Things to Do in Vancouver this Weekend: August 31, 2017

It’s the last big hurrah of the summer, and rumour has it it’s going to be a hot one, and I don’t mean the two (yes, two) adult Disney-themed events going on. Enjoy not wearing socks or sleeves outside while you still can at one of the many music festivals this weekend! If you’re the type who prefers the sweet icy breath of indoor air con, don’t worry, there’s some great things in here for you as well.

Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Ongoing

Friday September 1

Guns N Roses
Where: BC Place Stadium
What: Welcome to The Jungle, Sweet Child of Mine, and hopefully even a supremely epic extra-long version of November Rain at some point – we’re banking on some of the classics on their “Not In This Lifetime” tour.

Rick Springfield
Where: The Fair at the PNE
What: The creator of some of the finest power-pop top 40s of the ’80s, including Jessie’s Girl, Don’t Talk to Strangers, and Human Touch.

Neither Wolf Nor Dog
Where: VanCity Theatre
What: Adapted from the acclaimed novel by Kent Nerburn, this funny and deeply moving film follows an author who gets sucked into the heart of contemporary Native American life in the sparse lands of the Dakotas by a 95-year-old Lakota elder.
Runs until: Sunday September 10, 2017

Baptists
Where: The Cobalt
What: Growly, shouty Vancouver hardcore. With Erosion, Regress, and Vaults.

Erotic Fanfiction Deathmatch: Disney
Where: Seven Dining Lounge
What: Some of Vancouver’s most diverse talent compete in a challenge where eight writers to come up with the most erotic, smuttiest fanfiction they can develop, utilizing a simple theme: Disney. Which are then read aloud.

Aritzia Warehouse Sale
Where: Vancouver Convention Centre
What: Grab your pumpkin spice lattes and pull on your Uggs (or your white converse shoes with red accenting, you know the ones) – it’s time to line up forever to buy some discounted clothes in a frenzied mob. Hey, we all get our kicks somehow.
Runs until: Monday September 4, 2017

The Teacher
Where: VanCity Theatre
What: Set in Bratislava during the final decade of Communism, it examines the abuse of power at a middle school. Zuzana Mauréry tears into the part of a lifetime as a terrifyingly passive-aggressive teacher, Mrs. Drazdechova, who happens to be a bigwig in the local Communist party. She shamelessly exploits pupils and parents alike in return for dispensing generous grades.
Runs until: Sunday September 10, 2017

Saturday September 2

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TaiwanFest
Where: Various locations
What: Celebrate Taiwanese culture during this weekend festival that takes place in both Vancouver and Toronto.
Runs until: Monday September 4, 2017

August Alsina
Where: Commodore Ballroom
What: Born and bred in New Orleans, R&B star August Alsina is eager to follow in the footsteps of the NOLA music legends that paved his way. After a set of personal setbacks and a series of YouTube covers that generated millions of views, he released his first album, debuting at number 2 on the Billboard 200.

The Gipsy Kings
Where: The Fair at the PNE
What: Melding flamenco, rumba, salsa and pop to the tune of 20 million albums sold, the Grammy Award-winning hit-makers behind ‘Bamboléo’ celebrate in their very own, blistering tradition.

Vancouver Dahlia Show
Where: VanDusen Gardens
What: An annual showcase of the Vancouver Dahlia Society’s massive flowers.
Runs until: Sunday September 3, 2017

Le Hangover: Post Pride Parking Lot Pool Party II
Where: 780 East Cordova
What: So nice, they’re doing it twice! A kiddie pool, not-so-kiddie drinks, a DJ and an overall inclusive “gay garden party”.

Dysfunctional Disney
Where: The Rio
What: Burlesque and drag cabaret all inspired by Disney princesses, princes, characters and villains.

Sunday September 3

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iHeartRadio Beach Ball
Where: The Fair at the PNE
What: An all-ages, multi-artist, 2-day show featuring Blondie, Lorde, Alessia Cara, The Strumbellas, The Philosopher Kings, and more.
Runs until: Monday Sept 4, 2017

Rumble: The Indians who Rocked the World
Where: The Rio, 2:30pm
What: A film about about the role of Native Americans in popular music history, a little-known story built around the incredible lives and careers of the some of the greatest music legends. With music icons like Link Wray, Charley Patton, Mildred Bailey, Jimi Hendrix, Redbone, Jesse Ed Davis, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Robbie Robertson and Taboo.

Lionel Ritchie and Mariah Carey
Where: Rogers Arena
What: Multi-platinum-selling artists, multiple Grammy Award-winners and music icons, Lionel Richie and Mariah Carey, on a double-bill at long last.

Victory Square Block Party
Where: Victory Square
What: A free block party with live local music.

Slow Jam Sundays Labour Day Boogie
Where: The Commodore Ballroom
What: DJs playing R&B, hip hop, old school and new school jams.

Safe & Sound Music Festival
Where: Westminster Pier Park (New Westminster, BC)
What: An outdoor music festival with Majid Jordan, DVSN, and Jessie Reyes headlining.

Ongoing

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Nomadic Tempest
Where: The shore of South-East False Creek near Cambie bridge
What: A free, all-ages show performed on a 90-foot long Tall Ship. Nomadic Tempest is a mythical saga of monarch migrants—embodied by aerial artists—searching for refuge on a drowned planet.
Runs until: Sunday September 3, 2017

Vancouver Latin American Film Festival
Where: Vancouver
What: This 11-day annual festival encourages dialogue among cultures, and explores and celebrates the art of contemporary Latin American and Latin-Canadian filmmaking.
Runs until: Sunday September 3, 2017

Vancouver Dahlia Show
Where: VanDusen Gardens
What: An annual showcase of the Vancouver Dahlia Society’s massive flowers.
Runs until: Sunday September 3, 2017

The Fair at the PNE
Where: The PNE
What: The PNE, which has been on for over a century, offers a range of new and classic family entertainment, including more than 55 thrilling rides (including Canada’s largest pendulum ride, “The Beast,”) the Summer Night Concert series (featuring headliners such as The B52s, Mother Mother, The Pointer Sisters, The Doobie Brothers and ZZ Top), a craft beer festival, mouth-watering food from around the globe, the beloved Superdogs and more.
Runs until: Monday September 4, 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

Pictures From Here
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Featuring photographs and video works from the early 1960s to the present that capture the urban environment of the Greater Vancouver region, its citizens and the vast “natural” landscape of the province.
Runs until: Sunday September 4, 2017

Aritzia Warehouse Sale
Where: Vancouver Convention Centre
What: Grab your pumpkin spice lattes and pull on your Uggs (or your white converse shoes with red accenting) – it’s time to line up forever to buy some discounted clothes in a frenzied mob.
Runs until: Monday September 4, 2017

Jaad Kuujus: Meghann O’Brien
Where: Bill Reid Gallery
What: Meghann takes materials from the natural world and transforms them into pieces of high-level human expression. Working with traditional materials such as mountain goat wool and cedar bark has given her a deep connection to the supernatural world, a connection to her ancestors. She describes working with cedar bark as, “travelling back in time” or “touching the cosmos”. Her creations have a profound impact within contemporary Northwest Coast art and beyond.
Runs until: September 2017

Sunday Art Market
Where: Jim Deva Plaza
What: Local artists, vendors and makers, largely from Vancouver’s West End, along with musical and other live performances and artist-led workshops to drop into.
Runs until: September 2017

Neither Wolf Nor Dog
Where: VanCity Theatre
What: Adapted from the acclaimed novel by Kent Nerburn, this funny and deeply moving film follows an author who gets sucked into the heart of contemporary Native American life in the sparse lands of the Dakotas by a 95-year-old Lakota elder.
Runs until: Sunday September 10, 2017

The Teacher
Where: VanCity Theatre
What: Set in Bratislava during the final decade of Communism, it examines the abuse of power at a middle school. Zuzana Mauréry tears into the part of a lifetime as a terrifyingly passive-aggressive teacher, Mrs. Drazdechova, who happens to be a bigwig in the local Communist party. She shamelessly exploits pupils and parents alike in return for dispensing generous grades.
Runs until: Sunday September 10, 2017

Panda International Night Market
Where: Richmond, BC
What: A diverse market in Richmond, with shopping, food, beverages, and a game zone.
Runs until: Monday September 11, 2017

Flora and Fauna: A Summer Art Show
Where: The Fall Tattooing and Artist Studio
What: An artistic summer celebration of all vibrant, colourful, living things.
Runs until: Friday September 15, 2017

Oh, Canada – The True North Strong and Funny
Where: The Improv Centre on Granville Island
What: Based on audience suggestions, the cast lampoon such Canadian ‘institutions’ as Heritage Minutes, the Mounties, winter, our hunky Prime Minister, hockey, and lumberjacks or other endless possibilities. As this is improv and the show is made up on the spot, no two shows are ever the same. Join us for some distinctively Canadian laughs. You’ll be nicer for it.
Runs until: Saturday September 16, 2017

Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival
Where: Vanier Park
What: What do you say to watching a live production of Much Ado About Nothing, The Winter’s Tale, The Merchant of Veniceor The Two Gentlemen of Veronain a custom-built tent on the beach while sipping wine, beer, and munching on a picnic lunch themed to the play? Yes! Right? After 28 years, this festival has hit a stride of near perfection (and don’t even get us started on the amazing costumes.)
Runs until: Saturday September 23, 2017

A Sublime Vernacular: The Landscape Paintings of Levine Flexhaug
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: The first overview of the extraordinary career of Levine Flexhaug (1918 – 1974), born in the Treelon area near Climax, Saskatchewan. It brings together approximately 450 of the artist’s paintings as well as several of his mural-sized works. An itinerant painter, he sold thousands of variations of essentially the same landscape painting in national parks, resorts, department stores and bars across western Canada from the late 1930s through the early 1960s.
Runs until: Sunday September 24, 2017

Unbelievable
Where: The Museum of Vancouver
What: This exhibition poses provocative questions about our perception of stories by assembling iconic artifacts, storied replicas, and contested objects for a mind-bending exploration of the role stories play in defining lives and communities – and what happens when we question the tales we’ve long relied upon. Unbelievable objects include the Thunderbird totem pole that appeared in controversial filmmaker Edward Curtis’ 1906 work In the Land of the Head Hunters; contemporary ‘totems’, each with contrasting stories about a point in time in Vancouver; and artifacts illustrating the complex narrative around Vancouver’s relationship with First Nations communities.
Runs until: Sunday September 24, 2017

Uninterrupted
Where: Under the Cambie Street Bridge
What: After dusk, audiences will witness the extraordinary migration of wild Pacific salmon in a 30-minute cinematic spectacle that explores the connection between nature and our urban environments.
Runs until: Sunday September 24, 2017

Be Polite
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: Working closely with the Estate of Gordon Bennett and IMA Brisbane the exhibition will comprise a selection of rare works on paper including drawing, painting, watercolour, poetry, and essays from the early 1990s through to the early 2000s.
Runs until: Sunday September 24, 2017

Works by Anna Milton
Where: VanDusen Gardens
What: Anna has been exhibiting and selling her work internationally since her college years. She trained and worked as an art therapist for many years and is interested in symbols and metaphor that are present in visual art.
Runs until: Wednesday September 27, 2017

Shipyards Night Market
Where: Lonsdale, North Vancouver
What: Food, art, music, entertainment, shopping, a beer garden, and you can bring your dog!
Runs until: September 29, 2017

ZimCarvings
Where: VanDusen Botanical Garden
What: Patrick Sephani along with visiting artist Peter Kananji will be showcasing works from over 30 Zimbabwean stone sculptors on the beautiful garden grounds and carving stone sculptures on site. All works will be available for purchase.
Runs until: Saturday September 30, 2017

Downtown Eastside Women’s Summer Fair
Where: Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre
What: Over twenty-five vendors and artisans from within the community, entertainment from local performers, an area for children to play, information booths about the different resources available in the community, and a wide variety of goods and services for purchase.
Runs until: Saturday September 30, 2017 (Saturdays)

Claude Monet’s Secret Garden
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: The most comprehensive exhibition of French painter Claude Monet’s work in Canada in two decades, Claude Monet’s Secret Garden will trace the career of this pivotal figure in Western art history. This exhibition will present thirty-eight paintings spanning the course of Monet’s long career from the unparalleled collection of the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.
Runs until: Sunday October 1, 2017

Stephen Shore: The Giverny Portfolio
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Twenty-five photographs by contemporary American photographer Stephen Shore produced during several visits to Impressionist painter Claude Monet’s famous gardens at Giverny, France. Showing concurrently with the exhibition Claude Monet’s Secret Garden, Stephen Shore: The Giverny Portfolio offers a contemporary perspective on the tranquility originally captured in Monet’s iconic paintings.
Runs until: Sunday October 1, 2017

Persistence
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Persistence draws together three recent contemporary installations to explore the surprising and creative ways that technologies, physical objects and natural processes endure and transform.
Runs until: October 1, 2017

Elad Lassry
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Investigating the nature of perception with a special focus on the photographic image within the digital era, the exhibition includes more than seventy works—films, photographs and sculpture—produced by Lassry over the last decade.
Runs until: Sunday October 1, 2017

Mount Pleasant Farmers Market
Where: Dude Chilling Park
What: Amble over and pick up some afternoon picnic supplies, groceries for the week, and Sunday dinner fixings from 25+ farms and producers. Each week you’ll find a fresh selection of just-picked seasonal fruits & veggies, ethically-raised meats & sustainable seafood, artisanal bread & prepared foods, craft beer, wine, & spirits, handmade craft, and coffee & food trucks.
Runs until: Sunday October 8, 2017

Traces of Words: Art and Calligraphy from Asia
Where: UBC Museum of Anthropology
What: Words and their physical manifestations are explored in this insightful exhibition, which will honour the special significance that written forms. Varied forms of expression associated with writing throughout Asia is shown over the span of different time periods: from Sumerian cuneiform inscriptions, Qu’ranic manuscripts, Southeast Asian palm leaf manuscripts and Chinese calligraphy from MOA’s Asian collection to graffiti art from Afghanistan and contemporary artworks using Japanese calligraphy, and Tibetan and Thai scripts.
Runs until: Monday October 9, 2017

Richmond Night Market
Where: Richmond, BC
What: There’s a dinosaur park! Anamatronic dinosaurs! Also – live performances, carnival games, over 200 retail stalls and over 500 food choices from around the world.
Runs until: October 9, 2017

Onsite / Offsite Tsang Kin-Wah
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: This large-scale composition transforms English texts to form intricate floral and animal patterns. The work draws from discriminatory language that appeared in newspapers and political campaigns in Vancouver during the 1887 anti-Chinese riots, the mid-1980s immigration influx from Hong Kong and most recently, the heated exchanges around the foreign buyers and the local housing market.
Runs until: Sunday October 15, 2017

West End Farmers Market
Where: 1100 Comox St
What: Located in the heart of Vancouver’s busy West End, this laid-back Saturday market looks onto beautiful Nelson Park and adjacent community gardens. Each week, shop for the best in local, seasonal produce, artisanal bread & prepared foods, craft beer, wine, & spirits, ethically raised meat, eggs, & dairy, sustainable seafood, wild crafted product, and handmade craft. Hot food & coffee on-site as well.
Runs until: Saturday October 21, 2017 (Saturdays)

Trout Lake Farmers Market
Where: Trout Lake
What: This is where you’ll find the vendors who have been doing it since the beginning; what started as 14 farmers ‘squatting’ at the Croatian Cultural Centre back in 1995 has grown into Vancouver’s most well-known and beloved market. Visitors come from near and far to sample artisan breads & preserves, stock up on free-range and organic eggs & meats, get the freshest, hard-to-find heirloom vegetables and taste the first Okanagan cherries and peaches of the season.
Runs until: Saturday October 21, 2017 (Saturdays)

Kitsilano Farmers Market
Where: Kitsilano Community Centre parking lot
What: A great selection of just-picked, seasonal fruits & vegetables, ethically raised and grass fed meat, eggs, & dairy, sustainable seafood, fresh baked bread & artisanal food, local beer, wine, & spirits, and beautiful, handmade craft. Kids and parents alike can enjoy entertainment by market musicians, a nearby playground and splash park, and coffee and food truck offerings each week.
Runs until: Sunday October 22, 2017 (Sundays)

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
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
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

Emily Carr: Into the Forest
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Far from feeling that the forests of the West Coast were a difficult subject matter, Carr exulted in the symphonies of greens and browns found in the natural world. With oil on paper as her primary medium, Carr was free to work outdoors in close proximity to the landscape. She went into the forest to paint and saw nature in ways unlike her fellow British Columbians, who perceived it as either untamed wilderness or a plentiful source of lumber.
Runs until: March 4, 2018

Chief Dan George: Actor and Activist
Where: North Vancouver Museum
What: An exhibition exploring the life and legacy of Tsleil-Waututh Chief Dan George (1899- 1981) and his influence as an Indigenous rights advocate and his career as an actor. The exhibition was developed in close collaboration with the George family.
Runs until: April 2018

In a Different Light
Where: Museum of Anthropology
What: More than 110 historical Indigenous artworks and marks the return of many important works to British Columbia. These objects are amazing artistic achievements. Yet they also transcend the idea of ‘art’ or ‘artifact’. Through the voices of contemporary First Nations artists and community members, this exhibition reflects on the roles historical artworks have today. Featuring immersive storytelling and innovative design, it explores what we can learn from these works and how they relate to Indigenous peoples’ relationships to their lands.
Runs until: Spring 2019

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