Things to Do in Vancouver This Canada Day Weekend

It’s Canada Day long weekend, so bust out the red and white, grab a Caesar, a local beer or anything maple, and celebrate your way through to Monday. Get out to the Indigenous Summer Stage on Friday to start your dance to outdoor and indoor music all weekend long with acts across Metro Vancouver like the Vancouver Symphony, and The Roots. The grande finale is on Monday with family-friendly parties and fireworks downtown and beyond.

Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday | Ongoing

Friday June 28

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

Indigenous Summer Stage
Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre Plaza
What: The Indigenous Summer Stage is part of the Múyuntsut Ta Slúlum Live Concert Series. Kicking off at 5:30 PM this free lively outdoor stage will feature the fresh sounds of Indigenous artists spanning multiple genres and nations.

The Roots
Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre
What: One of the best-known and most respected hip-hop acts in the business. Forsaking usual hip-hop protocol, they are endlessly creative, whether with their own material or through numerous collaborations. They’ve gone platinum, they’ve gone gold, and they bring the house down every time.

Golden Spike Days Festival
Where: Rocky Point Park, Port Moody
What: The Golden Spike Days Festival is one of the oldest and longest running family events in BC, commemorating the Canadian Pacific Railway line and its arrival at the original western terminus where the last spike was driven. The festival is held at Rocky Point Park around Canada Day, attracting upwards of 40,000 people of all walks of life with live entertainment, special events and activities for all ages.
Runs Until: Monday July 1, 2019

Black Pistol Fire
Where: Commodore Ballroom
What: A rock duo based out of Austin, Texas, drawing inspiration from blues, R&B and rock greats such as Led Zeppelin, Chuck Berry, Nirvana, Buddy Holly and Muddy Waters.

Sophie Buddle (show 1 of 2)
Where: Yuk Yuks
What: Sophie Buddle has been featured at Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, JFL42 in Toronto, JFLNorthwest in Vancouver, CBC’s The Debaters, and runner-up in the biggest comedy competition in Canada – SiriusXM’s Top Comic.
Runs Until: Saturday June 29, 2019

Len Cariou in Broadway & The Bard
Where: The Annex
What: Len Cariou, Legendary Canadian performer of stage and screen, currently starring on the hit CBS television show Blue Bloods, combines his two lifelong loves, Shakespeare and musical comedy.
Runs Until: Sunday June 30, 2019

Vancouver Canadians vs Spokane Indians
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.

Saturday June 29

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Bernadette Peters with the VSO
Where: Deer Lake Park
What: Bernadette Peters, replaces Queen Latifah at a free event in beautiful Deer Lake Park. With a Grammy award and six nominations for albums in jazz, pop and rap, an Oscar nomination for her role in Chicago, and dozens of other film and television roles, this Renaissance woman defies genres with her compelling voice and presence. She will perform accompanied by the lush sounds of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Dido
Where: Orpheum Theatre
What: The electronic pop chanteuse Dido entered London’s Guildhall School of Music at age six; by the time she reached her teens, the budding musician had already mastered piano, violin, and recorder. Since 1995 she has sold millions of albums worldwide.

Vancouver International Guitar Festival
Where: Creekside Community Centre
What: Join guitar builders, players, collectors and aficionados for two days of live music, master classes, special events, and the opportunity to see, hear and play some of the world’s finest handmade stringed instruments.
Runs Until: Sunday June 30, 2019

Vancouver Canadians vs Spokane Indians
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.

David Ward & Golden Future
Where: David Lam Park
What: A blend of R&B, art-rock, pop and funk, singer/songwriter David Ward’s soulful songs are accompanied by a 6-piece band of local heavy-hitters and some surprise guests.

Sophie Buddle (show 2 of 2)
Where: Yuk Yuks
What: Sophie Buddle has been featured at Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, JFL42 in Toronto, JFLNorthwest in Vancouver, CBC’s The Debaters, and runner-up in the biggest comedy competition in Canada – SiriusXM’s Top Comic.
Runs Until: Saturday June 29, 2019

Sunday June 30

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VSO at Deer Lake Park
Where: Deer Lake Park
What: VSO and Music Director Otto Tausk return to Deer Lake for its 32nd annual summer performance. Each year the VSO’s outdoor concerts in the beautiful Burnaby park attract more than 10,000 concertgoers. New this year, the VSO will add family activities and participation from the VSO School of Music to entertain families and concert-goers in the afternoon as well as a pre-concert performance by members of the VSO Orchestral Institute. This concert is free to the public.

Shin Lim
Where: Orpheum Theatre
What: Since his viral you-tube episode (over 40 million views) on The Penn & Teller Fool Us TV Show, upcoming rising card artist Shin is redefining the way close-up magic is presented. Within a span of a few years, the classically trained concert pianist transitioned from winning major youth magic awards to a professional magician.

Monday July 1

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Canada Day at Canada Place
Where: Canada Place
What: Canada Day at Canada Place has been western Canada’s premier Canada Day event for over 30 years. This award-winning event, presented by the Port of Vancouver, is the largest Canada Day celebration outside our nation’s capital with live music, food trucks, family-friendly activities and, of course, fireworks.

Canada Day Fireworks Show Viewing Zone
Where: Canada Place West Promenade
What: Claim your seat with one of the best viewing spots for the Canada Day Fireworks at Canada Place. Net proceeds from ticket sales are donated to the Strathcona Community Centre’s Food Security for Children program, which raises awareness and funds for after school care programs, youth cooking programs, and day camps for at-risk children in Vancouver’s downtown east side.

Canada Day Drumming
Where: Creekside Park
What: This free, family-friendly event welcomes both local residents and world visitors to celebrate Canada’s birthday and the cultural diversity in this country we call home. Throughout the day – multicultural drumming stage performances, booth activities, giveaway prizes, children’s pavilion, food trucks, and more.

Steveston Salmon Festival
Where: Steveston Village
What: The festival is famous for its salmon barbecue where over 1,200 pounds of wild salmon filets are grilled over open fire pits. A Canada Day Parade through historic Steveston village kicks off the festival. With over 80,000 people expected, the festival will feature multiple stages with over 50 performances, an expansive community parade, a big fireworks finale and many activity zones.

Canada Day on Robson
Where: Robson Street
What: The sidewalks from Burrard to Denman Street will come alive with music, entertainment, dance performances, kids’ activities, giveaways and more. Stand out acts include Dueling Pianos, Trilojay and Uptight Bass. Additionally, there will be five separate activation zones, including Bute Robson Plaza, Eihu Lane between CB2 and Shenanigans, Whole Foods parking lot, as well as Jervis and Cardero Streets, which will be closed to vehicle traffic.

Burnaby Village Museum presents Canada Day – It’s a Party!
Where: Burnaby Village Museum & Carousel
What: Burnaby Village Museum hosts Burnaby’s Official Canada Day celebrations offering visitors the backdrop of its 1920s village streets, multi-cultural family entertainment including musicians, displays & demonstrations. Admission is free, carousel rides are $2.65. Be sure to bring your cameras and pose for a picture at one of our many photo stops or with members of the Burnaby RCMP detachment, in their splendid red serge uniforms.

Canada Day Celebrations at the Fort
Where: Fort Langley National Historic Site of Canada
What: Celebrate Canada’s birthday at the site where British Columbia was born. Enjoy multicultural music, cake and ceremony at noon and family activities all day on site and at the neighbouring museums.

Vancouver Canadians vs Hillsboro Hops
Where: Nat Baily 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 Hillsboro Hops and stick around after the game for the postigame fireworks.

Canada Day at McArthurGlen
Where: McArthurGlen
What: Two free yoga classes set to an all-Canadian favourites playlist in the morning with YYoga and the Richmond Olympic Oval followed by a family-friendly block party with airplanes passing overhead.

Vancouver TheatreSports presents Improv Mondays w/ Michelle
Where: The Improv Centre
What: You’ve fallen in love with her on YouTube and now the indomitable Michelle Gidard (played by VTS ensemble member Angela Galanopoulos) is coming to the live stage at The Improv Centre.

Ongoing

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Queer Arts Festival
Where: The Roundhouse
What: If art irradiates and anticipates life, what artistic intervention that interrogates will the next years bring. QAF rEvolution gathers together artists who dissemble, push and transgress; art as the evolution of the revolution.
Runs Until: Friday June 28, 2019

Len Cariou in Broadway & The Bard
Where: The Annex
What: Len Cariou, Legendary Canadian performer of stage and screen, currently starring on the hit CBS television show Blue Bloods, combines his two lifelong loves, Shakespeare and musical comedy.
Runs Until: Sunday June 30, 2019

Vancouver International Guitar Festival
Where: Creekside Community Centre
What: Join guitar builders, players, collectors and aficionados for two days of live music, master classes, special events, and the opportunity to see, hear and play some of the world’s finest handmade stringed instruments.
Runs Until: Sunday June 30, 2019

34th Annual TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival
Where: Various locations
What: BC’s largest music festival is back for it’s 34th year! The festival hosts over 1,800 musicians and thousands of attendees for hundreds of concerts (150 that are free) and workshops throughout the city.
Runs Until: Monday July 1, 2019

Celebrating the Art
Where: Le Soleil Fine Art Gallery
What: Visit LeSoleil Fine Art Gallery in support and celebration of Vancouver’s Annual Jazz Festival. Contemporary Exhibits, Free Admission, Family friendly. Presenting 2 floors boasting spectacular collections by Canadian & local Vancouver Artists. 1500+ original paintings & Sculptures.
Runs Until: Monday July 1, 2019

Golden Spike Days Festival
Where: Rocky Point Park, Port Moody
What: The Golden Spike Days Festival is one of the oldest and longest running family events in BC, commemorating the Canadian Pacific Railway line and its arrival at the original western terminus where the last spike was driven. The festival is held at Rocky Point Park around Canada Day, attracting upwards of 40,000 people of all walks of life with live entertainment, special events and activities for all ages.
Runs Until: Monday July 1, 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

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 20th, 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

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 30th 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

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

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

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.