Labour Day 2026 falls on Monday, September 7, making the long weekend run from Saturday, September 5 through Monday, September 7. Burnaby’s long weekend has a clear centre of gravity this year: the Burnaby Village Museum, which not only opens all three days but throws its biggest program of the season on the holiday Monday itself, complete with a free carousel, live music, and a fire truck. Around it sit a major Japanese cultural festival at the Nikkei Centre on Saturday and Sunday, a professional soccer match at Swangard on Saturday, a labour-council family picnic at Edmonds Park on Monday, and a couple of exhibitions closing out their runs.
One correction to expectations first: the Burnaby Farmers Market is not part of this weekend. Its 2026 season, now held Saturdays at The City of Lougheed after its move from City Hall, ends August 29. The same lot hosts something bigger the very next weekend: the free, two-day North Road K-Food Festival runs Saturday and Sunday, September 5 and 6, 11am to 7pm, with Korean street food, a live stage, and market vendors. Here is what else is actually on.
Burnaby Village Museum: Open All Three Days, Big on Monday
The museum at 6501 Deer Lake Avenue opens 11am to 4:30pm all weekend, with last entry at 4pm, and admission is free as it has been all season. But the reason to aim for Monday, September 7 is the museum’s own Labour Day program, laid out on its events page in unusual detail.
The carousel, normally a paid ride, is free for the day courtesy of CUPE Local 23, with the last ride at 4:15pm. There is a Labour Scavenger Hunt through the village, a display marking a century of the labour movement in the region, a screening of the film Working People, and an antique fire truck on display from 11am to noon. Live music runs at the Vorce Tram Station stage: The Boytles at 11:30am and 3pm, Taka Lee at 1pm, and the Solidarity Notes Labour Choir at 2:15pm.
Monday is also the final day of the museum’s summer season, which closes September 7 before the site shifts to its fall pattern. In other words: free, historic, and genuinely programmed on the exact day most things close. The feature exhibit delecTABLE: Burnaby Food Journeys is included with admission.
Saturday Afternoon: Rise FC at Swangard
Saturday, September 5 brings professional soccer to Burnaby when Vancouver Rise FC hosts Halifax Tides FC in the Northern Super League, kicking off at 4pm at Swangard Stadium, 6100 Boundary Road. The match is listed on the league’s own schedule and both clubs’ sites, and tickets are available through the usual ticketing channels.
Swangard is one of the nicer places in Metro Vancouver to watch a match, ringed by trees with Central Park across the way, and a 4pm kickoff in early September means warm light for most of it. Transit makes this easy, with Patterson Station a short walk away, and parking in the area fills on event days.
If you are making an evening of it, our guide to the best restaurants in Burnaby covers the neighbourhoods worth eating in afterwards.
Nikkei Matsuri Fills the Weekend at the Nikkei Centre
Burnaby’s biggest cultural event of the weekend runs at the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre, 6688 Southoaks Crescent, where Nikkei Matsuri returns for its 14th year, opening with a Friday evening Zenyasai dance party on September 4 from 3pm to 10pm, then running the main festival Saturday, September 5 and Sunday, September 6, from 11am to 7pm each day. Expect more than twenty performances spanning taiko drumming, traditional dance, martial arts, and contemporary J-Pop, a Mikoshi portable shrine procession, Bon Odori dancing around the central Yagura tower, more than twenty food stalls, a beer and sake garden, and shamisen players travelling from Japan as this year’s special guests.
Admission is 12 dollars in advance online or 15 dollars at the gate, and free for anyone under 18 or over 65, with single-day tickets sold by date. A new admission-free Fun Park community zone next to the tennis courts in Burnaby South Memorial Park adds kids’ crafts, face painting, and family activities if you want a taste of the festival without a ticket.
One practical note for drivers: Southoaks Crescent and the surrounding Edmonds-area streets get busy well before the 11am opening on both days, and the festival sits a fifteen-minute walk from Edmonds Station, which is honestly the easier way in.
Monday’s Other Option: The Labour Day Picnic at Edmonds Park
The Vancouver and District Labour Council and the New Westminster and District Labour Council are co-hosting a Metro Vancouver Labour Day Celebration on Monday, September 7, from 11am to 2:30pm at Edmonds Park, 7433 Humphries Avenue. The listing describes a family-friendly outdoor event: speakers starting at 11am, including Burnaby’s mayor and the labour council’s president, plus bouncy castles, kids’ games and entertainment, live music, free food and treats, and booths from local unions and community organizations.
This one is confirmed by more than the organizers’ own page: ILWU Local 517 carries an independent listing with matching details, so the date and program are solid. Check vdlc.ca for the day-of schedule.
Also closing on Saturday: Return to Paueru Gai, the Powell Street Festival 50th-anniversary retrospective exhibition inside the Nikkei Centre itself, open 10am to 5pm with admission by donation, closes for good on Sunday, September 6, so both days of Nikkei Matsuri are your last chance to see it. If you are already there for Nikkei Matsuri, it pairs naturally. And if you have been meaning to do the city’s self-guided Burnaby Farm Tour through the Big Bend neighbourhood’s urban farms, its season also ends September 7, so the long weekend is genuinely the last call.
Your Labour Day Long Weekend at a Glance
Friday evening: Nikkei Matsuri’s Zenyasai dance party from 3pm. Saturday: Nikkei Matsuri from 11am, the K-Food Festival at Lougheed, and Rise FC at 4pm at Swangard. Sunday: Nikkei Matsuri’s last day from 11am, Paueru Gai’s true final day at the Nikkei Centre, the Village Museum from 11am, or the farm tour while the weather holds. Monday: the museum’s Labour Day program from 11am with the free carousel and live music, and the Edmonds Park picnic from 11am to 2:30pm.
Everything we have listed here is free or by donation except the soccer and Nikkei Matsuri’s adult admission, which is about as Burnaby a weekend as we can imagine.
What Is Not Happening This Weekend
No farmers market: the Burnaby Farmers Market’s season at Lougheed ends August 29, and the Brentwood market’s season ends August 30. The K-Food Festival takes over the Lougheed lot instead that Saturday and Sunday. No fireworks, and no big civic festival; Burnaby’s summer headliners, Blues and Roots among them, all played earlier in the summer. The city had not posted its Labour Day facility hours as of our research, so libraries and rec centres should be assumed to run holiday schedules until the city says otherwise.
The next notable date on the civic calendar is the Cops for Cancer ride passing through mid-September, with fall programming ramping up after that.
Tips for the Long Weekend
The museum is the easiest win of the weekend: free, three days running, and transit-friendly from Patterson or Metrotown stations with a walk through Deer Lake Park. On Monday, arrive near the 11am opening if the carousel matters to small children; the free-ride line grows steadily through the afternoon.
For the soccer match, buy tickets ahead rather than at the gate, and give yourself time for the walk from Patterson Station. For the Edmonds picnic, the RSVP link on the event listing helps the organizers plan food, and Edmonds Park has playgrounds if the scheduled entertainment runs out.
September in Burnaby can swing from summer to fall inside one weekend; pack the sunscreen and one warm layer and you are covered for all three days.
Questions Often Asked
Is the Burnaby Farmers Market open on Labour Day weekend 2026?
No. The market moved to The City of Lougheed this year and its 2026 Saturday season ran June 13 to August 29. There is no market on September 5.
Is Burnaby Village Museum open on Labour Day Monday?
Yes, 11am to 4:30pm, and it is the museum’s biggest day of the weekend: a free Labour Day program with a free carousel, live music, an antique fire truck, and a scavenger hunt. September 7 is also the final day of its summer season.
Are there fireworks in Burnaby on Labour Day weekend?
No. Burnaby’s summer fireworks and festival season wrapped earlier in the summer, and nothing is scheduled for September 5 to 7.
What is there to do in Burnaby on the Monday holiday itself?
The Burnaby Village Museum program from 11am, the labour councils’ family picnic at Edmonds Park from 11am to 2:30pm, and the parks and trails in between. Most civic facilities run holiday schedules, so call ahead about anything specific.
Is Nikkei Matsuri free to attend?
Not quite, but close: admission is 12 dollars in advance or 15 dollars at the gate, and free for anyone under 18 or over 65. The new Fun Park community zone beside the centre is admission-free.
