women in Jewish music and culture, highlighting great female artists, past and present, and conveying their centrality in creating, maintaining and evolving Jewish musical and artistic traditions. Other festival highlights will include a number of artists and programs representing the great re-birth of Jewish music and culture in the former Soviet Union, and an exploration of the Polish-Jewish experience through music, film, literature and visual arts, marking a number of significant anniversaries related to that history. We will also feature an incredible evening of diverse Israeli world music at our Sunday mainstage.