Things To Do In Vancouver This Weekend

I don’t want to tempt fate, but it looks like this weekend is going to be a bright and sunny one! There are many ways to get out and enjoy – walk under petals of the cherry blossom festival, explore artistic points of view at a photography festival, or ride your bike around with a group of colourful glowing cyclists. If your thoughts are straying beyond the sun – make sure you don’t miss astronaut Chris Hadfield, who is in town performing extraterrestrially inspired music with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Ongoing

Friday April 1

Capture Photography Festival
Where: Various locations
What: The April 2016 edition will present photography at over 50 esteemed galleries throughout Vancouver, and include public installations, tours, films, and a Speaker Series with artist talks and panel discussions.
Runs until: Thursday April 28, 2016

Rocket Man with Chris Hadfield and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Where: The Orpheum
What: You saw this Canadian astronaut become an international celebrity when he broadcast his cover of Space Oddity FROM SPACE. Well, he’s here, with the VSO! See this out-of-this-world Symphony Pops concert that includes music from Holst’s Planets, Sprach Zarathrustra, scores from Star Wars and Star Trek, selections from Dvořák’s New World Symphony, Elton John’s Rocket Man, and more.

Gin Facts and Fictions
Where: Beaty Biodiversity Museum, 6:30pm
What: Discover the botanical elements of gin as you tour through the Herbarium Collection with Linda Jennings, the Assistant Curator of Vascular Plants. Mia Glanz from Odd Society Spirits will talk about how gin is distilled while you sip a Wallflower Gin martini and taste Oaken Wallflower Gin.

Creative Mornings: Christine Germano
Where: SFU Wordwards, 8:30am
What: Photographer, ethnographer and educator Christine Germano shares her creative story and perspectives on this month’s theme RISK.

Gruesome Playground Injuries
Where: Pacific Theatre
What: A series of unsettling injuries brings Kayleen and Doug together as they spar, spat, and haltingly try to rescue one another. A story tracing the ricocheting dynamics between a corrosive masochist and an accident-prone daredevil.
Runs until: Saturday April 16, 2016

Metric
Where: Thunderbird Stadium
What: Dreamy indie tech plays with emo stars, Death Cab for Cutie.

Wolfmother
Where: The Commodore Ballroom
What: Aussie rockers from Sydney are on their world tour following their latest release, Victorious.”
Runs until: Saturday April 2, 2016

Ellie Goulding Delerium World Tour
Where: Rogers Arena, 7:00pm
What: An English singer-songwriter who in early 2015 released the song “Love Me like You Do” which was featured in the soundtrack to the movie adaptation of the hit novel Fifty Shades of Grey.

Game of Thrones Live: Hodor Strikes Back
Where: The Rio Theatre
What: Straight from Oakland, after playing to sold out crowds in the Bay area, the award winning troupe Tourettes Without Regrets is coming to Vancouver to perform Game of Thrones Live for two nights only.
Runs until: Saturday April 2, 2016

Talk: Sexism, Racism, and Speciesism: Intersecting Oppressions
Where: MacMillan Building (2357 Main Mall)
What: Speaking from an eco-feminist perspective, Élise Desaulniers will demonstrate why our relationship with non-human animals is at the core of our struggle against many forms of human oppression. She will offer suggestions to support the development of an animal rights movement that acts in solidarity with other progressive and environmental movements.

Le Coeur de Madame Sabali
Where: VanCity Theatre
What: Jeanette (Marie Brassard) works at the station in Montreal. Her lie-in boyfriend refuses to have sex with her, and it seems all of her coworkers are pregnant. Things change dramatically when she goes in for a heart transplant. The new organ comes with an unexpected bonus: residual emotions, memories from the donor, an African immigrant who was recently murdered.
Runs until: Thursday April 7, 2016

Femme-Stravaganza
Where: York Theatre, 8:00pm
What: Femme City Choir is an all-genders, queer and trans centred femme-fabulous singing extravaganza.
Runs until: Saturday April 2, 2016

Bike Rave
Where: Woodland Park, 8:00pm
What: Light up your bike and join a group of people in who love bikes and putting lights all over them.

Chi-Raq
Where: VanCity Theatre
What: Possibly Spike Lee’s best movie in years, Chi-Raq mashes Greek comedy (Aristophenes’ Lysistrata) with the disaster zone that is twenty-first century inner-city Chicago to create a scalding hot polemical satire about gun violence, machismo, drugs, racism, poverty and sex, sex, sex (or more precisely, the lack of it).
Runs until: Thursday April 7, 2016

False-O-Ween
Where: The Beaumont Studios, 10:00pm
What: It’s Halloween in April! Dust off or create your best costume (theme is “once upon a time”) and dance the night away.

Fraser Valley Food & Gluten-Free Living Show
Where: Tradex Exhibition Centre (Abbotsford, BC)
What: Taste and purchase food from local artisan growers & producers and condiments, spices and a variety of hard to find food and beverage products. Enjoy the celebrity chef demonstrations, sausage making competitions, cheese and wine seminars, Bite of the Valley participating restaurants and the Grapes and Hops wine/beer/spirits tasting pavilion.
Runs until: Sunday April 3, 2016

Saturday April 2

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Red Bull SlopeSoakers
Where: Grouse Mountain
What: Open to both ski and snowboard categories, this contest will host unique features over ponds and is open to anyone (16+) who wants to test the waters. Multiple ponds and multiple features will ensure that this contest is fun, challenging and true to its name…with the likelihood of getting soaked.

Carded! Trading Card Art Show
Where: Hot Art Wet City, 7:00pm
What: A one-night only show of art reproduced on trading cards. The work of fifty artists is presented on trading cards and made available for art lovers to collect and trade. These 2.5″x3.5″ cards are displayed on the gallery wall and the audience is offered the opportunity to buy random cards in mixed packs of five for $5. If you purchase a pack that doesn’t have your desired card, get into some fast paced trading action with the people around you.

Chutzpah! 2016: Jennifer Teege
Where: Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre, 8:00pm
What: Jennifer Teege in conversation with the Globe and Mail‘s Western Arts Correspondent Marsha Lederman, sharing her unique story with us as told in her new memoir, My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family’s Nazi Past. Tickets available at Tickets Tonight.

UBC Next 100 Film
Where: VanCity Theatre, 12:30pm
What: A documentary program featuring three short films.

Big Tree Weekend: Tour the Giants
Where: Stanley Park, 9:30am & 1:30pm
What: Many of our province’s biggest trees are actually in Stanley Park. Join a tour of some of the Park’s giants. And learn about the few remaining old growth forests in our province and what you can do to help them.

Dead Metaphor
Where: Firehall Arts Centre
What: A young ex-sniper (Dean) has recently returned to Canada from Afghanistan and is struggling to find work. With aging parents (Hank and Frannie) and a pregnant ex-wife (Jenny), Dean finds himself lending his talents in the ideological war at home as an assistant to a contemptuous politician (Helen) seeking election.
Runs until: Saturday April 23, 2016

Herb Walk & Wild Foraging
Where: Jericho Beach Park, 2:00pm
What: Explore the medicinal and edible plants of the Coast Salish Territories with herbalist Bronwen Erickson. Learn how to identify, ethically harvest, and integrate these local plants, growing right here in the city, into your daily life.

Vancouver Whitecaps vs. LA Galaxy
Where: BC Place Stadium, 7:00pm
What:It’s a soccer match (or “football” if you aren’t in North America.)

Atlas Genius
Where: Venue (881 Granville)
What: Another example of how influential blogs can be in a band’s career, sharp-edged Australian indie rockers Atlas Genius experienced a massive surge in their popularity when their song “Trojans” was featured by the site Neon Gold, resulting in offers from record labels and over 45,000 downloads in the U.S. alone before they even signed a deal.

Embrace Argentina 7th Annual Cultch Fundraising Gala
Where: The Cultch Historic Theatre
What: Enjoy great wine, food, and entertainment, all themed around the pulsing energy of Argentina.

Fraser Valley Food Truck Festival
Where: Inlet Park (Port Moody, BC)
What: Sample food all day from different trucks as you listen to live music, shop the local vendors, and play games with the family.

Art Show: Repressions
Where: Chernoff Fine Art (265 East 2)
What: A solo exhibition of recent work by Vancouver-based artist Holly Marie Armishaw. Her latest series of photographic works possess a clean, contemporary and minimalist, white-on white aesthetic. Each of the photographs in the series depicts a partial view of a woman either releasing various objects, or interacting directly with the frame in a play between 2D and 3D objects.
Runs until: Saturday May 7, 2016

Rocket Man with Chris Hadfield and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Where: The Orpheum
What: You saw this Canadian astronaut become an international celebrity when he broadcast his cover of Space Oddity FROM SPACE. Well, he’s here, with the VSO! See this out-of-this-world Symphony Pops concert that includes music from Holst’s Planets, Sprach Zarathrustra, scores from Star Wars and Star Trek, selections from Dvořák’s New World Symphony, Elton John’s Rocket Man, and more.

Wolfmother
Where: The Commodore Ballroom
What: Aussie rockers from Sydney are on their world tour following their latest release, Victorious.”

Sunday April 3

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Modify Vancouver: An Introduction to Design Fiction
Where: Museum of Vancouver, 2:30pm
What: Participants will work in small groups to put theory into action, re-imagining a Vancouver without any limits. Designers use the practice of Design Fiction to propose and provoke discussion about what is and what could be, to produce projects that sit between the plausible and imaginary. This is a unique technique that takes a speculative approach to creative work; think science fiction for the present! Join the Design Nerds and use your creative imagination to design near future realities around such areas as public transportation and public space.

(In)visible Program: Artists’ Creative Response to the Exhibition
Where: UBC Museum of Anthropology, 2:30pm
What: A personal and creative response to the (In)visible exhibition by Jen Sungshine and Sammy Chien, Taiwanese artists-activists based in Vancouver.

Big Tree Weekend: The Hollow Tree and Friends
Where: Stanley Park, 9:30am
What: Bill Stephen, urban forestry specialist with the Vancouver Park Board, will share the Hollow Tree’s story. Then, adventure deep into the forest to discover some of the Park’s biggest trees that you would never guess were there.

Big Tree Weekend: Canopy Wildlife
Where: Stanley Park, 1:30pm
What: Explore the secret world of Stanley Park’s tree canopy and the wildlife that call it home. Although we cannot usually see into this unique habitat, we can use our other senses to gain access to this hidden ecosystem. You will learn to recognize some of the language and sounds of the diverse animal wildlife living in the canopy above us.

Big Tree Weekend: Canopy Climb
Where: Stanley Park, 1:30pm
What: Matthew Beatty with Bartlett Tree Experts and a team of Canopy Technicians, will climb one of the biggest trees in Stanley Park. He will climb the trees to investigate the ecological systems sustained in their canopies. Using rope and ecologically sensitive climbing techniques, Matthew will explore and expose the importance of the biologically rich and stable micro-environments of these big trees.

The Original Bridal Swap
Where: Croatian Cultural Centre
What: Past brides, rental/decor companies and artisans come together with brides-to-be in a fun atmosphere to buy and sell new and gently used wedding decor and find their wedding services.

Victoria Symphony
Where: The Orpheum, 2:00pm
What: The Victoria Symphony travels from Vancouver Island for a very special performance at the Orpheum with outstanding Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear, and Victoria Symphony Music Director (and former VSO Associate Conductor), Tania Miller.

Brews Brothers Launch Party
Where: Venue (881 Granville), 6:00pm
What: Parallel 49 Brewing is launching Brews Brothers vol.2 mixed collaboration 12 pack of beers from local brewing companies. Try the beer, and sing karaoke with a live band to back you up.

Killswitch Engage
Where: The Vogue, 6:00pm
What: With guests Memphis May Fire u& 36 Crazyfists.

Ongoing

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EDZY EDZED 30 Year Retrospective (ends this weekend)
Where: Gallery Gachet
What: His thousands of works manifest as a personal visual meta–language that can be described as “Deconstructivism” in painting, as articulated by Jacques Derrida in The Truth in Painting (1987). This is a study of non–objective (abstract) painting in “western art history” through the filter of deconstruction in an effort to realize uninvented painting forms.
Runs until: Friday April 1, 2016

New Neighbours (ends this weekend)
Where: Kimoto Gallery
What: In this new body of work, Thomas Anfield continues his exploration of the relation between figuration and abstraction as well as image making vs. narrative. Employing the metaphor of the couple (and by extension the family) to speak of larger concerns of the human condition; As signposts to both our common social roles and our own interior lives.
Runs until: Saturday April 2, 2016

Game of Thrones Live: Hodor Strikes Back (this weekend only)
Where: The Rio Theatre
What: Straight from Oakland, after playing to sold out crowds in the Bay area, the award winning troupe Tourettes Without Regrets is coming to Vancouver to perform Game of Thrones Live for two nights only.
Runs until: Saturday April 2, 2016

Reclaiming Hope (ends this weekend)
Where: Various Vancouver venues
What: Hope is a verb. At Reclaiming Hope events, interactive theatre becomes a laboratory for change, one voice at a time. With David Diamond aka “Joker” facilitating each event (“Joker” is a term from Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed to describe the facilitator of the interactive theatre event) audiences with leave with a deeper knowledge of themselves and each other, armed with tools to create healthier inner worlds, families and communities – and reflecting the shifting psyche of a nation that acts, elects, and then holds government accountable.
Runs until: Saturday April 2, 2016

Femme-Stravaganza (this weekend only)
Where: York Theatre, 8:00pm
What: Femme City Choir is an all-genders, queer and trans centred femme-fabulous singing extravaganza.
Runs until: Saturday April 2, 2016

(In)Visable: The Spiritual World of Taiwan Through Contemporary Art (ends this weekend)
Where: UBC Museum of Anthropology
What: Against a backdrop of skyscrapers and mountains, ghosts and spirits haunt the island of Taiwan. Taiwan’s urban and rural life cycles are filled with rituals and ceremonies of various faiths ranging from Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism to Christianity, Chinese folk religions and animistic beliefs of Taiwan’s Aboriginal peoples. While religion affects, challenges and intermingles with the secular world, myths, legends and fairytales add other layers to the spiritual world of Taiwan.
Runs until: Sunday April 3, 2016

Ghost Passages of the McKenzie Shipyard (ends this weekend)
Where: Vancouver Maritime Museum
What: Through a varied collection of painting, photography and sculpture, Vancouver-based artist Tracy McMenemy seduces the viewer into endless and ongoing passage of time in her latest series, Ghost Passages of the McKenzie Shipyard. McKenzie Barge and Marineways was a landmark along the Burrard Inlet in Deep Cove, BC; an epicenter of industrial development in the North Vancouver community since 1932.
Runs until: Sunday April 3, 2016

Mexico Noir Film Series (ends this weekend)
Where: Vancity Theatre
What: The Golden Age of Mexican cinema extended from the mid-1930s to the early 1960s, when Mexican films dominated Latin America and made significant inroads into Spanish-speaking communities throughout North America. At its height, in the decade during and following World War II, Mexican popular filmmaking achieved a level of quality comparable to Hollywood.
Runs until: Sunday April 3, 2016

The Crowd (ends this weekend)
Where: Studio 58
What: A wedding. An arrest. A celebration. A snitch. A little gang warfare. Beyonce’s greatest hits. A storm. The apocalypse? Is there any room for love? We find Tina and Bobby in deep trouble and it’s anyone’s guess how they’ll get out of it this time. The beloved young couple from Tough! and Moss Park continue the struggle to find their place in the world. With help from friends Jill, Sandy and Ricky, and a surprise visit from an undercover cop, they might figure it out this time. Tickets available at Tickets Tonight.
Runs until: Sunday April 3, 2016

Botany Inspired Stitches (ends this weekend)
Where: VanDusen Gardens
What: The Fraser Valley Quilters Guild has curated a vivid showcase of quilts inspired by their garden delights, finely crafted by the guild artisans.
Runs until:Sunday April 3, 2016

Fraser Valley Food & Gluten-Free Living Show (ends this weekend)
Where: Tradex Exhibition Centre (Abbotsford, BC)
What: Taste and purchase food from local artisan growers & producers and condiments, spices and a variety of hard to find food and beverage products. Enjoy the celebrity chef demonstrations, sausage making competitions, cheese and wine seminars, Bite of the Valley participating restaurants and the Grapes and Hops wine/beer/spirits tasting pavilion.
Runs until: Sunday April 3, 2016

Chi-Raq (ends this week)
Where: VanCity Theatre
What: Possibly Spike Lee’s best movie in years, Chi-Raq mashes Greek comedy (Aristophenes’ Lysistrata) with the disaster zone that is twenty-first century inner-city Chicago to create a scalding hot polemical satire about gun violence, machismo, drugs, racism, poverty and sex, sex, sex (or more precisely, the lack of it).
Runs until: Thursday April 7, 2016

Le Coeur de Madame Sabali (ends this week)
Where: VanCity Theatre
What: Jeanette (Marie Brassard) works at the station in Montreal. Her lie-in boyfriend refuses to have sex with her, and it seems all of her coworkers are pregnant. Things change dramatically when she goes in for a heart transplant. The new organ comes with an unexpected bonus: residual emotions, memories from the donor, an African immigrant who was recently murdered.
Runs until: Thursday April 7, 2016

Gruesome Playground Injuries
Where: Pacific Theatre
What: A series of unsettling injuries brings Kayleen and Doug together as they spar, spat, and haltingly try to rescue one another. A story tracing the ricocheting dynamics between a corrosive masochist and an accident-prone daredevil.
Runs until: Saturday April 16, 2016

Cold Friends, Warm Cash: An Exhibition and Print Shop for Kids
Where: Western Front
What: Using the physical space of the institution and its supporting infrastructure, Phillips will turn the gallery into a simple screen printing studio which will serve as a place for discussion mediated through the process of making things together. All kids printing sessions are free including all supplies and materials. Advance booking is essential.
Runs until: Saturday April 23, 2016

Group Exhibition from the Rennie Collection
Where: 51 East Pender
What: Bringing together a variety of practices and media, this survey aims to reveal the chaos of the world by addressing enduringly pertinent issues, from migratory displacement to an in-depth examination of identity and history.
Runs until: Saturday April 23, 2016

Winter Farmers Market
Where: Nat Bailey Stadium
What: Each week you can look forward to finding locally grown vegetables and fruit, meat and seafood from local ranchers and fishermen, artisan cheese and bread, herbs and seasonal nursery items, baked goods, prepared foods and artisanal craft.
Runs until: Saturday April 23, 2016 (Saturdays)

Dead Metaphor
Where: Firehall Arts Centre
What: A young ex-sniper (Dean) has recently returned to Canada from Afghanistan and is struggling to find work. With aging parents (Hank and Frannie) and a pregnant ex-wife (Jenny), Dean finds himself lending his talents in the ideological war at home as an assistant to a contemptuous politician (Helen) seeking election.
Runs until: Saturday April 23, 2016

I Didn’t Know I Didn’t Know It
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: The first solo exhibition in Canada by British artist duo John Wood and Paul Harrison. Their practice unfolds as a way of observing the human condition, an ongoing investigation into the world that surrounds us, the objects we encounter and use daily, and our fundamental engagement with the physical universe in all its sometime or seemingly futile existence.
Runs until: Sunday April 24, 2016

Capture Photography Festival
Where: Various locations
What: The April 2016 edition will present photography at over 50 esteemed galleries throughout Vancouver, and include public installations, tours, films, and a Speaker Series with artist talks and panel discussions.
Runs until: Thursday April 28, 2016

Bulaklak ng Paraiso (Flower of Paradise)
Where: Centre A
What: Filipino-Canadian artist Patrick Cruz will transform the main gallery space of Centre A into an elaborate immersive environment that blends personal, political and historical narratives in order to meditate on the conditions and processes of displacement, cultural hybridity and the material excesses of our globalised world.
Runs until: Saturday May 7, 2016

Your Future Home: Creating a New Vancouver
Where: Museum of Vancouver
What: In response to mounting concern about a rapidly changing region, this exhibit will immerse visitors in an experience that spotlights 20 visions for tomorrow’s city, while focusing on four topical issues: housing affordability, residential density, ease of transportation, and quality of public space.
Runs until: Sunday May 15, 2016

MashUp
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Exploring how artists incorporate found images, objects, sounds and words into their work, starting with the movement’s emergence at the turn of the twentieth century and showing how it has become a dominant force in our world today. It will feature 371 works by 156 artists, filmmakers, architects, musicians and designers, such as Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Juan Gris, Hannah Höch, Joseph Cornell, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Nam June Paik, Jean-Luc Goddard, Frank Gehry, Dara Birnbaum, Stan Douglas, Hito Steyerl, Isa Genzken, DJ Spooky and Tobias Wong, among many others.
Runs until: Sunday June 12, 2016

From Meadows Woodlands Far and Near
Where: Beaty Biodiversity Museum
What: Delicate watercolours and striking woodcuts inspired by plants from the landscapes of Germany and Canada. Art by Brigitte Potter-Mael.
Runs until: Sunday September 4, 2016

Across The Top: The Quest for the Northwest Passage
Where: Vancouver Maritime Museum
What: This exhibit will transport you to the Arctic where you will learn about its environment and people; the many voyages of discovery; the search for John Franklin’s lost expedition (both historical and modern), and the ultimate discovery of HMS Erebus by Parks Canada.
Runs until: November 2016

In the Footprint of the Crocodile Man
Where: UBC Museum of Anthropology
What: The Sepik River of Papua New Guinea is one of the largest river systems in the world, extraordinarily beautiful, but seldom visited. It is here that the Iatmul people, who live along its banks, have created internationally renowned works of art primarily inspired by stories of the majestic crocodile as the primordial creator. This unique exhibition will showcase the most comprehensive collection of contemporary Sepik art in North America for the first time. In addition to highlighting the exquisite carvings of Papua New Guinea’s latmul people, the exhibition will delve into their economic, cultural, and spiritual connections to the river system, drawing urgent attention to the logging and mining operations that pose environmental threats to the region.
Runs until: January 31, 2017

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