TORONTO, September 10, 2026 – The three-day 2026 Toronto Dragon Festival was recently held at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. Traditional cultural performances, including dragon and lion dances, Yingge dance and Munao Zongge, took turns on stage, while robots from China’s Unitree Robotics also performed dances, tai chi and other movements. The combination of traditional culture and modern technology became a major feature of this year’s event.
The Toronto Dragon Festival is organized by the Canadian Association of Chinese Performing Arts and has been held seven times since it was first launched in 2018. This year’s event took place across several areas, including Nathan Phillips Square, the main stage and the water stage. Over three days, more than 200 performances and activities were presented, covering ethnic song and dance, opera, traditional Chinese music, martial arts, acrobatics, calligraphy and painting, and traditional crafts.
Chinese Consul General in Toronto Luo Weidong attended the opening ceremony and delivered remarks. He said the Toronto Dragon Festival has, over the years, become one of the influential Chinese cultural events in the Greater Toronto Area and has provided a platform for cultural exchange among different communities. This year’s joint presentation of intangible cultural heritage and modern technology, he said, showed a contemporary Chinese culture where tradition and modernity are intertwined and cultures of different ethnic groups are integrated.
Zhang Wei, general director of the Dragon Festival, spoke on behalf of the organizing committee at the opening ceremony. He said the event aims not only to preserve and promote Chinese culture, but also to serve as a platform connecting different communities and encouraging multicultural exchange. As the number of participating groups and festival programs continues to grow, the Dragon Festival has also gradually added more interactive, technological and cross-cultural elements in recent years.
Intangible cultural heritage programs were one of the highlights of this year’s festival. Performances included Yingge dance from the Chaoshan region of Guangdong, Munao Zongge of the Jingpo ethnic group, and Ansai waist drum. Munao Zongge moved through the square in a parade-style performance, with some audience members joining the dancers, adding to the event’s interactive atmosphere.
High-tech elements also entered the Dragon Festival on a larger scale for the first time. Unitree robots demonstrated dance, tai chi and other movements, while a technology exhibition area showcased applications such as AI agents. Organizers said they hoped to introduce traditional Chinese culture while also allowing more Canadians to see different sides of China’s contemporary technological development.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney also sent a congratulatory message to the event, recognizing its role in promoting cultural exchange.
In addition to Chinese cultural groups from the Greater Toronto Area, Chinese artists from Vancouver, Ottawa and overseas also took part this year. Ethnocultural groups from Mexico, South Korea, Vietnam, India, Slovakia, the Philippines and other communities also performed on stage.
The festival site also featured food, market booths and traditional cultural experience areas. The event also included the award ceremony for the Toronto division of the 9th Global Chinese Recitation Competition, providing young people with a platform to showcase Chinese-language skills and take part in cultural exchange.
From traditional intangible cultural heritage to robots and AI displays, this year’s Dragon Festival continued its focus on Chinese culture while adding more technology and multicultural elements, offering residents from different backgrounds a window into Chinese culture.（LJI by Yuanyuan）
