Things to Do in Vancouver this Weekend: June 15, 2017

On this, the final weekend of spring, the Queers Arts Festival opens with a celebration of two-spirited peoples, and it’s Car Free Day on Main Street and in the West End.  Also opening this weekend – the Vancouver Art Gallery and Vandusen Garden are serendipitously doing a bit of a concept swap; head to the Art Gallery on Friday for floral installations and tranquil garden scenes, or head to Garden for a Zimbabwean sculpture exhibit.

Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Ongoing

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Friday June 16

Monet’s Secret Garden Summer Gala
Where: The Vancouver Art Gallery
What: The heart of Vancouver will be transformed into a floral paradise by three of Vancouver’s top florists and an array of Canada’s finest event professionals. Large-scale floral installations and digital projections will rise up during the experience of the evening around which art lovers will mingle and celebrate the genius of Claude Monet.

ZimCarvings
Where: VanDusen Botanical Garden
What: Patrick Sephani along with visiting artist Peter Kananji will be showcasing works from over 30 Zimbabwean stone sculptors on the beautiful garden grounds and carving stone sculptures on site.  All works will be available for purchase.
Runs until: Saturday September 30, 2017

Bittergirl
Where: Arts Club Theatre
What: This cathartic and catchy musical charts the romantic breakups of three women and the lively antics that ensue. 60s girl group music like Be My Baby, And Then He Kissed Me, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, and Where Did Our Love Go? provide the perfect backdrop for the bittergirls’ journey back to happiness.
Runs until: Thursday June 29, 2017

The X Presidents
Where: The Biltmore
What: Vancouver-based hip hop.

12 Minutes Max
Where: Scotiabank Dance Centre
What: Short, eclectic contemporary dance works by some of Vancouver’s most exciting and innovative up-and-coming choreographers. Tickets available at Tickets Tonight.

Cinerama
Where: Spanish Banks
What: A live cinema with no story, plot or actors, on the shifting sands of the low tide flats. I really have no idea what this is, but I am intrigued.
Runs until: Friday June 30, 2017

Led Zeppelin Bicycle Ride
Where: Start at CRAB Park
What: Bring ‘The Best of Led Zeppelin’ album on your player/speaker/system, big or small. After the music is synchronized, head out under Canada Place for some early acoustical bliss in the tunnel for a track or two, then on round the Seawall towards Stanley park, stopping again for a track or two in the tunnel under the Causeway. End at Third Beach to watch the sun set at 9:20 to the guitars.

BC Lions vs. Saskatchewan Roughriders
Where: BC Place Stadium
What: It’s football time, mountains and oceans vs. the prairies.

Science World After Dark
Where: Science World
What: Play like a kid without the kids, drink-in-hand if you so desire.

F-O-R-M
Where: 149 West Hastings
What: A by-youth for-youth (ages 15-25) movement on screen film festival; created through a collaboration between 24-year-old independent dance artist Sophia Wolfe, Company 605 and Kristina Lemieux. The festival encourages community-building through events, workshops and short films that inspire youth artists and audiences to see movement from new perspectives.
Runs until: Saturday June 17, 2017

East Side Flea
Where: 1024 Main
What: Over 50 local vendors, food trucks, a live DJ, artisan showrooms, seasonal drink specials, pinball and more.
Runs until: Sunday June 18, 2017

Bison
Where: The Rickshaw
What: Vancouver metal band Bison headlines the Rickshaw in support of their new album You Are Not The Ocean You Are The Patient, out June 23rd on Pelagic Records.

 

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Saturday June 17

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Queer Arts Festival
Where: Various locations
What: The festival’s 2017 theme “UnSettled” presents work from a two-spirit perspective, exploring contemporary roles and experiences, as well as providing a platform for innovation and experimentation at the intersection between the Indigenous and queer art milieus.
Runs until: Thursday June 29, 2017

West End Car Free Day
Where: Denman Street from Robson to Davie
What: There are music stages and jam sessions to listen to, art being exhibited and created live on the street and plenty of places to grab a bite to eat or something to drink.

Art Party: Queer Arts Festival Opening Gala
Where: Roundhouse Community Centre
What: The Queer Arts Festival (QAF) is an annual artist-run multi-disciplinary summer arts festival that presents and exhibits with a curatorial vision favouring challenging, thought-provoking work that pushes boundaries and initiates dialogue.

7th Mariachi Festival Canada
Where: The Vogue
What: Featuring Mariachis from Canada and Mexico.

Mono + Low
Where: The Imperial
What: Mono is a Japanese instrumental post-rock band that is enchanting and heartfelt. Low is soft American dark indie. I think they’ll go nicely together. 

Canada 150 Art Show
Where: Kimoto Gallery
What: 150 pieces of original Canadian artwork by fifty plus artists from Vancouver and the region. The theme is not maple leaves, hockey nor Tim Hortons, instead it is diversity; featuring works by both emerging and established artists, who do what they do, devoted to their professional practices.
Runs until: Saturday July 15, 2017

Vancouver Whitecaps vs. Dallas
Where: BC Place Stadium
What: It’s soccer time, or if you are not from North America, it’s football. But there’s also “American football” which was yesterday. Anyways. This is the one with the round ball.

BC Highland Games
Where: Percy Perry Stadium (Coquitlam, BC)
What: Bands, dancers, entertainers, whisky tastings and even a haggis hunt for the kids.  There will be British cars and British food, sheep dog demos, Quidditch, an expanded beer garden with entertainment, and a grand finale celebrating 150 years of Scots in Canada. Like the sound of the Indian Dhol? The Royal Academy of Bhangra Dancing will dance with with Scottish highland dancers.

Plywood Cup
Where: Granville Island
What: An outdoor fundraiser which involves making a boat out of plywood in ninety minutes! Each team of four is given a bag of nails, two sheets of plywood, and some duct tape, with which to build a seaworthy craft. Then some lucky member of the team paddles it across False Creek and back!

Teddy Bear Picnic
Where: St. Andrew’s Park (North Vancouver)
What: The event is free and features a variety of entertainment for everyone including Music with Marnie, face-painting by Looking Glass face painters, Jump for Joy bouncy castle, clowns Dilly & Donna—and the ever-popular Teddy Bear Clinic,Teddy Bear cookie decorating, storytelling, arts and crafts, and concession stand.

Shakespeare After Dark
Where: The Rio Theatre
What: A fusion of Shakespeare and improv. In the first half of the show, you’ll witness a scene from the Bard monkey-wrenched by a cast member leaving the rest of the cast to improvise around them. Then, in the second half, see a  Shakespearean tragedy, but improvised based on audience suggestions. With a genuinely drunken professional actor volunteering every night, no two shows are ever the same.

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Sunday June 18

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Main Street Car Free Day
Where: Main Street, from around Broadway and south
What: The biggest of Vancouver’s Car Free Day festivals spanning 21 blocks, Main Street has 15 stages and mini festivals along the entire street. This is a fun, family-friendly event with kid-zones, skateboarders, funky artisan shops and popular food vendors. You can really taste the flavour of Main Street with extended patios from many restaurants.

Wolves in the Throne Room
Where: Venue
What: Atmospheric, dark, doomy and beautiful Cascadian black metal.

Pop-Up Roller Disco
Where: Robson Square Skating Rink
What: Classic roller rink vibes with big hair, short shorts, long socks, and all of the disco, funk, R&B and glam rock you can handle. There will be prizes for best costume, free beginner quad and inline lessons from 6-7pm, and limited skate rentals.

Summer Solstice at Mountain View Cemetery
Where: Mountain View Cemetery, 7:00pm & 9:00pm
What: Twenty-five community dancers have been rehearsing twice a week for two months, led by choreographer Daelik of MachineNoisy Dance. Jocelyn Morlock’s Blue Sun for violin and viola will provide the soundtrack for this celebration of the solstice.

The Super Dad Show
Where: Vancouver Improv Theatre, 2:00pm
What: The SuperDad Show pokes fun at the foibles and complexities of what it means to be a father these days. Based on audience suggestions, VTSL’s quick-witted improvisers could explore such relevant topics as “the sensitive Dad”, “Dads and their love affair with the barbecue”, “hockey Dads”, et cetera.

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Ongoing

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F-O-R-M
Where: 149 West Hastings
What: A by-youth for-youth (ages 15-25) movement on screen film festival; created through a collaboration between 24-year-old independent dance artist Sophia Wolfe, Company 605 and Kristina Lemieux. The festival encourages community-building through events, workshops and short films that inspire youth artists and audiences to see movement from new perspectives.
Runs until: Saturday June 17, 2017

Song of the Open Road
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: Bringing together artists from Canada, Eritrea, Ireland, Sweden, and the US, the exhibition includes works that combine thematically to interrogate ideas rooted in photographic histories, engaging ideas such as veracity, recollection, remembrance, belonging, staging, and how the image documents and records these or is evidence of differing realities.
Runs until: Sunday June 18, 2017

East Side Flea
Where: 1024 Main
What: Over 50 local vendors, food trucks, a live DJ, artisan showrooms, seasonal drink specials, pinball and more.
Runs until: Sunday June 18, 2017

Creative Visions: Hong Kong Cinema 1997-2017
Where: The Cinematheque
What: This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). To celebrate, the HKSAR Government takes great pleasure in presenting a number of specially curated film programs on Hong Kong cinema in 10 cities across Europe, North America, and South Korea, in addition to four cities in Mainland China and in Hong Kong.
Runs until: Friday June 23, 2017

Hamlet
Where: The Cultch
What: Presented by The Sandbox Theatre.
Runs until: Saturday June 24, 2017

Velopalooza Bike Festival
Where: Various locations
What: A full calendar of cycling events, parties, rides, and workshops.
Runs until: Sunday June 25, 2017

Hand to God
Where: Arts Club Theatre
What: In a church basement in suburban Texas, three troubled teenagers meet weekly to express themselves through puppetry and learn to avoid the devil at all costs. Things take a twisted turn when one student—Jason—creates a hand puppet that is possessed with a delightfully dark personality of its own.
Runs until: Sunday June 25, 2017

Up Close
Where: VanDusen Botanical Garden
What: All the artists represented in this group exhibition find their inspiration while painting on location at VanDusen Garden. The Vancouver en plein air group, initiated in April 2011, zooms-in to the lush vegetation that provides a new dimension of foreground details. The subjects are varied, and so is the medium.
Runs until: Tuesday June 27, 2017

Queer Arts Festival
Where: Various locations
What: The festival’s 2017 theme “UnSettled” presents work from a two-spirit perspective, exploring contemporary roles and experiences, as well as providing a platform for innovation and experimentation at the intersection between the Indigenous and queer art milieus.
Runs until: Thursday June 29, 2017

Bittergirl
Where: Arts Club Theatre
What: This cathartic and catchy musical charts the romantic breakups of three women and the lively antics that ensue. 60s girl group music like Be My Baby, And Then He Kissed Me, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, and Where Did Our Love Go? provide the perfect backdrop for the bittergirls’ journey back to happiness.
Runs until: Thursday June 29, 2017

Cinerama
Where: Spanish Banks
What: A live cinema with no story, plot or actors, on the shifting sands of the low tide flats.
Runs until: Friday June 30, 2017

Laurent Craste: Revolution’s Small Collateral Damage
Where: Back Gallery Project
What: Of French origin, Laurent Craste has been living and working in Montreal for the past 25 years. His practice focuses on the exploration of the multiple layers of meaning of decorative objects: ideologically, aesthetically, and through their sociological and historical dimensions.
Runs until: Saturday July 1, 2017

Million Dollar Quartet
Where: Arts Club Theatre
What: Inspired by true events, this rocking jukebox musical takes you into Sun Records Studio on December 4, 1956, to witness the famed recording session that brought together rock and roll legends Presley, Cash, Lewis, and Perkins—for the first and only time.
Runs until: Sunday July 9, 2017

Canada 150 Art Show
Where: Kimoto Gallery
What: 150 pieces of original Canadian artwork by fifty plus artists from Vancouver and the region. The theme is not maple leaves, hockey nor Tim Hortons, instead it is diversity; featuring works by both emerging and established artists, who do what they do, devoted to their professional practices.
Runs until: Saturday July 15, 2017

Means of Production
Where: CityScape Community Art Space (North Shore)
What: Through weaving, rug hooking and stitching, five textile artists explore the value, meaning, and metaphorical possibilities of methodically making work by hand in a digital age of increasingly rapid advancement. The title draws on Marx’s theory of alienation, which asserts that our humanity is created through production – essentially we are what we make.
Runs until: Saturday July 15, 2017

The Vienna Model: Housing for the 21st Century City
Where: Museum of Vancouver
What: Explore housing in Vienna, Austria, through its portrait of the city’s pathbreaking approach to architecture, urban life, neighborhood revitalization, and the creation of new communities.
Runs until: Sunday July 16, 2017

Dance in Transit
Where: Various outdoor locations
What: A continuous supply of dancing during the warm months —at no cost. Watch it, try it, and see if you love it.
Runs until: Sunday August 27th, 2017

Xi Xanya Dzam – Those Who Are Amazing At Making Things
Where: The Bill Reid Gallery
What: Xi Xanya Dzam (pronounced hee hun ya zam) is the Kwak’wala word describing incredibly talented and gifted people who create works of art. The exhibition is both a showcase and a critical exploration of ‘achievement’ and ‘excellence’ in traditional and contemporary First Nations art.
Runs until: Sunday September 4, 2017

Pictures From Here
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Featuring photographs and video works from the early 1960s to the present that capture the urban environment of the Greater Vancouver region, its citizens and the vast “natural” landscape of the province.
Runs until: Sunday September 4, 2017

Sunday Art Market
Where: Jim Deva Plaza
What: Local artists, vendors and makers, largely from Vancouver’s West End, along with musical and other live performances and artist-led workshops to drop into.
Runs until: September 2017

Panda International Night Market
Where: Richmond, BC
What: A diverse market in Richmond, with shopping, food, beverages, and a game zone.
Runs until: Monday September 11, 2017

Flora and Fauna: A Summer Art Show
Where: The Fall Tattooing and Artist Studio
What: An artistic summer celebration of all vibrant, colourful, living things.
Runs until: Friday September 15, 2017

Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival
Where: Vanier Park
What: What do you say to watching a live production of Much Ado About Nothing, The Winter’s Tale, The Merchant of Venice or The Two Gentlemen of Verona in a custom-built tent on the beach while sipping wine, beer, and munching on a picnic lunch themed to the play? Yes! Right? After 28 years, this festival has hit a stride of near perfection (and don’t even get us started on the amazing costumes.)
Runs until: Saturday September 23, 2017

Shipyards Night Market
Where: Lonsdale, North Vancouver
What: Food, art, music, entertainment, shopping, a beer garden, and you can bring your dog!
Runs until: September 29, 2017

ZimCarvings
Where: VanDusen Botanical Garden
What: Patrick Sephani along with visiting artist Peter Kananji will be showcasing works from over 30 Zimbabwean stone sculptors on the beautiful garden grounds and carving stone sculptures on site.  All works will be available for purchase.
Runs until: Saturday September 30, 2017

Mount Pleasant Farmers Market
Where: Dude Chilling Park
What: Amble over and pick up some afternoon picnic supplies, groceries for the week, and Sunday dinner fixings from 25+ farms and producers. Each week you’ll find 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: October 8, 2017

Traces of Words: Art and Calligraphy from Asia
Where: UBC Museum of Anthropology
What: Words and their physical manifestations are explored in this insightful exhibition, which will honour the special significance that written forms. Varied forms of expression associated with writing throughout Asia is shown over the span of different time periods: from Sumerian cuneiform inscriptions, Qu’ranic manuscripts, Southeast Asian palm leaf manuscripts and Chinese calligraphy from MOA’s Asian collection to graffiti art from Afghanistan and contemporary artworks using Japanese calligraphy, and Tibetan and Thai scripts.
Runs until: Monday October 9, 2017

Richmond Night Market
Where: Richmond, BC
What: There’s a dinosaur park! Anamatronic dinosaurs! Also – live performances, carnival games, over 200 retail stalls and over 500 food choices from around the world.
Runs until: October 9, 2017

Onsite / Offsite Tsang Kin-Wah
Where:  Vancouver Art Gallery
What:  This large-scale composition transforms English texts to form intricate floral and animal patterns. The work draws from discriminatory language that appeared in newspapers and political campaigns in Vancouver during the 1887 anti-Chinese riots, the mid-1980s immigration influx from Hong Kong and most recently, the heated exchanges around the foreign buyers and the local housing market.
Runs until: Sunday October 15, 2017

West End Farmers Market
Where: 1100 Comox St
What: Located in the heart of Vancouver’s busy West End, this laid-back Saturday market looks onto beautiful Nelson Park and adjacent community gardens. Each week, shop for the best in local, seasonal produce, artisanal bread & prepared foods, craft beer, wine, & spirits, ethically raised meat, eggs, & dairy, sustainable seafood, wild crafted product, and handmade craft. Hot food & coffee on-site as well.
Runs until: Saturday October 21, 2017 (Saturdays)

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 21, 2017 (Saturdays)

Kitsilano Farmers Market
Where: Kitsilano Community Centre parking lot
What:   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 beautiful, handmade craft. Kids and parents alike can enjoy entertainment by market musicians, a nearby playground and splash park, and coffee and food truck offerings each week.
Runs until: Sunday October 22, 2017 (Sundays)

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: Winter 2017

Bill Reid Creative Journeys
Where: The Bill Reid Gallery
What: Celebrating the many creative journeys of acclaimed master goldsmith and sculptor Bill Reid (1920–1998), this exhibition provides a comprehensive introduction to his life and work.
Runs until: Sunday December 10, 2017

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

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

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

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