Inside Vancouver

Vancouver Urban Spaces Initiative brings back outdoor Electronica

Photo credit: Vancouver Urban Spaces Initiative

My summer entertainment bucket list usually includes these three elements every year: a beach, close friends and danceable beats.

Music festivals check all of three of these boxes off at once. In British Columbia we are blessed with a range of outdoor, beach-proximal fests to choose from: from Keloha in Kelowna to the Edge of the World Festival on Haida Gwaii to our very own Vancouver Folk Music Festival.

One of my favourite forms of music to en plein air is electronica, IDM (short for intelligent dance music), or bleeps & bloops. Or whatever you want to call it when a person stands behind turntables, twiddles some knobs and mixes songs together in a set that’s guaranteed to bob your head and tap your fingers, if not more.

The organizers of the Vancouver Urban Spaces Initiative (VUSI) agree with me. Inspired by the rooftop parties of Miami, Piknic Electronic in Montreal or the famous outdoor parties of Detroit and Barcelona, Kelvin Beaudette and Dan Hellman are organizing a number of free or almost free mini-electronic music festivals called the Special Summer Series. Continue reading:
Vancouver Urban Spaces Initiative brings back outdoor Electronica

Hidden Gem Alert! Portside Park in Vancouver

Photo credit: bruce | Flickr

It’s hard to believe there could still be a 3.3-hectare hidden gem right smack in downtown Vancouver.

But Portside Park might just fit the bill. It’s waterfront, has a big beach and offers some of the best views of the downtown skyline and North Shore mountains anywhere in Vancouver. And it’s practically empty – even on a sunny, summer day.

I stumbled upon Portside Park (officially known as CRAB Park at Portside) for the first time earlier this week. Part of the reason it’s still unknown is that it’s a bit hard to find, tucked away in an industrial part of town few people know to visit.

Continue reading:
Hidden Gem Alert! Portside Park in Vancouver