MULTIfest runs a free week of interactive art at STACKT Market

Eight days, one shipping-container market, no tickets. Toronto's interactive art festival runs free at STACKT Market from October 1 to 8. The theme is Ripple Effect, the idea that a single action spreads into wider connections, which is a fair description of how the whole week gets assembled. Every artist and performer on the bill comes from the city itself.

Opening day starts with a crash course in interactive art from Ashley Jane Lewis. Unni closes it with a live audiovisual performance. Saturday folds into Nuit Blanche, with DJs and VJs running until 4am and Genesis Inc. presenting a late-night performance. Sunday is the family playdate: a musical workshop, projection puppetry with Maziar Ghaderi, and a playful installation by stormwhy that collects compliments.

The midweek leans toward learning. Tuesday carries introductions to electronic music production with Raf Reza and to projection mapping with Ryan Webber. Wednesday is Women-in-Tech-Art day, an electronics workshop from Alison Clark plus performances by Gollden, Dorraa and Pursuit Grooves. Artist talks run most evenings, a mix of names you know and names you will look up later.

The venue does half the work. STACKT Market on Bathurst is a public plaza built from shipping containers, and the festival treats the plaza as the stage. Installations come alive from 5pm on most days, so the evening walk-in crowd sees the real thing. Everything is free and wheelchair accessible.

The full programme names every artist, time and workshop, and it is the place to plan a visit. It lives at https://multi-fest.ca/2026/programme/.

■ Filed from The Commons: the civic wing of the city.