Things to Do in Vancouver This Weekend

This weekend there’s a craft beer festival, an off-beat film festival, a theatre festival, Bon Iver in the park, metal in the dark, aerial dance, bird walks, tree climbs, comedy, tap dancing and art shows. Have fun deciding what to do.

Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Ongoing

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Friday May 25

Vancouver Craft Beer Week
Where: PNE Fairgrounds
What: With over 100 breweries & cideries pouring over 400 beers & ciders from across North America, including a US Brewers Association section filled with craft beers never seen before in Canada, The VCBW Festival is back.
Runs until: Sunday June 3, 2018

The Colin Mochrie Experience
Where: The Vogue
What: See the improv master with local Vancouver TheatreSports™ players in a free-wheeling improv laugh-fest.

Rupture Film Festival
Where: Vancity Theatre
What: The inaugural edition of Rupture is a showcase of innovative, odd and otherworldly films that bend rules, blend genres, explore inventive takes on venerable tropes and elude easy categorization. Running the gamut from the fantastical to the factual, the lineup boasts more hybrids than The Island of Doctor Moreau.
Runs until: Sunday May 27, 2018

rEvolver Theatre Festival
Where: The Cultch
What: 12 days of new interdisciplinary live theatre works by emerging to early mid career Canadian artists with ticketed presentations as well as free companion events.
Runs until: Sunday June 3, 2018

Graeme Clark’s Quiz Show
Where: The Fox Cabaret
What: A comedy show that cherry picks the best segments of game shows, plus a few new favourites, and presents them all in one bizarre event. Comedians are the “contestants” with prizes for the audience.

Sea Snaps
Where: Vancouver Maritime Museum
What: A display of work by Maria Steernberg. This exhibition highlights the beauty of Vancouver’s maritime setting and our beautiful coast line through a series of themes; the working waterfront, cruising, nature and disaster.
Runs until: Sunday October 7, 2018

Modified Ghost Festival
Where: The Rickshaw
What: Three days of local and international rock, metal, punk, pop, garage, folk, psych, hardcore, progressive and electronic music.
Runs until: Sunday May 27, 2018

Aeriosa: Second Nature (show 2 of 3)
Where: Scotiabank Dance Centre
What: Aeriosa’s breathtaking aerial productions combine the techniques of dance and rock-climbing, using rope rigging systems to find new movement possibilities in the realm of suspension. Equally at home on buildings, in treetops or on mountainsides, the company blends art, environment and adventure.

Shake Shake Shake Concert in benefit of Parkinson and MS Diseases
Where: The Imperial
What: Featuring performances by Khari Wendell McClelland, Dawn Pemberton, and Emily Chambers.

No Maps on My Taps
Where: The Cinematheque
What: In celebration of National Tap Dance Day, West Coast Tap and The Cinematheque are pleased to present new restorations of two dance films by American documentary filmmaker George T. Nierenberg.

ROVE: A Mount Pleasant Art Walk
Where: Mount Pleasant
What: A free community event where you can tour artist’s studios and galleries in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver from 6pm until 10pm. 

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Saturday May 26

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Carded! Hot 1-Inch Action
Where: The Arts Factory
What: A one-night only show of art on trading cards. The work of fifty artists is reproduced on 2.5″x3.5″ cards and sold in mixed packs of 5 cards for $5. Buy, collect and trade — but try not to cry if you don’t get the card you really want.

Stanley Park Big Tree Weekend (day 1 of 2)
Where: Stanley Park
What: Join the Stanley Park Ecology Society for tours, tree climbs and bird walks centered around the park’s big trees.

Bird Walk
Where: VanDusen Gardens
What: At this time of year, the garden is full of migratory and resident birds taking advantage of all the grounds have to offer, from food and nest-building materials, to a vast diversity of plants for shelter.

Bon Iver
Where: Deer Lake Park (Burnaby)
What: Chill indie folk music played in a beautiful park. Bring a blanket and enjoy.

Colin and Friends
Where: The Improv Centre
What: Colin will be joined on stage by improvisers from the Vancouver TheatreSports™ ensemble for an evening that is sure to tickle your funny bone. The Improv Centre is fully-licensed and guests are welcome to take their beverages with them into the theatre during the show.

Vancouver Whitecaps vs. New England Revolution
Where: BC Place Stadium
What: Yes it’s summer, but bring your Whitecaps scarves anyways – it’s soccer time.

Aeriosa: Second Nature (show 3 of 3)
Where: Scotiabank Dance Centre
What: Aeriosa’s breathtaking aerial productions combine the techniques of dance and rock-climbing, using rope rigging systems to find new movement possibilities in the realm of suspension. Equally at home on buildings, in treetops or on mountainsides, the company blends art, environment and adventure.

Portobello West Spring into Summer Markets
Where: Roundhouse Community Centre
What: Shop 50+ artisans featuring on trend fashion, jewelry, skincare, art, kid’s accessories, home decor, gourmet products, wine, spirits, craft beer and more. 

The Wonder Years
Where: The Vogue
What: American pop punk band from Lansdale, Pennsylvania.

Gangs of Youth
Where: The Fox Cabaret
What: Australian rock band on tour to support their latest release, Go Farther In Lightness.

I Miss the Old Kanye
Where: Venue
What: This is where to be if you just want to hear a whole lot of Kanye West all night.

Book Arts Fair
Where: Vancouver Public Library – Central Branch
What: Marvel at stunning book arts materials on display and chat with bookbinders and book artists to learn about their work.

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Sunday May 27

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Mixed Me: Multi-ethnic Storytelling for Teens & Kids
Where: Museum of Vancouver
What: Join three exciting mixed race authors — poet and memoirist Chelene Knight (Dear Current Occupant), young adult writer Michelle Kim (Running Through Sprinklers), and animator/children’s book author Jeff Chiba Stearns (Mixed Critters: An ABC Book) — for creativity workshops focusing on youth, children, or authors who write for youth, followed by readings and discussion of their newest works.

Stanley Park Big Tree Weekend (day 2 of 2)
Where: Stanley Park
What: Join the Stanley Park Ecology Society for tours, tree climbs and bird walks centered around the park’s big trees.

Thai Charity Fundraiser
Where: Celebrities Nightclub
What: Performances from entertainers from Thailand plus many performances from the local Thai community. Expect exotic cabaret shows along with traditional cultural performances. Funds raised are for the Buddhapanyanuntatama Buddhist Monastery temple.

Mount Pleasant Farmers Market
Where: Dude Chilling Park
What: Vancouver’s easy-going Sunday market located on the east side of Dude Chilling Park – the gathering place for a diverse crowd of young families, artists, dog owners, and quirky neighbourhood personalities.
Runs until: Sunday October 7, 2018

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Ongoing

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Murder on the Improv Express
Where: The Improv Centre
What:The comedic whodunnit is set in the 1930s and involves many of the set characters and scenarios you’d expect to find. However, what isn’t known is who is the victim, who is the killer and how the dastardly deed was done. These are just some of the things that will be established by audience suggestions during the course of the show. What is known is that audience members will die laughing at all the improbable plot twists and turns.
Runs until: Saturday May 26, 2018

Weaving Reconciliation: Our Way
Where: Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre
What: A play and cultural encounter that gives voice to those who have lived within Canada’s long shadow of colonialism led and performed by indigenous artists.
Runs until: Saturday May 26, 2108

Expressions Theatre Festival
Where: Waterfront Theatre
What: Showcasing the talented young artists in Arts Umbrella’s “Pre-Professional” and “Theatre Conservatory” programs, this annual festival boasts a bevy of captivating productions such as Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!
Runs until: Saturday May 26, 2018

Les Filles du Roi 
Where: York Theatre
What: A new trilingual musical from the creators of last season’s groundbreaking Children of God. The powerful story of Kateri, a young Mohawk girl, and her brother Jean-Baptiste whose lives are disrupted upon the arrival of les filles du roi in 1665. They forge an unlikely relationship with young fille Marie-Jeanne Lespérance – whose dreams of a new life are more complicated than she could have imagined.
Runs until: Sunday May 27, 2018

Modified Ghost Festival
Where: The Rickshaw
What: Three days of local and international rock, metal, punk, pop, garage, folk, psych, hardcore, progressive and electronic music.
Runs until: Sunday May 27, 2018

Rupture Film Festival
Where: Vancity Theatre
What: The inaugural edition of Rupture is a showcase of innovative, odd and otherworldly films that bend rules, blend genres, explore inventive takes on venerable tropes and elude easy categorization. Running the gamut from the fantastical to the factual, the lineup boasts more hybrids than The Island of Doctor Moreau.
Runs until: Sunday May 27, 2018

Vancouver Craft Beer Week
Where: PNE Fairgrounds
What: With over 100 breweries & cideries pouring over 400 beers & ciders from across North America, including a US Brewers Association section filled with craft beers never seen before in Canada, The VCBW Festival is back.
Runs until: Sunday June 3, 2018

rEvolver Theatre Festival
Where: The Cultch
What: 12 days of new interdisciplinary live theatre works by emerging to early mid career Canadian artists with ticketed presentations as well as free companion events.
Runs until: Sunday June 3, 2018

Haida Now
Where: Museum of Vancouver
What: This exhibition features an unparalleled collection of Haida art boasting more than 450 works created as early as 1890. Local Haida artists will share their insights and knowledge about the art pieces, providing visitors with the opportunity to experience a powerful way to engage with the worldview and sensibility of the Haida people while gaining greater appreciation for the role museums can play in the reconciliation movement.
Runs until: Saturday June 16, 2018

Bombhead
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: A thematic art exhibition organized by guest curator John O’Brian that explores the emergence and impact of the nuclear age as represented by artists and their art. Encompassing the pre- and postwar period from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi in 2011, BOMBHEAD brings together paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, photographs, film and video that deal with this often dark subject matter.
Runs until: Sunday June 17, 2018

The Blue Hour
Where: Vancouver Contemporary Art Gallery
What:Making reference to the brief period of twilight at dawn and dusk when temporal linearity appears to momentarily hover in a state of suspension, this photography exhibition presents works by five Canadian and international artists – Joi T. Arcand, Kapwani Kiwanga, Colin Miner, Grace Ndiritu, and Kara Uzelman – that collectively act as a proposition to consider the futurity of the photographic image.
Runs until: Sunday June 24, 2018

Mamma Mia!
Where: Arts Club Theatre
What: Based on the Songs of ABBA, an island paradise in Greece sets the stage for the ultimate feel-good show. A daughter’s quest to find her biological father before her wedding brings together three men from her mother’s past. Who will walk her down the aisle?
Runs until: Sunday July 22, 2018

Emily Carr in Dialogue with Mattie Gunterman
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: The work of two women artists practicing in British Columbia in the early twentieth century. This exhibition draws on the Vancouver Art Gallery’s deep holdings of Carr’s work to reflect her direct engagement with and great affection for British Columbia’s landscape. Like Carr, much of Gunterman’s oeuvre reflected her engagement with the wilderness around her which she documented with images of friends, campsites, trappers, prospectors, miners and the day to day of pioneer life.
Runs until: Monday September 3, 2018

Sea Snaps
Where: Vancouver Maritime Museum
What: A display of work by Maria Steernberg. This exhibition highlights the beauty of Vancouver’s maritime setting and our beautiful coast line through a series of themes; the working waterfront, cruising, nature and disaster.
Runs until: Sunday October 7, 2018

Mount Pleasant Farmers Market
Where: Dude Chilling Park
What: Vancouver’s easy-going Sunday market located on the east side of Dude Chilling Park – the gathering place for a diverse crowd of young families, artists, dog owners, and quirky neighbourhood personalities.
Runs until: Sunday October 7, 2018

Arts of Resistance: Politics and The Past in Latin America
Where: UBC Museum of Anthropology
What: This premiere exhibition illustrates how Latin American communities use traditional or historic art forms to express contemporary political realities. Featuring art and multi-sensory installations from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Honduras, Ecuador and Chile, with special attention to marginalized communities.
Runs until: Monday October 8, 2018

Culture at the Centre
Where: UBC Museum of Anthropology
What: Five Indigenous-run cultural centres in BC will be showcased representing six communities: Musqueam Cultural Education and Resource Centre (Musqueam), Squamish-Lil’wat Cultural Centre (Squamish, Lil’wat), Heiltsuk Cultural Education Centre (Heiltsuk), Nisga’a Museum (Nisga’a), and Haida Gwaii Museum (Haida). Covering a wide geographic expanse from Vancouver to the Nass River Valley, this marks the first time the participating communities will come together to share their diverse cultures in one space.
Runs until: Monday October 8, 2018

Trout Lake Farmers Market
Where: Trout Lake
What: This is where you’ll find the vendors who have been doing it since the beginning; what started as 14 farmers ‘squatting’ at the Croatian Cultural Centre back in 1995 has grown into Vancouver’s most well-known and beloved market. Visitors come from near and far to sample artisan breads & preserves, stock up on free-range and organic eggs & meats, get the freshest, hard-to-find heirloom vegetables and taste the first Okanagan cherries and peaches of the season.
Runs until: Saturday October 20, 2018 (Saturdays)

Kitsilano Farmers Market
Where: Kitsilano Community Centre
What: At Kitsilano Farmers Market, shoppers will find a great selection of just-picked, seasonal fruits & vegetables, ethically raised and grass fed meat, eggs, & dairy, sustainable seafood, fresh baked bread & artisanal food, local beer, wine, & spirits, and handmade craft.
Runs until: Sunday October 21, 2018 (Sundays)

Riley Park Farmers’ Market
Where: Riley Park
What: 30+ vendors each week – a fresh selection of just-picked seasonal fruits & veggies, ethically-raised meats & sustainable seafood, artisanal bread & prepared foods, craft beer, wine, & spirits, handmade craft, and coffee & food trucks.
Runs until: Saturday October 27, 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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