It’s a weekend of vibrant colour! You know it’s spring when the fields of Abbotsford turn to multi-coloured bands of thousands of tulips. There are also the vibrant Vaisakhi day festivals this weekend, which mark the Sikh New Year and, for Easter, the pastels of bunnies and chocolate egg hunts are all over the city.
Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Ongoing
Friday April 14
Abbotsford Bloom Tulip Festival
Where: 36737 North Parallel Road, Abbotsford BC
What: A chance to marvel at 10-acres of rainbow-coloured fields featuring more than 2.5 million tulips in a vivid display of breathtaking beauty. Visitors are invited to enjoy the view, get up close with the blooms, tiptoe through the expansive tulip fields, pick their own spring bouquets in the sprawling u-pick tulip field or purchase pre-picked tulips in the “Bloom-Mobile”, an on-site flower shop.
Runs until: Sunday May 7, 2017
Bill Reid Creative Journeys | Image via the Canadian Museum of History
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
Tinder Tales
Where: The Fox Cabaret
What: Professional/amateur daters, storytellers, comedians, and everyday people confess their most outrageous Tinder Tales and other online dating disasters live on stage.
How to Be
How to Be
Where: The Cultch
What: A close up look at how we think we “should” be, how we feel others “should” be, and the beautiful failure of it all.
Runs until: Saturday April 15, 2017
Vancouver Whitecaps vs. Seattle Sounders
Vancouver Whitecaps vs. Seattle Sounders
Where: BC Place Stadium
What: It’s soccer! Classic Vancouver vs. Seattle, come see which rainy city will triumph.
Snoop Dog
Snoop Dog
Where: Rogers Arena
What: It’s Snoop Dog’s Wellness Retreat Tour with guests Cypress Hill, Method Man & Redman and Berner.
Prozzäk
Where: The Commodore Ballroom
What: The 90’s duo, Simon & Milo, known for their ear worm hits Sucks To Be You and Strange Disease, spent much of 2016 cryogenically frozen, in preparation for one of their biggest years since the 90’s.
Redpatch
Where: Studio 16
What: Opening on the 100-year anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, this moving production follows the story of a young Métis, volunteer solider from the Nuu-chah-nulth nation of Vancouver Island deployed to fight in the First World War.
Runs until: Sunday April 16, 2017
Generation Post Script
Generation Post Script
Where: Studio 1398
What: It is two generations into the future. What is left of humanity survives in space stations in orbit around our planet. Interstellar travel is not yet possible and Earth is uninhabitable. A misfit group of college students of the “post script” generation—the first to be born in space—bond over their shared anxieties and a desire to reconcile what happened to the rest of their species.
Runs until: Sunday April 16, 2017
Room 2048
Where: Firehall Arts Centre
What: Multimedia dance theatre exploring the socio-political realities of the Cantonese diaspora told through digital light design, bombastic pop music, fog, and the Chinese body.
Saturday April 15
The 9th Annual Great A-mazing Egg Hunt (day 1 of 2)
Where: VanDusen Gardens
What: The Easter Bunny is busy mapping out a hunt in the garden and through the maze, and preparing the chocolate treats to reward the hard-working egg hunter. Hang out and enjoy some fun crafts & activities and explore the 55-acre garden.
Vaisakhi Day Parade
Where: Vancouver/Surrey
What: Every April, millions of Sikhs world-wide celebrate Vaisakhi Day, a day that marks the New Year. Considered one of the most important festivals in the Sikh calendar, parades celebrating the event are held in Sikh communities around the world.
The Damned
The Damned
Where: Commodore Ballroom
What: Cited as one of the most influential punk groups of all time, The Damned contributed vastly to the gothic rock genre and influenced an entire generation of future hardcore punk bands such as Black Flag and Bad Brains, with their fast paced energetic playing style and attitude.
Almost, Maine
Where: The Cultch
What: One cold, clear Friday night in the middle of winter, while the northern lights hover in the sky above, Almost’s residents find themselves falling in and out of love in the strangest ways. Knees are bruised. Hearts are broken. Love is lost, found, and confounded. And life for the people of Almost, Maine will never be the same.
Runs until: Saturday April 22, 2017
Nochella
Where: The Biltmore
What: Playing 2017 Cochella acts all night long and yes – you are encouraged to dress in your festival wear.
Sunday April 16
The 9th Annual Great A-mazing Egg Hunt (day 2 of 2)
Where: VanDusen Gardens
What: The Easter Bunny is busy mapping out a hunt in the garden and through the maze, and preparing the chocolate treats to reward the hard-working egg hunter. Hang out and enjoy some fun crafts & activities and explore the 55-acre garden.
The Tree of Wooden Clogs
The Tree of Wooden Clogs
Where: The Cinematheque
What: Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1978, Ermanno Olmi’s elegiac portrait of peasant life in late-19th-century Lombardy is rendered with a sublime understatement, humanism, and lyricism that recaptures the best of Italian neorealism. Made with an ensemble cast of non-professionals, and with an exquisite appreciation for the everyday.
Monty Python’s Life of Brian
Where: The Rio Theatre
What: Set in 33 A.D. Judea where the exasperated Romans try to impose order, it is a time of chaos and change with no shortage of messiahs and followers willing to believe them. At it’s center is Brian Cohen, born in Bethlehem in a stable (next door to Jesus’ manger) who, by a series of absurd circumstances, is caught up in the new religion and reluctantly mistaken for the promised messiah.
Res-erection 2017: A Zombie Jesus Burlesque Show
Where: The Biltmore
What: All your zombie fantasies come to life, burlesque-style. Plus a zombie dance moves contest and a post-zombie-apocalypse dance party.
Ongoing
The Watershed
The Watershed
Where: Gateway Theatre
What: Celebrated documentary theatre artist Annabel Soutar leads her family on a cross-Canada journey, probing the future of our dwindling natural resources. By innovatively dramatizing insightful sets of interviews with scientists, government officials, activists and business leaders, The Watershed uncovers the complexities underlying the environmental, economic and political stakes of oil production and fresh water preservation in Canada.
Runs until: Saturday April 15, 2017
World Ski and Snowboard Festival
Where: Whistler, BC
What: A 10 day and night showcase of some of the best of mountain culture, music, arts and snow sports.
Runs until: Sunday April 16, 2017
Generation Post Script
Generation Post Script
Where: Studio 1398
What: It is two generations into the future. What is left of humanity survives in space stations in orbit around our planet. Interstellar travel is not yet possible and Earth is uninhabitable. A misfit group of college students of the “post script” generation—the first to be born in space—bond over their shared anxieties and a desire to reconcile what happened to the rest of their species.
Runs until: Sunday April 16, 2017
Vancouver Special
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: The first iteration of this series and it features works by 40 artists produced within the last five years—Vancouver’s post-Olympic period. The exhibition includes many emerging artists as well as those who are more established but whose ideas were prescient. Some are recent arrivals to Vancouver, while others are long-term residents who have already made significant contributions. Others are nomadic, less settled in one place and are working energetically between several locations.
Runs until: Monday April 17, 2016
Nat Bailey Stadium Winter Farmers Market
Nat Bailey Stadium Winter Farmers Market
Where: Nat Bailey Stadium
What: Don’t fret the summers Farmers markets packing up – winter is here, and you can still shop local for fresh produce, preserves, baked goods, and crafts.
Runs until: Saturday April 22, 2017
Almost, Maine
Where: The Cultch
What: One cold, clear Friday night in the middle of winter, while the northern lights hover in the sky above, Almost’s residents find themselves falling in and out of love in the strangest ways. Knees are bruised. Hearts are broken. Love is lost, found, and confounded. And life for the people of Almost, Maine will never be the same.
Runs until: Saturday April 22, 2017
Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival
Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival
Where: Various locations
What: It’s that time of year when the city turns all shades of pink – the cherry blossoms are in bloom! Celebrate with community picnics, fairs, blossomy bike rides, and group walks. The Blossom Barge will be at Granville Island featuring free performances.
Runs until: Sunday April 23, 2017
Angels in America
Where: Arts Club Theatre
What: A tale of companionship and abandonment that takes place when the personal became political. Set in New York City at the height of the Reagan era, Tony Kushner’s modern masterpiece contrasts the lives of five individuals struggling with identity issues alongside the crippling effects of stereotypes and an incurable diagnosis.
Runs until: Sunday April 23, 2017
Capture Photography Festival | In Between Dreaming and Living
Capture Photography Festival
Where: Various locations
What: High-profile exhibitions as well as emerging talent and community participation are in the lens. There will be events in Vancouver’s leading public and commercial galleries, as well as public installations and a series of community-based photo workshops, tours, artist talks, films, and panel discussions.
Runs until: Friday April 28, 2017
Warrior: George Littlechild
Warrior: George Littlechild
Where: Kimoto Gallery
What: In George Littlechild’s new series ‘Warrior’, he has painted 10 portraits (5 female & 5 male) of 10 individual First Nations people who are fighting the good fight for the planet, the environment and mankind. These individuals are dedicated and devoted to making positive change in their community and in the world, so that future generations will have a better place to inhabit.
Runs until: Saturday April 29, 2017
Hastings Park Farmers Market
Hastings Park Farmers Market
Where: Hastings Park (near the PNE)
What: The Hastings Park Farmers Market features a great selection of local produce; nursery items, fish, meat & dairy; artisan prepared foods, baking and treats; local crafts, and of course, food trucks.
Runs until: Sunday April 30, 2017
Mom’s the Word 3: Nest ½ Empty
Where: Arts Club Theatre
What: From the world-renowned creative team behind the Mom’s the Word series comes a new chapter in their stories of family and fracas. Their kids are grown, their marriages have “evolved,” and their 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.
Runs until: Saturday May 6, 2017
Abbotsford Bloom Tulip Festival
Where: 36737 North Parallel Road, Abbotsford BC
What: A chance to marvel at 10-acres of rainbow-coloured fields featuring more than 2.5 million tulips in a vivid display of breathtaking beauty. Visitors are invited to enjoy the view, get up close with the blooms, tiptoe through the expansive tulip fields, pick their own spring bouquets in the sprawling u-pick tulip field or purchase pre-picked tulips in the “Bloom-Mobile”, an on-site flower shop.
Runs until: Sunday May 7, 2017
Western World
Western World
Where: Vancouver Improv Centre (Granville Island)
What: Vancouver TheatreSports’™ improvisers will demonstrate their lightning fast wit as they play the “hosts” to the audience “guests” in Western World – an improvised parody inspired by the popular TV series Westworld.
Runs until: Saturday May 13, 2017
Susan Point: Spindle Whorl
Susan Point: Spindle Whorl
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Since the early 1980s, Susan Point has received wide acclaim for her remarkably accomplished oeuvre that forcefully asserts the vitality of Coast Salish culture, both past and present. She has produced an extensive body of prints and an expansive corpus of sculptural work in a wide variety of materials that includes glass, resin, concrete, steel, wood and paper.
Runs until: Sunday May 28, 2017
Pacific Crossings: Hong Kong Artists in Vancouver | Sunset, Carrie Koo
Pacific Crossings: Hong Kong Artists in Vancouver
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: June 2017 marks the 20-year anniversary of the transfer of Hong Kong sovereignty from the United Kingdom to mainland China. In the lead up to the handover, tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents immigrated to Canada, many choosing to settle in Vancouver, and among them were a significant number of artists. Pacific Crossings presents works from well-known Hong Kong artists created after their relocation to Vancouver throughout the 1960-90s.
Runs until: May 28, 2017
Retainers of Anarchy
Retainers of Anarchy
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: A solo exhibition featuring new work from Howie Tsui that considers wuxia, a traditional form of martial arts literature, as a narrative tool for dissidence and resistance.
Runs until: May 28, 2017
Caroline Mesquita The Ballad
Caroline Mesquita The Ballad
Where: Centre 221A
What: A sculptural practice that intertwines the materiality of altered, oxidized, and painted copper and brass sheets with theatrical playfulness.
Runs until: Saturday June 3, 2017
Song of the Open Road
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
Up Close
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
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
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 | Image via the Canadian Museum of History
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
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
What are you up to this weekend? Tell me and the rest of Vancouver in the comments below or tweet me directly at @lextacular
Gunboat Bay Lodge 