Casse-Tete: A Festival of Experimental Music

Presenting the eighth Casse-Tête: A Festival of Experimental Music, July 11-13, 2025. This year’s festival features performances by Lori Goldston, Anju Singh, José Delgado Guevara, Cathy Fern Lewis, Danielle Savage, Jonathon Wilcke, EARS OF LEAD, Christians, Stephen Carl O’Shea, and Matthew Tomkinson. The music ranges from improvisation, to new music, to post-rock, to electroacoustic, to approaches for which there is no name. It’s a radically creative musical experience!
This year’s festival consists of four free concerts held at the Historic Stewart Farm, 13723 Crescent Rd, Surrey, BC, with an evening concert on Friday July 11; an afternoon concert with a collective free improvisation on Saturday July 12; an evening concert on Saturday July 12; and an afternoon concert on Sunday July 13. All events are completely free, accessible, and all-ages. The festival is sponsored by the Canadian Music Centre in BC and supported by the City of Surrey through a Cultural Grant.
Founded in Prince George, BC and held annually from 2013-17, and then revived in Surrey and White Rock in 2023 and held annually since, the festival has featured the music of outstanding artists over the years such as Catherine Sikora, Susan Campos Fonseca, Stanley Jason Zappa, Jooklo Duo, Olive Shakur, Rodney Sharman, C. Diab, Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, and many, many others, and has also involved dropping a piano from the roof of a building. Its ethos is informed by community practices in DIY, anarchist, and punk scenes filtered through the sensibility of artist-run centres, galleries, and independent arts spaces.