Things to Do in Vancouver This Weekend: Dec. 29, 2017

Roll your post-holiday cheese and cookie-filled self on out to enjoy the last weekend of the year! There are a lot of chill things to do during the day with family, as well as opportunities to wear that glitzy garb and champagne yourself rosy until until the first hours of 2018.

Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Ongoing

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Friday December 29

Ballet BC Presents The Nutcracker
Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre
What: Alberta Ballet’s production with choreography by Edmund Stripe and sets and costumes designed by Emmy Awardwinning designer Zack Brown, “sparkles like a Fabergé egg…” says the Vancouver Sun.

Vancouver TheatreSports Year in Review
Where: The Improv Centre
What: Vancouver’s lack of affordable housing, hurricanes, false news, Russian hacking, and celebrity scandals are just a few of the stories that grabbed the headlines in 2017. Some were confusing (bike lanes…again), some trivial (almost any celebrity breakup) and others scary (it snowed in Vancouver). Regardless, all will provide fodder for Vancouver TheatreSports ™ (VTSL) quick-witted improvisers as they journey back through the headlines this past year
Runs until: Sunday December 31, 2017

Family Sleepover at the Vancouver Aquarium
Where: Vancouver Aquarium
What: Learn more about marine mammals before going to bed with the Steller Sea Lions in the underwater viewing gallery.

Little Women
Where: Kay Meek Centre
What: Set in 1860’s New England, Little Women follows four sisters – hopeless romantic Meg, aspiring novelist Jo, kind-hearted Beth and the self-centered Amy March –  on their journey from childhood to maturity during the American Civil War.
Runs until: Saturday December 30, 2017

Community Skate
Where: PNE Agrodome
What: Bring your own skates and the family to this run around the rink.

Maurice
Where: VanCity Theatre
What: Set against the stifling conformity of pre-World War I English society, EM Forster’s Maurice is a story of coming to terms with one’s sexuality and identity in the face of disapproval and misunderstanding.

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Saturday December 30

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Vancouver Canucks vs. LA Kings
Where: Rogers Arena
What: It’s pine trees vs. palm trees, rain vs. shine, dare I say substance vs. style? I have my bias. Anyways, this is hockey, so the players are actually from everywhere, and you just pick a favourite based on whatever you want.

Harlem Globetrotters World Tour
Where: Pacific Colosseum
What: A star-studded roster for fans to experience the ball handling wizardry, basketball artistry and one-of-a-kind family entertainment that thrills fans of all ages. Prepare to be amazed as the Globetrotters showcase basketball’s first 4-point line, located 30 feet from the basket – 6 feet, 3 inches beyond the top of the NBA’s current 3-point line.

Ballet BC Presents The Nutcracker
Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre
What: Alberta Ballet’s production with choreography by Edmund Stripe and sets and costumes designed by Emmy Awardwinning designer Zack Brown, “sparkles like a Fabergé egg…” says the Vancouver Sun.

I am Not Your Negro
Where: VanCity Theatre
What: A journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond.

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New Years Eve: Sunday December 31

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Concord’s NYE Vancouver
Where: Canada Place
What: Ring in the new year with an evening full of live music, entertainment and, of course, a yell-along countdown to 2016 complete with colourful blasts of midnight fireworks that will light up the sky and echo off the mountains. Younger children are invited to take part in a smaller, calmer, earlier countdown that will be celebrated at 9:00pm. (It’s like counting down to the New Year with Saskatchewan, Manitoba, many of USA’s red states, and most of Mexico!)

NYE Waterfront Gala
Where: Fairmont Waterfront
What: Celebrate in style in this upscale and mature environment with well-prepared appetizer stations and a champagne toast at midnight.

NYE at Science World
Where: Science World
What: This year’s party will feature 5 fully licensed bars, 1,100 person capacity, 2 rooms of music on 2 floors, 8 of the city’s top DJs & performers  and one of the biggest countdowns to bring in 2018.

NYE at the Pacific Colosseum
Where: Pacific Colosseum
What: With DJs Axwell Λ Ingrosso, Andrew Rayel, DJ Isaac, DubVision and DAIJO.

Gatsby’s Yacht
Where: Magic Spirit Yacht
What: This speakeasy prohibition-style party cruise will be the bee’s knees.

NYElectric
Where: Mariott Pinnacle
What: Two rooms, three DJs.

NYE Traditional Dinner Cruise
Where: Spirit Cruises
What: Dancing, a dinner buffet, and a countdown, all on the water.

New Years Eve with Queer as Funk and DJ Slade
Where: The Wise Hall
What: Two live sets, a DJ, dancing, drinking, counting down, gender-neutral washrooms, and a champagne toast.

Cirque NYE Gala
Where: The Imperial
What: The event will feature some of the city’s best EDM, top 40, and hip hop DJs, stunning cirque performance artists, 2 rooms of music plus an exclusive VIP mezzanine level.

NYE Carnivale
Where: Lux Lounge
What: A Latin-American themed celebration.

Man Up + Queers and Beers NYE
Where: The Cobalt
What: Chill beer hangouts followed by gender blending drag, dancing, and partying in an atmosphere dedicated to inclusivity and safety for all.

NYE Extravaganza Pub Crawl
Where: Various locations
What: A wild ride hopping to 4 clubs with no added cover charge or line-ups. The dance floors will be packed and party hosts will be stationed on each bus to keep the mobile party going.

Metropolis Noir New Year’s Eve: An Evening of The Tragically Hip Songs
Where: The Rickshaw
What: An evening of The Tragically Hip songs performed by members of local bands such as Bison, Sevens Nines and Tens, STREETS and more.

The Roxy Presents Raise ‘Em Up New Years Party
Where: The Vogue
What: Country rock band Blackjack Billy rings in the new year.

The Snow Ball
Where: The Biltmore
What: A classic gymnasium prom with snow cones and a photo booth.

New Years Eve Pig Roast
Where: Maime Taylor’s
What: Eat drink, and be reminded of the fleeting and tragic nature of mortality with the roast of an entire animal.

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Ongoing

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Karaoke Christmas Lights
Where: The Vancouver Trolley Company
What: Get on a festive Vancouver Trolley and ready your singing voice – this tour is for the most enthusiastic spirits of the winter holidays! Equipped with a TV and a karaoke machine loaded with Christmas music favorites, you’ll be toured around the city to take in some of Vancouver’s most dazzling light displays.
Runs until: Friday December 29, 2017

A Fort Langley Christmas
Where: Fort Langley
What: Hear Kwantlen stories, taste a chestnut roasted over the fire, make a beautiful cedar ornament and admire the giant outdoor Christmas tree.
Runs until: Saturday December 30, 2017

Glow Christmas
Where: Langley, BC
What: Take a stroll through a musical light tunnel, where you’ll feel the warmth and wonder of the Christmas season under the glow of over 500,000 lights.
Runs until: Saturday December 30, 2017

City Lights
Where: The Cinematheque
What: Albert Einstein is said to have cried with laughter at the world premiere of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights in Los Angeles in 1931. Described by Chaplin himself as “a comedy romance in pantomime,” this winning mix of slapstick, sentiment, and social criticism has Chaplin’s beloved Little Tramp falling in love with a blind flower girl.
Runs until: Saturday December 30, 2017

Little Women
Where: Kay Meek Centre
What: Set in 1860’s New England, Little Women follows four sisters – hopeless romantic Meg, aspiring novelist Jo, kind-hearted Beth and the self-centered Amy March –  on their journey from childhood to maturity during the American Civil War.
Runs until: Saturday December 30, 2017

Cirque du Soleil: Kurios
Where: Under the tents, Downtown Vancouver
What: Step into the curio cabinet of an ambitious inventor who defies the laws of time, space and dimension in order to reinvent everything around him. Suddenly, the visible becomes invisible, perspectives are transformed, and the world is literally turned upside down.
Runs until: Sunday December 31, 2017

Onegin
Where: Arts Club Theatre
What: When Evgeni Onegin visits the Larin family estate, his romantic charms stir passions long forgotten by its residents. Poet Vladimir Lensky’s romantic ideals are challenged (a duel!) after Onegin flirts with his fiancée Olga Larin, and even the sensible Tatyana Larin falls for the handsome rogue. The hit musical moves, shakes, and wakes audiences with its sweeping score.
Runs until: Sunday December 31, 2017

Vancouver TheatreSports Year in Review
Where: The Improv Centre
What: Vancouver’s lack of affordable housing, hurricanes, false news, Russian hacking, and celebrity scandals are just a few of the stories that grabbed the headlines in 2017. Some were confusing (bike lanes…again), some trivial (almost any celebrity breakup) and others scary (it snowed in Vancouver). Regardless, all will provide fodder for Vancouver TheatreSports ™ (VTSL) quick-witted improvisers as they journey back through the headlines this past year
Runs until: Sunday December 31, 2017

Site for Still Life
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: Andrew Dadson’s practice engages with the notion of boundaries in relation to space and time, primarily through investigations with materials, process and abstraction. Comprising new, ambitious large-scale paintings, film and installation, this exhibition presents a major statement by this young artist of propositions core to his practice.
Runs until: Sunday December 31, 2017

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Where: The Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island
What: Four siblings step through a wardrobe into an enchanted land filled with mythical creatures, talking animals, quests and dangerous secrets. Featuring Sereana Malani as the White Witch and Ian Butcher as Aslan, with Tim Carlson, Chris Lam, Adele Noronha and Kaitlynn Yott as the Pevensie siblings. The first installment in C. S. Lewis’ epic Chronicles of Narnia series, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is one of the best-loved books in children’s literature.
Runs until: Sunday December 31, 2017

Entangled: Two Views on Contemporary Canadian Painting
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: An insight into two distinctly different modes of painting that have come to dominate contemporary painting in this country. The origins of both can be effectively traced back to the 1970s, to a moment when the continued existence of painting was hotly debated.
Runs until: Monday January 1, 2018

Math Moves
Where: Science World
What: Visitors will investigate ratios and proportions, using their bodies, gestures, and words to set up, measure, describe and compare ratios and proportions. The exhibition encourages a collaborative approach to problem-solving, with open-ended activities that provide opportunities for visitors to talk about solutions to the challenges presented in the exhibition.
Runs until: Monday January 1, 2018

Heritage Christmas
Where: Burnaby Village Museum
What: Stroll through the streets of the Village to see wreaths, cedar swags and vintage-themed displays will. At the bandstand, visitors can create their own magical holiday show with lights that change colours to sound.
Runs until: Friday January 5, 2017

East Van Panto: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Where: York Theatre
What: In this East Van tale, our hero flees the Queen of North Vancouver across the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and lands straight into the madness of the PNE, where she dances with SuperDogs, hops a ride on the Wooden Roller Coaster, and befriends washed-up 80s rock stars “The Seven Dwarves”.
Runs until: Saturday January 6, 2017

Bright Nights at Stanley Park
Where: Stanley Park
What: Take a train ride along a route filled with lights, displays and live performers with the whole family. Donations and a portion of ticket sales go to the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund.
Runs until: Saturday January 6, 2017

VanDusen Festival of Lights
Where: VanDusen Botanical Gardens
What: Experience a winter wonderland with over one million lights. Stroll with friends and family through interactive themed areas, enjoy the famous Dancing Lights show on Livingstone Lake, look for roving Scandinavian gnomes and reindeer in the garden, light a candle at the Make-A-Wish candle grotto, take a photo with Santa, enjoy tasty treats and take a carousel ride.
Runs until: Sunday January 7, 2017

Peak of Christmas
Where: Grouse Mountain
What: Sleigh bells ring, choirs sing! Grouse Mountain presents a magical celebration and a multitude of festivities. Bring your family to Santa’s workshop and meet reindeer, or take a sleigh-ride through a mystical alpine forest. You can also experience the tranquil beauty of skating on an 8,000 square foot mountaintop ice skating pond, surrounded by snow-topped trees or wander through an outdoor holiday lights display.
Runs until: Sunday January 7, 2017

Christmas at FlyOver Canada
Where: FlyOver Canada
What: Fly with Santa and his elves on a magical flight across Canada and on to the North Pole! Join two elves as they take flight across Canada looking for their friends. You may even get a sneak peek of Santa’s workshop.
Runs until: Sunday January 7, 2018

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast
Where: Arts Club Theatre
What: “Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme.” Follow Belle behind the castle walls in this adaptation of the Academy Award–winning animated film.
Runs until: January 13, 2018

Chinese Lantern Festival
Where: Hastings Park
What: As the largest festival of its kind in Canada will feature 35 illuminated displays transforming over 14 acres. Lantern festivals started during the Han Dynasty, about 2,000 years ago. This festival will be embracing traditions with elaborate new lanterns featuring Dragon, White Pagoda, Kylin, and Huabiao Column, each symbolizing a Chinese sage or legend. There will also be two nightly performances in the PNE Amphitheatre featuring acts such as face changing, acrobatics, and folk dance.
Runs until: Sunday January 21, 2018

Amazonia: The Rights of Nature
Where: UBC Museum of Anthropology
What: MOA will showcase its Amazonian collections in a significant exploration of socially and environmentally-conscious notions intrinsic to indigenous South American cultures, which have recently become innovations in International Law. These are foundational to the notions of Rights of Nature, and they have been consolidating in the nine countries that share responsibilities over the Amazonian basin.
Runs until: January 28, 2018

Canyon Lights
Where: Capilano Suspension Bridge Park
What: Re-capture the feeling of wonder and excitement of the holiday season and be amazed by the hundreds of thousands of lights throughout the park. The suspension bridge, Treetops Adventure, Cliffwalk, the rainforest and canyon are transformed into a world of festive lights and visual enchantment. See the world’s tallest living Christmas tree (153 feet !) go on a Snowy Owl Prowl, decorate gingerbread cookies and make your own Christmas card in the Winter Pavilion, and sing-along with the holiday band.
Runs until: January 28, 2018

True Nordic: How Scandinavia Influenced Design in Canada
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: This ground-breaking exhibition examines the significant influence of Scandinavian craft and industrial design on the development of Canadian culture. Spanning more than seven decades, True Nordic reveals how Scandinavian design was introduced in Canada and how its aesthetics and material forms were adopted, revised and transformed.
Runs until: Sunday January 28, 2018

Tin and Gold: A 10 Year Anniversary Show
Where: The Fall
What: Celebrate 10 years of alternative music, tattoo artistry, and multimedia events. The art show includes artists Megan Majewski, Jenn Brisson, Alison Woodward and more.
Runs until: February 1, 2018

Robson Street Outdoor Ice Rink
Where: Robson Square
What: Bring your skates, hold hands for balance, and circle the rink for free right in the heart of Downtown Vancouver. Skate rentals are also available, and for that you’ll need to bring cash.
Runs until: February 2018

Portrait of the Artist
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: This exhibition brings together The Royal Collection’s paintings depicting self-portraits, portraits of artists and artists at work. Encompassing over eighty works, Portrait of the Artist is a rich survey of how artists have seen themselves and the role of the artist within society.
Runs until: February 4, 2018

Gordon Smith: The Black Paintings
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: The exhibition features a body of work described as black paintings that Gordon Smith began producing in 1990. These densely painted, darkly abstracted paintings—punctuated with occasional colour, text and collaged elements—sometimes refer explicitly to this wartime experience. Smith was deployed with the Allied invasion at Pachino Beach, Sicily (code name Husky), in July 1943, when he was twenty-four.
Runs until: February 4, 2018

Carol Sawyer: The Natalie Brettschneider Archive
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Sawyer’s ongoing project that reconstructs the life and work of the genre-defying, fictional singer and artist Natalie Brettschneider. The works on view will connect Brettschneider to a community of mid-twentieth century artists and musicians in British Columbia.
Runs until: February 4, 2018

City on the Edge: A Century of Vancouver Activism
Where: Museum of Vancouver
What: A photo-based exhibition exploring how protest demonstrations have shaped Vancouver’s identity from the Vancouver Sun and The Province newspapers’ photo collection. These photographs are exceptional historical records of intense and transformative moments in the lives of Vancouverites.
Runs until: February 18, 2017

N. Vancouver
Where: The Polygon Gallery
What: The show in the newly-opened gallery will pay tribute to the evolution of North Vancouver and will feature commissioned works by more than 10 artists, including Andrew Dadson, Gabrielle Hill, Althea Thauberger, Stephen Waddell and Tracy Williams, paired with existing work by Stan Douglas, Greg Girard, Fred Herzog, Curt Lang, and Jeff Wall, among others.
Runs until: Spring 2018

Tasting History: The Traveling Tales of Tea
Where: Roedde House Museum
What: Tea is one of the most consumed liquids in the world, second only to water. But the beverage that brings much pleasure and calm to our 21st century senses is steeped in a turbulent history of politics and society. The exhibit will also feature stories from Vancouver’s modern-day tea community.
Runs until: March 2018

Emily Carr: Into the Forest
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Far from feeling that the forests of the West Coast were a difficult subject matter, Carr exulted in the symphonies of greens and browns found in the natural world. With oil on paper as her primary medium, Carr was free to work outdoors in close proximity to the landscape. She went into the forest to paint and saw nature in ways unlike her fellow British Columbians, who perceived it as either untamed wilderness or a plentiful source of lumber.
Runs until: March 4, 2018

The Lost Fleet Exhibit
Where: Vancouver Maritime Museum
What: On December 7, 1941 the world was shocked when Japan bombed Pearl Harbour, launching the United States into the war. This action also resulted in the confiscation of nearly 1,200 Japanese-Canadian owned fishing boats by Canadian officials on the British Columbia coast, which were eventually sold off to canneries and other non-Japanese fishermen. The Lost Fleet looks at the world of the Japanese-Canadian fishermen in BC and how deep-seated racism played a major role in the seizure, and sale, of Japanese-Canadian property and the internment of an entire people.
Runs until: March 25, 2018

Chief Dan George: Actor and Activist
Where: North Vancouver Museum
What: An exhibition exploring the life and legacy of Tsleil-Waututh Chief Dan George (1899- 1981) and his influence as an Indigenous rights advocate and his career as an actor. The exhibition was developed in close collaboration with the George family.
Runs until: April 2018

空 / Emptiness: Emily Carr and Lui Shou Kwan
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: The exhibition pairs Canadian modernist Emily Carr with the founder of the New Ink Movement in Hong Kong Lui Shou Kwan. Looking across culture, geography and time to explore expressions of the sublime in landscape painting, the exhibition draws connections by exploring how each artist experimented with abstraction and spirituality in their respective depictions of nature.
Runs until: April 8, 2018

The Fabric of Our Land: Salish Weaving
Where: UBC Museum of Anthropology
What: For generations Salish peoples have been harvesting the resources of their territories, transforming them into robes of rare beauty and power. Symbols of identity, they acted as legal documents and were visible signifiers of the presence of knowledge holders and respected people. Now mostly stored away in museums these masterworks are rarely seen. They have much knowledge to share and many stories to tell. Musqueam asked the Museum to bring these weavings to inspire weavers and share part of this rich legacy with all of us.
Runs until: April 15, 2018

Public Artwork by New Delhi-Based Artist Asim Waqif
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Inspired by environmental concerns and the pace of human consumption, Waqif will construct an immersive architectural experience from materials collected at re-purpose stores, transfer stations and landfills in the metro Vancouver area. Waqif’s architectural structure will also incorporate an interactive acoustic system using microphones, effects pedals and speakers. Visitors are encouraged to move through the installation maze allowing them to actively experience the architecture instead of passively observing it.
Runs until: April 15, 2017

Winter Farmers Market
Where: Nat Bailey Stadium
What: Each week you can look forward to finding locally grown vegetables and fruit, meat and seafood from local ranchers and fishermen, artisan cheese and bread, herbs and seasonal nursery items, baked goods, prepared foods and artisanal craft.
Runs until: April 21, 2018 (Saturdays)

In a Different Light
Where: Museum of Anthropology
What: More than 110 historical Indigenous artworks and marks the return of many important works to British Columbia. These objects are amazing artistic achievements. Yet they also transcend the idea of ‘art’ or ‘artifact’. Through the voices of contemporary First Nations artists and community members, this exhibition reflects on the roles historical artworks have today. Featuring immersive storytelling and innovative design, it explores what we can learn from these works and how they relate to Indigenous peoples’ relationships to their lands.
Runs until: Spring 2019

What are you up to this weekend? Tell me and the rest of Vancouver in the comments below.

 

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