Blood Orange Brings the Essex Honey Tour to Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre - His Only Canadian Date of 2026
Blood Orange plays Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Thursday, September 3, 2026, and it is the only Canadian date on Dev Hynes' Essex Honey tour. The all-ages show has been on sale since late May and is still listed as available through Ticketmaster.
Key details
- Artist: Blood Orange, the recording project of English musician, songwriter and producer Dev Hynes
- Tour: Essex Honey
- Date: Thursday, September 3, 2026
- Venue: Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 630 Hamilton Street, Vancouver
- Listed start: 8 p.m., all ages
- Canadian dates on this run: Vancouver only
- Tickets: Ticketmaster
The only Canadian stop on a very long tour
When Hynes revealed the expanded leg of the Essex Honey tour in late May, the itinerary sprawled across two continents: Warsaw and Barcelona in the spring, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza through the summer, then a run of European festivals from Oslo to Vienna. Exactly one Canadian date made the schedule, and it landed in Vancouver. He plays the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on September 3 before heading south to Portland's Edgefield the following night and Seattle's Bumbershoot on September 5.
That is a genuinely unusual piece of routing luck. Toronto and Montreal, which normally absorb the Canadian dates on a tour this size, get nothing this time around. If you want to see this record performed in this country in 2026, the Queen Elizabeth Theatre is the address.
The album behind the tour
Essex Honey arrived on August 29, 2025 through a joint venture between Domino and RCA. It is the fifth Blood Orange studio album and his first full-length since Negro Swan in 2018, with only the Four Songs EP bridging the seven years in between. Hynes wrote and produced it himself, working through a period of grief and turning back toward his upbringing in Essex and the music that shaped it.
The guest list reads like a cross-section of contemporary music, and Hynes threads them into the record rather than stacking them on top of it: Lorde, Caroline Polachek, Daniel Caesar, Mustafa, Brendan Yates of Turnstile, Ben Watt of Everything but the Girl, and the novelist Zadie Smith all appear. Critics responded in kind. The album drew universal acclaim on Metacritic, an 8.1 from Pitchfork, and a spot on Exclaim!'s list of the 50 best albums of 2025.
There is a neat piece of symmetry for Vancouver audiences, too. Daniel Caesar, who turns up on Essex Honey, plays two nights at Rogers Arena on August 16 and 17, barely two weeks before Hynes arrives downtown. The Queen Elizabeth Theatre's seated room should suit an album this hushed and detailed considerably better than a festival field ever could.
Frequently asked questions
When is Blood Orange playing in Vancouver?
Thursday, September 3, 2026 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 630 Hamilton Street. The listing shows an 8 p.m. start and the show is all ages.
Is Blood Orange playing anywhere else in Canada in 2026?
No. Vancouver is the only Canadian date on the Essex Honey tour. The closest other stops are Portland on September 4 and Seattle's Bumbershoot festival on September 5.
What album is Blood Orange touring behind?
Essex Honey, released August 29, 2025. It is Dev Hynes' fifth album as Blood Orange and his first since 2018's Negro Swan.
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