Global innovators, local creators, and underground legends converge at Pique, a building-wide party like no other
Anishinaabe-Algonquin land - August 13, 2025
Usher in the fall season with another bold and forward-thinking edition of Pique, coming up on September 27, 2025 at Arts Court. Showcasing experimental and underground music, art, and performance, the quarterly festival features global innovators, local creators, and underground legends converging in downtown Ottawa’s Arts Court complex for a single-day blowout.
Taking place indoors and outdoors across 10 stages and spaces, Pique’s programming has something for everyone: from thought-provoking dialogues to ethereal electronic performances to multi-arts convergences, and even puppet dance parties. Joining forces with the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) to co-produce multidisciplinary and interactive programming, Pique brings together diverse artistic communities to explore, experiment and connect. Animating a club, a cinema, theatre and dance studios with bold, boundary-pushing presentations, Pique offers an immersive multidisciplinary experience that transforms the Arts Court into a playground for the avant-garde.
Plus, Topique, the forum for the exchange of forward-thinking ideas at Pique, returns this fall with a series of artist talks and group sessions focused on building an equitable future music industry.
With 20+ artists and 10 stages and exhibition spaces, indoors and outdoors, there is so much to experience at Pique!
Graphic design by House 9
PROGRAMMING
Featuring performances and presentations by international and out-of-town artists including maximalist rave DJ and community educator Chippy Nonstop, sound artist and ecological activist Rani Jambak (Indonesia), alt-pop hyperrealists No Plexus (Netherlands), cyber-culture curator and club DJ Otis (Belgium), new age-infused electro-pop artist New Chance performing with a full band, and cyber-goth artist-producer XICADA.
Pique is proud to host the Ottawa debut screening of UNION, a film by Brett Story and Steve Maing presented by Goldblatt Partners with support from the International Film Festival of Ottawa and the Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture (Carleton University), chronicling the efforts of a group of workers to organize a union campaign at an Amazon warehouse.
And building space for young art weirdos and future avant-gardeners to flourish, Toronto’s Owls Club Music Hour bring their interactive concert hour jamboree to Ottawa for the young and young-at-heart.
Bridging global underground communities with the local arts scene, Pique will also feature local artists including high-energy selector esme2k, experimental breakbeat producer Infatuation, and sensual automatist PARTYGIRL. A stage takeover by Pieces of Us will showcase local voices, stories and songs. And finally, Ottawa-based interdisciplinary artists Rachel Gray and Katherine Ng collaborate on Project INK, a new immersive performance that merges dance and live ink drawing, produced in partnership with Ottawa Dance Directive.
TOPIQUE
Taking place September 27, 2025 as part of Pique fall edition, Topique offers curious audience members an opportunity to participate in important cultural dialogues and hear from artistic leaders. Returning this fall with a rich and diverse program of panels, workshops, and artist talks to be announced, Topique nurtures a community-driven approach to artistic growth, ensuring that diverse voices shape the future of the arts.
Welcoming speakers from Indonesia, the Netherlands, and across Canada, Topique sessions will cover topics such as community-powered radio in the age of algorithmic playlisting, advancing labour rights in the cultural sector, exploring sonic ecology and hyperreality, and building sustainable DJ careers.
Admission to Topique is free with a Pique ticket, or pay-what-you-can at the door.
ADMISSION EQUITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
Tickets to Pique are pay-what-you-can (PWYC) with a suggested price range of $45-75 (taxes and fees included), or choose-your-own-price. Our PWYC ticket keeps the festival open to everyone while inviting those who can pay more to help cover the cost for others. Every contribution above the minimum goes directly toward fair artist pay, inclusive programming, and keeping independent culture alive in Ottawa. Buying a ticket is more than entry to an event—it’s an investment in the future of bold, accessible, and independent art in our city.
Debaser also recently launched the Pique Sustainability Fund to help keep Pique going while we navigate funding cuts and rising costs. Contributions support admission equity—helping us to offer hundreds of ticket subsidies to community members in need for each edition of Pique—while also ensuring fair pay and healthy working conditions for the artists and cultural workers who make it all happen.
ACCESSIBILITY
As always, Pique is all ages and pay-what-you-can. The event site is accessible, and our detailed accessibility policy and event information are available on our accessibility page.
The EQUIPE harm reduction team will be on-site to support audience members and hand out free supplies thanks to our partners at MAX Ottawa. Pique staff and volunteers are trained in bystander intervention and harm reduction strategies to support audience members throughout the event.
PARTNERS AND FUNDERS
Pique is presented in partnership with the Arts Court, SAW, Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Canadian Film Institute, Ottawa Dance Directive, International Film Festival of Ottawa, Ottawa Fringe, Digital Arts Resource Centre, Artengine, Produced by Youth, and Venus Fest and with support from Goldblatt Partners, Dominion City Brewing Company, Spruce Creative, Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture (Carleton University), Kilam Media, Postering Ottawa, Also Cool, CKCU FM, and n.10.as, and is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Trillium Foundation, Government of Canada, Ontario Creates, Ontario Arts Council, City of Ottawa, and the SOCAN Foundation.
MEDIA KIT
View the Pique fall edition media kit for participating artists’ press images, Pique digital assets, photos from past editions, and more.