Things To Do In Vancouver This Weekend

Books, burlesque, scary stories, laser light shows and the final weekend of many of the city farmers markets – the days are surely getting shorter and the entertainment is coming out at night. Savour the day or embrace the dark this weekend with one of the city’s many happenings.

Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Ongoing

---

Friday October 21

Vancouver’s Writers Festival
Where: Vancouver
What: A celebration of story, told by authors, poets, spoken word performers, and graphic novelists. Over six days of inspiring and evocative storytelling by local and international authors such as Elvis Costello speaking about his memoir, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink; Kamal Al-Solaylee’s Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (for Everyone), praised as “essential reading” by The Globe and Mail; and Ashley Little’s new novel, Niagara Motel, about an 11-year-old and a narcoleptic touring stripper mother.
Runs until: Sunday October 23, 2016

This Crazy Show
Where: Scotiabank Dance Centre, 8:00pm
What: An exploration of identity and gender through dance with Noam Gagnon, who was the co-artistic director and choreographer of The Holy Body Tattoo, creating work that received critical and audience acclaim around the world, such as Monumental which was performed with Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Tickets available at Tickets Tonight.
Runs until: Saturday October 22, 2016

Science World After Dark
Where: Science World
What: A professor has been murdered, and all the faculty are suspects. It’s up to you to crack the case! Watch the live scenes played out, gather clues, interrogate the suspects, enjoy a drink or two and participate in some mind-blowing interactive science demos before solving the crime. Costumes are encouraged, and prizes will be given for the favourites.

John Cleese and Eric Idle
Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre
What: British comedian superstars are here to make you guffaw with their dry wit.
Runs until: Saturday October 22, 2016

Fretwork: In Nomine
Where: Christ Church Cathedral Vancouver
What: The In Nomine forms a rich repertory of late Renaissance English instrumental music.

Judy Chartrand, What a Wonderful World
Where: The Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art
What: Her beautiful and provocative work presents her own personal history and insights into life in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, and commentary on racism and post–colonial relations between Indigenous and non–Indigenous cultures.
Runs until: February 19, 2016

Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon Laser Show
Where: UBC Planetarium
What: Yasss, it’s a one-off Pink Floyd laser show. Go for the nostalgia, go for the first time, whichever, just sit back and Pink Floyd your hearts out.

Straight Jacket Winter
Where: Studio 16
What: Hoping to start a new life on the West Coast, a couple travels 5000 km from Montreal to Vancouver in the dead of winter. As they attempt to integrate their adopted city, Esther and Gilles find themselves quickly confronted with the language barrier, and their inability to create a social network. Bit by bit, they retreat, inwardly, shielding themselves from the rain and the outside world, the four walls of their apartment becoming the boundaries of a universe understandable only to them. But for how long can two people who love each other live so marginally?
Runs until: Saturday October 29, 2016

Bakersfield Mist
Where: Arts Club Theatre
What: Maude is on the wrong side of fifty, totally broke, and living in a trailer park in Bakersfield, California. Just when things look their worst, she stumbles across a long-lost painting by the renowned Jackson Pollock—or is it? To prove she’s got a masterpiece on her hands, Maude invites a world-class art expert to authenticate it. Cultures collide as these polar opposites evaluate the colour of each other’s character and explore their perspectives on what is real, in life and in art.
Runs until: Sunday November 20, 2016

Mamahood: Turn and Face the Strange
Where: Firehall Arts Centre
What: Meet Marie, an extremely deprived first time mother who dares to tell the tale of her descent into motherhood as she travels to an alternate time and place, Planet Mamahood. Her story is told with both humour and pathos, and as unpredictable and strange events unfold, she searches and reaches for help to heal and find her way home.
Runs until: Saturday October 29, 2016

Fight Night
Where: The Cultch Historic Theatre
What: Fight Night shows us elections as they truly are: a battle, a fist fight with words and, ultimately, a theatrical game.
Runs until: Saturday October 29, 2016

Goldyhands and the Three Bows
Where: Vancouver Playhouse, 10:00am & 11:30am
What: This fairy tale for kids includes musical enchantment when “Four Seasons” of musical play engage audiences young and old. Accompanied by the music of Antonio Vivaldi and a string trio.

Solus
Where: 1554 West 6th
What: New works by Duncan Regehr.
Runs until: Thursday November 3, 2016

---

 

Saturday October 22

top of page

ITSAZOO
Where: UBC Botanical Garden
What: Blurring the lines between performance and reality, audiences of 13 people, are armed only with flashlights on the Lost Lovers Murder Tour – a frighteningly accurate re-enactment of the infamous and unsolved murders that occurred exactly 20-years ago, deep within the forest. Inspired by classic horror movies, audiences will be taken on an experiential journey – part historical murder tour, part outdoor adventure, and part meta-theatrical thriller.
Runs until: Sunday November 13, 2016

Beerlesque Celebration
Where: Roundhouse Community Centre, 6:00pm
What: Craft beer paired with an incredible roster of burlesque, hand-picked by Burgundy Brix. The line-up includes April O’Peel, Veronica Wax, Voracious V, and Scarlett Delirium. MC’d by the one and only Purrfessor.

Intro to Incense Making
Where: Blim, 2:00pm
What: This workshop will teach you the important differences between the many kinds of incense, including which to avoid and how to tell. You will learn the original art of incense-making and each student will make one set of combustible incense sticks or cones which they will roll from a customized recipe provided, as well as one non-combustible loose incense mixture or set of incense pellets.

Union LGBT+ Wedding Show
Where: Beaumont Studios
What: Showcasing LGBT positive wedding professionals in an inclusive environment.

Rapp Battlez
Where: The Fox Cabaret
What: A comedy event where some of the city’s best comedians face-off in high concept, no-holds-barred spit fests.

Hell on Hastings
Where: The Rickshaw
What: Halloween wrestling – yes, you can Halloween-theme pretty much anything. Featuring his first appearance in North America in over 10 years, Leatherface will face East Vancouver’s own Kenny Lush in a “10,000 Thumbtack Deathmatch” which sounds pretty messy.

Rock N Roll Oasis Half Marathon
Where: Vancouver
What: Rock out while you run – live music all along the course makes this run a unique one, where you leave the ear buds at home and move your body to the same tune of everyone around you.
Runs until: Sunday October 23, 2016

BC Lions vs. Edmonton Eskimos
Where: BC Place Stadium
What: You could go watch some football.

Spooktacular Cabaret
Where: The Columbia (New Westminster)
What: Damask Burlesque presents spooky Halloween cabaret burlesque.

RAPS Oktoberfest Pub Night
Where: Richmond Curling Club (Richmond)
What: Help animals while having a fun, scary evening. Prizes and trophies for best costumes, silent auctions, and a raffle, all to benefit animals in need. 

---

 

Sunday October 23

top of page

Vancouver Comic and Toy Show
Where: 3250 Commercial Drive
What: 7,772 square feet of comics, toys, pop culture & cosplay.

Me and My Collection: Ocularist Marie Allen
Where: Museum of Vancouver
What: Ocularist Marie Allen is as much historian as she is an artificial eye designer. Her presentation will highlight the evolution of artificial eye design, locating its roots in ancient Egypt. Allen will illustrate the scientific and design developments of the glass eye and explain modern-day North American fitting techniques. Marie will also discuss fabrication details including the hand painting and veining process, and answer audience questions.

Vancouver Whitecaps vs. Portland Timbers
Where: BC Place Stadium
What: Here is a soccer game to watch and cheer at.

---

 

Ongoing

top of page

Piya Behrupiya (Twelfth Night) (ends this weekend)
Where: York Theatre
What: The Company Theatre, one of Mumbai’s most innovative theatre groups, has created a Bollywood-meets-Shakespeare musical adaptation of Twelfth Night. In the household of Olivia, two campaigns are being quietly waged – one by the lovesick lord Orsino against the heart of the indifferent Olivia; the other by an alliance of servants and hangers-on against the high-handedness of her steward, the pompous Malvolio. When Orsino engages the cross-dressed Viola to plead with Olivia on his behalf, a bittersweet chain of events follow.
Runs until: Saturday October 22, 2016

This Crazy Show (ends this weekend)
Where: Scotiabank Dance Centre, 8:00pm
What: An exploration of identity and gender through dance with Noam Gagnon, who was the co-artistic director and choreographer of The Holy Body Tattoo, creating work that received critical and audience acclaim around the world, such as Monumental which was performed with Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Tickets available at Tickets Tonight.
Runs until: Saturday October 22, 2016

Trout Lake Farmers Market (ends this weekend)
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 and preserves, stock up on free-range and organic eggs and meats, get the freshest, hard-to-find heirloom vegetables and taste the first Okanagan cherries and peaches of the season.
Runs until: Saturday October 22, 2016 (Saturdays)

West End Farmers Market (ends this weekend)
Where: Comox Street, 9:00am
What: Local produce, prepared foods and crafts, hot food and coffee. Take the dog for a walk and enjoy a market in your urban backyard.
Runs until: Saturday October 22, 2016 (Saturdays)

Roadside Harvest Festival (ends this weekend)
Where: Abbotsford, BC
What: There’s a beer-tasting 19+ corn maze. And if just that isn’t good enough for you, there’s also a kid friendly one, there are food trucks, and dogs are welcome and encouraged.
Runs until: Sunday October 23, 2016

Vancouver’s Writers Festival  (ends this weekend)
Where: Vancouver
What: A celebration of story, told by authors, poets, spoken word performers, and graphic novelists. Over six days of inspiring and evocative storytelling by local and international authors such as Elvis Costello speaking about his memoir, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink; Kamal Al-Solaylee’s Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (for Everyone), praised as “essential reading” by The Globe and Mail; and Ashley Little’s new novel, Niagara Motel, about an 11-year-old and a narcoleptic touring stripper mother.
Runs until: Sunday October 23, 2016

Kits Market (ends this weekend)
Where: Kitsilano Community Centre
What: Each week the parking lot of Kits Community Centre fills with organic and conventional product, meat, cheese, seafood and plants as well as tasty baked goods, beautiful crafts and musical entertainment by local musicians. Kids can enjoy the playground and waterpark nearby and parents will find the best selection of organic produce around. Hot coffee and hot food available on site each week.
Runs until: Sunday October 23, 2016 (Sundays)

 

Prohibition City Walking Tour
Where: Chinatown
What: Delve into Vancouver’s dirtiest secrets on this scandal fuelled walking tour. Starting in the world of the saloon, you trace the story of prohibition in Vancouver while winding along the city’s most storied streets. You’ll hear tales of blind pigs, corrupt mayors, and enterprising bootleggers. Plus you’ll see first hand evidence of opium dens and walk down an alleyway once teeming with over 40 “bawdy houses.”
Runs until: Saturday October 29, 2016

The Flick
Where: Arts Club Theatre
What: Set in a run-down movie theatre, this Pulitzer Prize–winning comic drama follows three underpaid ushers who’ll do anything to keep the beloved and endangered local landmark running. As they share their hidden hopes for the future, an intimacy forms among these outsiders who at first glance have only one thing in common.
Runs until: Saturday October 29, 2016

The 4th Annual Boobies and Wieners Show
Where: Hot Art Wet City
What: The annual dirty and immature nude art show returns for a fourth year. “Four Play” features Serena Bon-Binky, Gwen D’arcy, Vince Hemingson, Erica Lapadat-Janzen, Gordana Ristic, Aleshia St Cyr, Pandora Young and Nikki Pecasso.
Runs until: Saturday October 29, 2016

Straight Jacket Winter
Where: Studio 16
What: Hoping to start a new life on the West Coast, a couple travels 5000 km from Montreal to Vancouver in the dead of winter. As they attempt to integrate their adopted city, Esther and Gilles find themselves quickly confronted with the language barrier, and their inability to create a social network. Bit by bit, they retreat, inwardly, shielding themselves from the rain and the outside world, the four walls of their apartment becoming the boundaries of a universe understandable only to them. But for how long can two people who love each other live so marginally?
Runs until: Saturday October 29, 2016

Mamahood: Turn and Face the Strange
Where: Firehall Arts Centre
What: Meet Marie, an extremely deprived first time mother who dares to tell the tale of her descent into motherhood as she travels to an alternate time and place, Planet Mamahood. Her story is told with both humour and pathos, and as unpredictable and strange events unfold, she searches and reaches for help to heal and find her way home.
Runs until: Saturday October 29, 2016

Fight Night
Where: The Cultch Historic Theatre
What: Fight Night shows us elections as they truly are: a battle, a fist fight with words and, ultimately, a theatrical game.
Runs until: Saturday October 29, 2016

Grave Tales at Fort Langley
Where: Fort Langley
What: Join expert storytellers for spine-chilling tales of love, mysterious burials and old-school amputations from Fort Langley’s past. Be prepared to walk through various terrains, rain or shine, as you weave through the village of Fort Langley, from the misty cemetery to the deserted Hudson’s Bay Company fort where you’ll warm up around a cozy bonfire.
Runs until: Sunday October 30, 2016

Chopstick Fest
Where: Various locations
What: An event that honours Vancouver’s Chinese migration history through food by exploring culturally diverse, regionally specific and historically unique elements of Chinese cuisine. The festival includes a variety of regional Chinese cuisines from the nine major culinary areas of Mainland China and Taiwan as well as uniquely west coast fusions that embody the unique flavours of Vancouver.
Runs until: Sunday October 30, 2016

An Agreeable State of Uncertainty
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Comprised of photographs, drawings, prints and paintings by artists such as Weegee, Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, Leon Golub, Lewis Hine, Cindy Sherman, Nancy Spero, Jack Shadbolt and Fred Herzog, these works were selected from the Vancouver Art Gallery’s collection by artist Stephen Waddell.
Runs until: Sunday October 30, 2016

Harry Callahan: The Street
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Harry Callahan (1912–1999) was one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. In 2013, the Vancouver Art Gallery received the extraordinary gift of almost 600 Callahan photographs from the Larry and Cookie Rossy Family Foundation.
Runs until: Sunday October 30, 2016

Stephen Waddell: Dark Matter Atlas
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Over the past two decades the Vancouver-based artist Stephen Waddell has become widely known for his photographs and paintings that address urban space, particularly his depictions of the human figure in the modern city. This exhibition will feature a recent body of photographs in which Waddell has departed dramatically from the subject matter of his previous work by focusing on underground caverns in the United States, Canada and Lebanon—spaces once inaccessible that are now open to tourists.
Runs until: Sunday October 30, 2016

Fright Nights
Where: Playland
What: Misty, dark, dreary, and full of spooks and scares may not sound like everyone’s ideal night out, but to those of us who love Halloween, nothing could be better! Playland turns into an animated haunted carnival, including seven haunted houses and fifteen of its best rides; what better way to scream away all of your fears?
Runs until: Monday October 31, 2016

Stanley Park Ghost Train
Where: Stanley Park
What: Each year, the Stanley Park Ghost Train takes riders of all ages on a journey through a mystical Halloween world. This year, the “Day of the Dead” theme encourages you to gather friends and family to remember loved ones and celebrate the festival of life. Visitors will be serenaded by a mariachi band of cockroaches and ride through a tunnel of flames presided over by the Aztec Lord and Lady of Death.
Runs until: Monday October 31, 2016

Halloween at FlyOver Canada
Where: FlyOver Canada
What: Join Broomelda and her class of witches and wizards, at the Haunted Witches Academy, and embark on some spooky adventures before buckling up for a special Halloween Ride at FlyOver Canada.
Runs until: Monday October 31, 2016

Haunted Circus
Where: The Beaumont
What: An all-new haunted house experience in support of BC Women’s Hospital+ Care Centre Foundation.
Runs until: Monday October 31, 2016

Zombie Syndrome: Dead in the Water
Where: Granville Island
What: The Virtual Stage presents an all-new, immersive theatrical outdoor adventure. The fifth annual installment in the company’s hit series will challenge audiences to travel by land and sea as they race to confront a monstrous hybrid of zombies and vampires.
Runs until: Monday October 31, 2016

Halloween Mystery Nights
Where: Downtown Vancouver
What: Use your superpowers for good to save the planet on a heroic adventure with your friends in Vancouver Mysteries’ newest game, Heroes and Villains, a comic book style adventure.
Runs until: Monday October 31, 2016

Potter’s House of Horrors
Where: Surrey, BC
What: Get scared at this all-out haunted house.
Runs until: Monday October 31, 2016

The Signature of All Things
Where: VanDusen Gardens
What: Original artwork created by the Open Book Art Collective and inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert’s novel, The Signature of All Things.
Runs until: Monday October 31, 2016

The Valley Haunt
Where: 1311 Appin Road (North Vancouver)
What: Shipping containers of haunt all themed and ready to scare as you walk through! Suitable for ages 8+.
Runs until: Monday October 31, 2016

Lost Souls of Gastown
Where: Gastown, Vancouver
What: As much a roaming theatre experience as it is a walking tour. Even more than a vivid account of Vancouver’s most dark, gothic early history, it is the tale of a tragic life. The fictional story of George Turle. A man who witnessed first-hand the terror of smallpox, who ran from the Great Fire as it licked the skin from his back, and who became entangled in one of Vancouver’s most notorious murders. The brutal killing of John Bray.
Runs until: Tuesday November 1, 2016

Solus
Where: 1554 West 6th
What: New works by Duncan Regehr.
Runs until: Thursday November 3, 2016

Pareidolia Series by Katsumi Kimoto
Where: Kimoto Gallery
What: New abstract works that capture the forest and the natural world.
Runs until: Saturday November 12, 2016

ITSAZOO
Where: UBC Botanical Garden
What: Blurring the lines between performance and reality, audiences of 13 people, are armed only with flashlights on the Lost Lovers Murder Tour – a frighteningly accurate re-enactment of the infamous and unsolved murders that occurred exactly 20-years ago, deep within the forest. Inspired by classic horror movies, audiences will be taken on an experiential journey – part historical murder tour, part outdoor adventure, and part meta-theatrical thriller.
Runs until: Sunday November 13, 2016

Trump Card Winner Takes All
Where: The Improv Centre
What: From now through November, everyone’s attention will be glued to a high-stakes game that will affect the world for generations to come – the US election. Vancouver TheatreSports League ups the ante with its own improvised election interpretation.
Runs until: Saturday November 19, 2016

Bakersfield Mist
Where: Arts Club Theatre
What: Maude is on the wrong side of fifty, totally broke, and living in a trailer park in Bakersfield, California. Just when things look their worst, she stumbles across a long-lost painting by the renowned Jackson Pollock—or is it? To prove she’s got a masterpiece on her hands, Maude invites a world-class art expert to authenticate it. Cultures collide as these polar opposites evaluate the colour of each other’s character and explore their perspectives on what is real, in life and in art.
Runs until: Sunday November 20, 2016

Across The Top: The Quest for the Northwest Passage
Where: Vancouver Maritime Museum
What: This exhibit will transport you to the Arctic where you will learn about its environment and people; the many voyages of discovery; the search for John Franklin’s lost expedition (both historical and modern), and the ultimate discovery of HMS Erebus by Parks Canada.
Runs until: November 2016

Diwali Fest
Where: Various Locations
What: Diwali is known as the festival of lights, a spiritual festival celebrated every autumn. Its spiritual significance is that of light over darkness, good over evil, and hope over despair. The festival is committed to incorporating the inclusion of all cultures and communities with its theme of unity in diversity, uniting people from different cultures through celebratory events and allow South Asian art forms to evolve through other cultural influences, while at the same time influencing others.
Runs until: Wednesday November 30, 2016

Fall for Arts
Where: Whistler, BC
What: Festivals, art shows, markets, movie nights, and arts events all over the city.
Runs until: December 2016

Untangled Figures by Guillaume Leblon
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: Creating fictional landscapes or altering an existing space has long been Leblon’s favoured technique for fuelling uncertainty and doubt in order to undermine the stark purity and perfect finish of the museum.
Runs until: Sunday January 1, 2016

All Together Now: Vancouver Collectors and Their Worlds
Where: The Museum of Vancouver
What: 20 beautiful, rare, and unconventional collections, with something for everyone including corsets, prosthetics, pinball machines, taxidermy, toys, and much more. In this exhibition both collector and collected are objects of study, interaction, and delight.
Runs until: Sunday January 8, 2016

White, Steel, Slice, Mask
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: Working together for over a decade, the duo’s interdisciplinary practice typically instigates community-based models of participation in order to re-imagine a material record of the present. They investigate tactics of cultural representation while utilizing the methods of anthropology to examine various forms of collecting, interpretation and display.
Runs until: Sunday January 8, 2016

In the Footprint of the Crocodile Man
Where: UBC Museum of Anthropology
What: The Sepik River of Papua New Guinea is one of the largest river systems in the world, extraordinarily beautiful, but seldom visited. It is here that the Iatmul people, who live along its banks, have created internationally renowned works of art primarily inspired by stories of the majestic crocodile as the primordial creator. This unique exhibition will showcase the most comprehensive collection of contemporary Sepik art in North America for the first time. In addition to highlighting the exquisite carvings of Papua New Guinea’s latmul people, the exhibition will delve into their economic, cultural, and spiritual connections to the river system, drawing urgent attention to the logging and mining operations that pose environmental threats to the region.
Runs until: January 31, 2017

Judy Chartrand, What a Wonderful World
Where: The Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art
What: Her beautiful and provocative work presents her own personal history and insights into life in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, and commentary on racism and post–colonial relations between Indigenous and non–Indigenous cultures.
Runs until: February 19, 2016

What are you up to this weekend? Tell me and the rest of Vancouver in the comments below or tweet me directly at @lextacular

---