Inside Vancouver

Talking Stick Festival 2012 Starts February 20

by Dana Lynch in Events on February 14, 2012

Talking Stick Festival 2012

The 11th annual Talking Stick Festival returns next week with a roster of city-wide events celebrating Aboriginal performance and art. The festival features a range of national and international Aboriginal artists, and includes live music, dance, theatre, multi-media, storytelling and performance art.

Taking place at venues across Vancouver—primarily at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Yaletown and The Cultch—Talking Stick Festival 2012 has a packed schedule of performances, theatre, workshops, and artists’ talks spanning February 20 – March 5, 2012.

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Talking Stick Festival 2012 Starts February 20

Winterruption 2012 Festival on Granville Island February 24 – 26

by Dana Lynch in Family Friendly on February 9, 2012

Winterruption Arts Festival at Granville Island

February 2012 is shaping up to be a month packed with things to do in Vancouver: This weekend is the inaugural City and Slope Festival (which includes Illuminate Yaletown), next week there are 10 Things to Do on Valentine’s Day, and at the end of February there’s the 7th annual Winterruption Festival on Granville Island.

Winterruption 2012 is a three-day festival loaded with all-ages fun. Celebrating both local and international artists of all disciplines, the festival has kids’ theatre and activities, art exhibitions from Granville Island’s many residents artists and artisans, live music presented by the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society, and foodie events from Edible Canada. Basically, if you love food, theatre, music, and arts, they’ve got you covered.

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Winterruption 2012 Festival on Granville Island February 24 – 26

Vancouver City & Slope Festival – Vancouver’s Newest Winter Festival February 9 – 12

by Dana Lynch in Events on January 25, 2012

A new winter festival is arriving in Vancouver this February: The brand-new Vancouver City and Slope Festival is a “four-day destination mountain and music festival that is set to take over Vancouver’s three local mountains and rock its downtown core.”

Designed to become a signature annual winter event for Vancouver, the organizers behind City and Slope include Vancouver Hotel Destination Association (VHDA), Grouse Mountain, Cypress Mountain, Mount Seymour, Yaletown BIA, Live Nation, the Museum of Vancouver and Telus World of Science. The festival itself will combine themed winter sports activities on the mountains with music, arts and activities in Vancouver’s downtown core. If all goes well, the goal is to make City and Slope a 10-day festival by 2015.

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Vancouver City & Slope Festival – Vancouver’s Newest Winter Festival February 9 – 12

Winter Solstice Lantern Festival – December 21, 2011

by Dana Lynch in Events on December 15, 2011

Winter Solstice Lantern Festival at Vancouver's Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. Photo: Secret Lantern Society

Among the many holiday celebrations happening in Vancouver this December, there is one event that stands out from the rest: the 18th annual Winter Solstice Lantern Festival on December 21, 2011.

Rooted in the primal celebration of nature’s rhythms, rather than any specific religion, the Winter Solstice Lantern Festival commemorates the longest night of the year—the winter solstice—and honours the return of the sun with lantern processions, drumming, music, and fire.

Organized by the Secret Lantern Society, this free festival takes place on the same day—December 21—in five different Vancouver neighbourhoods: Commercial Drive, Yaletown, Granville Island, S.E. False Creek, and Chinatown.

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Winter Solstice Lantern Festival – December 21, 2011

LunarFest 2010

by Dana Lynch in Events on January 26, 2010

LunarFest Lantern Procession to celebrate the Lunar New Year

Running through February 28, 2010, the annual Vancouver LunarFest is a Lunar New Year celebration like no other: Get ready for more lanterns—thousands made by school children and artists—than you can imagine, plus awe-inspiring cultural programs and events, too.

Part of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad multicultural arts festival, this year’s LunarFest is transforming downtown Vancouver’s Granville Street—between Georgia Street and Robson Street in the heart of downtown’s shopping district—into a sea of colour and light with the Lantern Forest and an open-air art exhibit of works from Canadian and Taiwanese artists.

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LunarFest 2010