Things to Do in Vancouver This Weekend

The summer festivals are ON! Theatre Under the Stars, Dancing on the Edge, Indian Summer Fest, Showboat, Khatsahlano Music + Art Fest and Carnaval del Sol are all on this weekend, along with outdoor symphony and art exhibits. It’s a good weekend to get outside.

Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Ongoing

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Friday July 5

Theatre Under the Stars presents Mamma Mia! And Disney’s Newsies
Where: Malkin Bowl
What: A beloved Vancouver tradition since 1940, TUTS’ 2019 season offers two stunning musicals: one that tells the lighthearted tale of a mother and a daughter who embark on a hilarious quest to discover the identity of her true father; the other shares the stirring account of a ragged band of newspaper boys and street urchins who strike for fair pay and humane working conditions in 1899 New York City.
Runs Until: Saturday August 17, 2019

Dancing on the Edge Festival 2019
Where: Various locations
What: Dancing on the Edge Festival is Canada’s longest running festival of contemporary dance and is an eagerly anticipated highlight of the Lower Mainland’s Dance Season. This year’s DOTE presents extraordinary dance productions from Canada, Brazil and Korea at various venues in Vancouver, including DOTE’s home venue, the Firehall Arts Centre.
Runs Until: Saturday July 13, 2019

Indian Summer Festival
Where: Various Locations
What: The festival returns to Vancouver bringing locally and internationally renowned artists to venues across the city. With the provocative theme of “Tricksters, Magicians, and Oracles,”the 2019 festival lineup features futurists, novelists, stand-up comedians, musicians and storytellers from around the world.
Runs Until: Sunday July 14, 2019

CAG presents Maryam Jafri | Automatic Negative Thought
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: Extending across both of CAG’s two gallery spaces, the exhibition will include the presentation of three recent series of sculptural works alongside a new video work co-commissioned by CAG and Taxispalais Kunsthalle Tirol in Innsbruck, Austria. The artist explores the ways the body is increasingly experienced as a site of anxiety-fueled narcissism and self-surveillance that is politically and economically produced.
Runs Until: Sunday September 22, 2019

The Clock by Christian Marclay
Where: The Polygon Gallery
What: Recognised as one of the most important contemporary artworks of our time, The Clock is an audiovisual tour-de-force. Presented in a custom-built cinema within the gallery, the work montages film and television footage from the last 70 years. The time represented in each clip is synchronised with actual time, allowing The Clock to function as a 24-hour timepiece. On select Fridays, the gallery will stay open overnight for 24-hour screenings. During these overnight screenings, visitors will be able to see the evening and early morning sections of the film.
Runs Until: Sunday September 15, 2019

Kitsilano Showboat
Where: Kitsilano Beach Park
What: The Kitsilano Showboat operates as a community stage for amateur entertainment over the summer months at Kitsilano beach. It provides a venue for entertainers of all ages and all backgrounds from across the lower mainland. The entertainment is typically multiculturally based, representing the many roots of our society who may not otherwise have the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience.
Runs Until: Saturday August 17, 2019

Robson Square Summer Dance Series
Where: UBC Robson Square
What: Free lessons, performances, and social dancing from 7:30 pm to late, every Friday under the domes at Robson Square. Free lesson starts at 7:30pm, followed by social dancing and demonstrations. Everyone is welcome to this outdoor dance event, no partner, no experience required.
Runs Until: Friday August 23, 2019

VSO at the Movies: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in Concert (show 1 of 2)
Where: Orpheum Theatre
What: The Vancouver Symphony presents this concert presentation of the fifth episode of the iconic Star Wars saga with full-length music score performance. Subtitles will be included to ensure a pleasurable viewing experience for all audiences.

Dancing in the Street: Free Hustle Dance Drop In
Where: šxʷƛ̓exən Xwtl’a7shn (formerly the QET Plaza)
What: A 4-week series with teachers from Hustle at RS teaching the foundations in connection, musicality, technique, form, free-styling, and more. Class will be catered towards all levels, beginners always welcome. Minimum age to participate is 13 years old.
Runs Until: Friday July 26, 2019

Greek Summerfest
Where: St. Nicholas and Dimitrios Greek Orthodox Church
What: Vancouver Greek Summerfest is back for its 33rd consecutive year. The Vancouver Greek Summer Festival is an annual celebration of food, entertainment, and family fun — from the BBQ lamb and “loukoumades” to the dozens of live singers and dancers.
Runs Until: Sunday July 14, 2019

FVDED in the Park (day 1 of 2)
Where: Holland Park, Surrey, BC
What: The annual music festival takes place at Surrey’s Holland Park, and performers include Khalid, Zedd, Tory Lanez, French Montana, Louis the Child, RL Grime, 6lack, Lil Yachty, A Boogie Witda Hoodie, Kayzo, Lauv, Green Velvet, Lil Mosey, Ekali, Joyryde, Shoreline Mafia, Elohim, Saint Jhn, Yung Gravy, Cedric Gervais, Elephante, Gashi, Felix Cartal, SayMyName, and others.

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Saturday July 6

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Khatsahlano! Music + Art Festival
Where: West 4th Avenue from Burrard Street to Macdonald Street
What: Vancouver’s largest free music and arts festival. Khatsahlano! features multiple stages showcasing more than 50 of Vancouver’s top musical performers as well as the eclectic work of local artisans and street performers. This 10-block street fair, spanning from Burrard to MacDonald Street also features a wide variety of food options, bustling patios, giveaways, special activities, and licensed beer gardens.

The Dark Secrets of Stanley Park 
Where: Stanley Park
What: There’s more to Stanley Park than incredible scenery. It’s also recently been home to crime, riots, persecution, political intrigue, class warfare, logging, hunting, disease, military installations, remarkable public art, ecological catastrophes, secret construction mega-projects, poetry, scandal, and murder.
Runs until: Saturday November 30, 2019 (Saturdays)

VSO at the Movies: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in Concert (show 2 of 2)
Where: Orpheum Theatre
What: The Vancouver Symphony presents this concert presentation of the fifth episode of the iconic Star Wars saga with full-length music score performance. Subtitles will be included to ensure a pleasurable viewing experience for all audiences.

Carnaval del Sol
Where: Concord Pacific Place
What: Two days of live music, art, dance, sports, and poetry in celebration of Latin American culture with more than 450+ artists from different Latin American countries.
Runs Until: Sunday July 7, 2019

Vikky Alexander: Extreme Beauty
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: The Vancouver Art Gallery presents Vikky Alexander: Extreme Beauty, the first retrospective of the renowned Canadian artist. Alexander became known for her investigations of the appropriated image, the artificiality of nature and the seduction of space in the 1980s. Extreme Beauty showcases more than eighty works from this artist’s career whose practice includes photography, sculpture, collage and installation.
Runs Until: Sunday October 20, 2019

CBC’s Booked@VPL: Shelley Wood
Where: VPL Central Library
What: Love books, authors and radio? Be part of the audience for a live recording as Globe & Mail best-selling, award-winning author Shelley Wood joins CBC Radio host Sheryl MacKayin conversation. The Quintland Sisters, Wood’s debut novel, was an instant bestseller on the Globe & Mail and Toronto Star Canadian bestsellers list, holding the #1 spot for its first five weeks in print.

Conjuring the Future
Where: The Imperial
What: From Inuit throat singing and traditional rhythms to contemporary sounds and 808-hip-hop beats, this will be an immersive evening of futurist genre-bending music and diasporic dancefloor beats. The night will feature multiple Vancouver debutsby some of Canada’s brightest stars in South Asian, Indigenous, Queer, Filipinx, and diasporic music, movement, and poetry.

Historic Places Day
Where: Fort Langley national Historic Site of Canada
What: Imagine you could travel in time, who would you meet? What would life be like? Discover for yourself and experience Canada’s history on the ground at a historic place.

Paul McCartney
Where: BC Place
What: Paul McCartney is an English singer/songwriter and a key member of the Beatles. After the Beatles split up in 1970, he pursued his own successful solo career, recording with a variety of artists, including his group, The Wings. According to the Guinness Book of Records, he is the best-selling artist of all time.

Community Paddling Day
Where: Creekside Community Centre
What: Learn to dragon boat for free. 45-minute dragon boat sessions begin at 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM or 2:00 PM.

FVDED in the Park (day 2 of 2)
Where: Holland Park, Surrey, BC
What: The annual music festival takes place at Surrey’s Holland Park, and performers include Khalid, Zedd, Tory Lanez, French Montana, Louis the Child, RL Grime, 6lack, Lil Yachty, A Boogie Witda Hoodie, Kayzo, Lauv, Green Velvet, Lil Mosey, Ekali, Joyryde, Shoreline Mafia, Elohim, Saint Jhn, Yung Gravy, Cedric Gervais, Elephante, Gashi, Felix Cartal, SayMyName, and others.

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Sunday July 7

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VSO at Sunset Beach
Where: Sunset Beach
What: July 7th Music Director Otto Tausk joins the VSO in partnership with the Vancouver Park Board for its second annual concert at Sunset Beach. Last summer’s inaugural Symphony at Sunset was an unmitigated success with more than 14,000 people attending the free concert on the large lawn at Sunset Beach.

Commercial Drive Car Free Day Festival
Where: Venables to N. Grandview on Commercial Drive
What: Car Free Day celebrates the vibrancy of Vancouver’s diverse neighbourhoods by organizing a multi-site annual arts and culture festival that reclaims traffic thoroughfares as community focused public spaces. This allows artists, local residents, performers, artisans, non-profits, and businesses to interact, engage, and re-imagine spaces normally reserved for vehicle traffic.

Sunday Afternoon Salsa
Where: UBC Robson Square
What: Sunday Afternoon Salsa at Robson Square is an annual series of free outdoor salsa dances held at Robson Square in downtown Vancouver for eight weeks during the summer months of July and August. Try the free lesson at 3pm, watch the performances at 5pm, or just check out the social dancing throughout the afternoon and see how much fun it is.
Runs Until: Sunday August 25, 2019

Vancouver Canadians vs. Everett AquaSox
Where: Nat Bailey Stadium
What: Take me out to the ballgame! Enjoy the footlong hotdogs, the peanuts, the sushi run? It is all there for you when you watch the local minor league Vancouver Canadians at Nat Bailey Stadium. Join the Vancouver Canadians as they take on the Everett AquaSox on A&W Family Fun Sunday.

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Ongoing

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Carnaval del Sol
Where: Concord Pacific Place
What: Two days of live music, art, dance, sports, and poetry in celebration of Latin American culture with more than 450+ artists from different Latin American countries.
Runs Until: Sunday July 7, 2019

Dancing on the Edge Festival 2019
Where: Various locations
What: Dancing on the Edge Festival is Canada’s longest running festival of contemporary dance and is an eagerly anticipated highlight of the Lower Mainland’s Dance Season. This year’s DOTE presents extraordinary dance productions from Canada, Brazil and Korea at various venues in Vancouver, including DOTE’s home venue, the Firehall Arts Centre.
Runs Until: Saturday July 13, 2019

Indian Summer Festival
Where: Various Locations
What: The festival returns to Vancouver bringing locally and internationally renowned artists to venues across the city. With the provocative theme of “Tricksters, Magicians, and Oracles,”the 2019 festival lineup features futurists, novelists, stand-up comedians, musicians and storytellers from around the world.
Runs Until: Sunday July 14, 2019

Matilda The Musical
Where: Stanley Alliance Industrial Stage
What: Sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty to find your happy ending! Armed with an outsize wit and a vivid imagination, precocious Matilda takes a stand to change her destiny. Even cruel parents and a hardened headmistress can’t get in her way. From the wonderfully subversive imagination of Roald Dahl, this fun family musical will bring out the child in everyone.
Runs until: Sunday July 14, 2019

Greek Summerfest
Where: St. Nicholas and Dimitrios Greek Orthodox Church
What: Vancouver Greek Summerfest is back for its 33rd consecutive year. The Vancouver Greek Summer Festival is an annual celebration of food, entertainment, and family fun — from the BBQ lamb and “loukoumades” to the dozens of live singers and dancers.
Runs Until: Sunday July 14, 2019

Mom’s the Word: Nest ½ Empty
Where: Granville Island Stage
What: From the world-renowned creative team behind the Mom’s the Word series comes another chapter in their stories of family and fracas. The kids are grown, marriages have “evolved,” and bodies are backfiring. Life doesn’t get any prettier, but it never strays far from ludicrous or poignant as the moms continue to mine their personal history for every embarrassing detail. From a sold-out run and a hit tour, the moms are back again to share this nestful of insights and ribald humour.
Runs until: Saturday July 20^th, 2019

Dancing in the Street: Free Hustle Dance Drop In
Where: šxʷƛ̓exən Xwtl’a7shn (formerly the QET Plaza)
What: A 4-week series with teachers from Hustle at RS teaching the foundations in connection, musicality, technique, form, free-styling, and more. Class will be catered towards all levels, beginners always welcome. Minimum age to participate is 13 years old.
Runs Until: Friday July 26, 2019

Theatre Under the Stars presents Mamma Mia! And Disney’s Newsies
Where: Malkin Bowl
What: A beloved Vancouver tradition since 1940, TUTS’ 2019 season offers two stunning musicals: one that tells the lighthearted tale of a mother and a daughter who embark on a hilarious quest to discover the identity of her true father; the other shares the stirring account of a ragged band of newspaper boys and street urchins who strike for fair pay and humane working conditions in 1899 New York City.
Runs Until: Saturday August 17, 2019

Kitsilano Showboat
Where: Kitsilano Beach Park
What: The Kitsilano Showboat operates as a community stage for amateur entertainment over the summer months at Kitsilano beach. It provides a venue for entertainers of all ages and all backgrounds from across the lower mainland. The entertainment is typically multiculturally based, representing the many roots of our society who may not otherwise have the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience.
Runs Until: Saturday August 17, 2019

Robson Square Summer Dance Series
Where: UBC Robson Square
What: Free lessons, performances, and social dancing from 7:30 pm to late, every Friday under the domes at Robson Square. Free lesson starts at 7:30pm, followed by social dancing and demonstrations. Everyone is welcome to this outdoor dance event, no partner, no experience required.
Runs Until: Friday August 23, 2019

River Rock Casino’s Summer Lights Patio Party
Where: River Rock Casino Resort
What: Bring your crew Friday and Saturday nights to The Rock. Free admission, featuring live DJs and food & drink specials.
Runs until: Saturday August 31, 2019

Dog Days
Where: The Polygon Gallery
What: Dog Days is a survey of the camera’s interactions with our canine companions. Today, dogs figure prominently in visual culture through Instagram feeds, viral videos, memes and other media, yet our photographic obsession with dogs is as old as the camera itself. Dog Days features contemporary works, classic images, and vintage photographs from several local archives and collections, considering how dogs have shaped, and are shaped by, human society.
Runs Until: Sunday September 1, 2019

Butterflies at the Vancouver Aquarium
Where: The Vancouver Aquarium
What: Step out of British Columbia’s temperate rainforest and into the Amazon’s tropical rainforest when you enter the Graham Amazon Gallery. Discover a wide variety of butterflies, including blue morphos, giant owls and heliconians, as you stroll along the boardwalk. Keen eyes will spy them feeding on nectar, fruit and flowers, camouflaging on tree trunks, courting a mate and hitchhiking on lucky visitors.
Runs until: September 2019

Moving Still: Performative Photography from India
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery & Annex Theatre
What: A major exhibition of works by thirteen artists based in India whose photographic practices focus on constructing and reconstructing realities. The exhibition and will showcase more than one hundred works, dating from the 1800s to the present, and examines themes of gender, religion and sexual identity using photography, an important medium in India since the mid-nineteenth century.
Runs until: Sunday September 2, 2019

Wild Things: The Power of Nature in Our Lives Where: Museum of Vancouver What: This exhibition delves into the life stories of local animals and plants—how they relate to each other and how they connect people to nature in the city. Scenic design, videos, taxidermy, crowd-sourcing technologies, and the display of natural specimens breathe life into these tales of co-habitation. The immersive nature of the exhibition, including hands-on activities, encourages visitors to examine their relationship with nature, think about momentarily disconnecting from their devices, and find equilibrium with the natural world around them.
Runs until: September 2019

Making Waves: The Story and Legacy of Greenpeace Where: Vancouver Maritime Museum What: With humble beginnings in Vancouver, Greenpeace has grown into a large organization with offices in 40 countries. The NGO has protested numerous causes: whaling, deforestation, mining, genetic testing, and nuclear testing. Explore this exhibit that goes from their first voyage from Vancouver to Amchitka to protest Nuclear testing on an old fishing vessel to how cities, government, and industry today are developing new policies, technologies, and sustainable practices to ensure the preservation of our environment.
Runs until: Monday September 9, 2019

The Clock by Christian Marclay
Where: The Polygon Gallery
What: Recognised as one of the most important contemporary artworks of our time, The Clock is an audiovisual tour-de-force. Presented in a custom-built cinema within the gallery, the work montages film and television footage from the last 70 years. The time represented in each clip is synchronised with actual time, allowing The Clock to function as a 24-hour timepiece. On select Fridays, the gallery will stay open overnight for 24-hour screenings. During these overnight screenings, visitors will be able to see the evening and early morning sections of the film.
Runs Until: Sunday September 15, 2019

Rolande Souliere: Frequent Stopping IV and V
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: The multi-media practice of Australia-based Anishinaabe artist Rolande Souliere entangles the visual language of hard-edged geometric abstraction with that of contemporary traffic signage to consider how colonial infrastructures mark both spaces and the people inhabiting them. Her solo exhibition Frequent Stopping IV and V presents new large-scale, site-specific work at the Contemporary Art Gallery’s two public sites: its street level façade and the nearby Yaletown-Roundhouse Station. This exhibition draws from Souliere’s ongoing body of work that creates interventions using caution tape and street barrier patterns in immersive, muscular installations.
Runs until: Friday September 20, 2019

Bard on the Beach
Where: Bard on the Beach Festival Site, Vanier Park
What: Bard on the Beach, Western Canada’s largest not-for-profit, professional Shakespeare Festival, welcomes you to join them for their 30^th season. Presented in a magnificent setting on the waterfront of Vanier Park, this year’s lineup includes: The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare In Love, All’s Well That Ends Well, and Coriolanus.
Runs until: Saturday September 21st

CAG presents Maryam Jafri | Automatic Negative Thought
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: Extending across both of CAG’s two gallery spaces, the exhibition will include the presentation of three recent series of sculptural works alongside a new video work co-commissioned by CAG and Taxispalais Kunsthalle Tirol in Innsbruck, Austria. The artist explores the ways the body is increasingly experienced as a site of anxiety-fueled narcissism and self-surveillance that is politically and economically produced.
Runs Until: Sunday September 22, 2019

Shipyards Night Market
Where: The Shipyards, North Vancouver
What: Fresh food, locally made products, musicians, art and entertainment. The festivities in the Square kick off at 5pm on Friday nights where you will find 100+ vendors selling fresh food and locally made products. The Friday Night Market also includes a beer garden serving local craft beer and cider as well as Betty’s Vodka Iced Tea. You must me 19+ to enter the beer garden. On the Shipbuilders’ Stage there is live music until 10pm, showcasing talent from all over BC.
Runs until: Friday September 27, 2019

Alberto Giacometti: A Line Through Time
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: With more than 130 artworks on view, this exhibition will present the work of Alberto Giacometti, one of the twentieth century’s most renowned and influential artists. Including masterful works in sculpture, painting, drawing and design, it will examine the breadth of Giacometti’s practice while highlighting his place among his contemporaries in Paris and London
Runs until: Sunday September 29, 2019

Womxn and Waterways Where: Bill Reid Gallery What: Explore the unique connection between womxn and water in the matriarchal societies of the Northwest Coast, with special attention to the roles of child-bearers, healers, and doulas. Artists Richelle Bear Hat (Blackfoot/Cree), Krystle Coughlin (Selkirk), Lindsay Katsitsakataste Delaronde (Mohawk), Alison Marks (Tlingit), Dionne Paul (Nuxalk/Sechelt), Kali Spitzer (Kaska Dena), Marika Echachis Swan (Nuu-chah-nulth), Carrielynn Victor (Sto:lo), Veronica Rose Waechter (Gitxsan) and Water Keeper, Audrey Siegl (Musqueam) will explore water as a crucial element of creation, its historical uses for survival, and contemporary over-consumption as a threat to sensitive coastal ecosystems.
Runs until: Wednesday October 2, 2019

Shake Up: Preserving What We Value
Where: Museum of Anthropology
What: The exhibition will bring to light the convergence of earthquake science and technology with the rich Indigenous knowledge and oral history of the living cultures represented in MOA’s Northwest Coast collection. Beyond scientific discoveries, knowledge of earthquakes and natural disasters has been passed down through generations throughout many cultures, including those of the Northwest Coast First Nations. Also as part of the exhibition, visitors will have the opportunity to see the majestic poles of the Great Hall undergo conservation, many for the first time in 40 years.
Runs until: Fall 2019

Richmond Night Market
Where: Richmond, BC
What: Stop by for authentically Asian snacks, street food and retailers selling unique accessories and knick-knacks at street-side prices. Some merchants are willing to bargain, so channel your inner negotiator and you’ll leave with a haul. There’s a diverse array of nightly live entertainment ranging from music and dance performances to carnival games and rides.
Runs until: Friday October 4, 2019

Shadows, Strings and Other Things: The Enchanting Theatre of Puppets
Where: Museum of Anthropology
What: This enchanting exhibition illustrates the role puppets have played around the world in the transmission of cultural knowledge, stories, and values from generation to generation. Shadows, Strings and Other Things features a broad array of puppets, old and new, from 15 countries in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Visitors will have the opportunity to view more than 250 handcrafted puppets from MOA’s collection — the largest in Western Canada — plus, new acquisitions from China, Brazil, Italy, Java, the UK, and France revealed to the public for the first time. Enter into an immersive and theatrical world for visitors of all ages.
Runs until: Monday October 14, 2019

Vikky Alexander: Extreme Beauty
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: The Vancouver Art Gallery presents Vikky Alexander: Extreme Beauty, the first retrospective of the renowned Canadian artist. Alexander became known for her investigations of the appropriated image, the artificiality of nature and the seduction of space in the 1980s. Extreme Beauty showcases more than eighty works from this artist’s career whose practice includes photography, sculpture, collage and installation.
Runs Until: Sunday October 20, 2019

The Dark Secrets of Stanley Park 
Where: Stanley Park
What: There’s more to Stanley Park than incredible scenery. It’s also recently been home to crime, riots, persecution, political intrigue, class warfare, logging, hunting, disease, military installations, remarkable public art, ecological catastrophes, secret construction mega-projects, poetry, scandal, and murder.
Runs until: Saturday November 30, 2019 (Saturdays)

How Far Do You Travel
Where: Select B-Line TransLink busses
What: Five Canadian artists — Diyan Achjadi, Patrick Cruz, Rolande Souliere, Erdem Tasdelen and Anna Torma — are being commissioned to graphically wrap the exterior of a series of articulated buses traveling on major routes in Metro Vancouver.
Runs until: Tuesday December 31, 2019

Teatro Intimo Del Flamenco
Where: The Improv Centre, Granville Island
What: Karen Flamenco brings the glamour and extravagance of a large flamenco dance production onto a small theatrical stage. The one-hour production welcomes audiences of all ages with live traditional flamenco music, dance, storylines, puppetry and magic. With theatre style seating and bistro-style table seats, every audience member will get a close-up and personal experience that is very typical of a traditional Spanish Tablao.
Runs until: Saturday May 1, 2020

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