Things to Do in Vancouver This Weekend

It’s Easter weekend, and between hunting for eggs and filling yourself with pastel-encrusted chocolates, you can check out reconstructed realities from India-based artists, find out what a mermaid purse is at the Aquarium or browse locally made handcrafted items at Make It.

Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Ongoing


Friday April 19

TED 2019
Where: Vancouver Convention Centre East
What: The political and technological turmoil of the past few years has had unexpected consequences: it’s causing us to ask bigger, deeper, more challenging questions. Like … where is this heading? What really matters? Is there more I should be doing? For TED in 2019, we’re joining that search for deeper meaning. We’ll be exploring technologies that evoke wonder and tantalize with superhuman powers, mind-bending science that will drive the future as significantly as any politician, the design of cities and other powerful human systems that shape our lives.
Runs until: Friday April 19, 2019

Easter at the Aquarium

Easter at the Aquarium
Where: Vancouver Aquarium
What: Did you know that sharks lay eggs called mermaid’s purses? Or that some fish keep their eggs safe in a secret hiding spot? Or that octopuses decorate their den with hundreds of eggs strands? When it comes to animals, what seems weird and surprising to us is normal to them. Celebrate the quirky and curious facts about aquatic creatures and their eggs as you participate in the third annual Easter Scavenger Hunt at the Vancouver Aquarium, an Ocean Wise initiative – where weird is normal.
Runs until: Monday April 22, 2019

Moving Still: Performative Photography from India

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

VanDusen Eggciting Easter Hop
Where: VanDusen Botanical Garden
What: Enjoy an unforgettable Easter experience with your kids (0 to 5 years) at the VanDusen Eggciting Easter Hop. Kids can collect eggs near the maze area and receive a chocolate prize, and hop along to fun music on the great lawn. This outdoor event will take place rain or shine.
Runs until: Sunday April 21, 2019

Dead Peoples Things

Dead Peoples Things
Where: Studio 16
What: Poignant and darkly comedic, the play follows Phyllis, a Millennial, who inherits a house and all of its contents after her estranged hoarder aunt commits suicide. She then must work with neighbour Beatrice, a Baby Boomer who has been named executrix, to try and make some sense of the life and death of a woman she barely knew, through the things she left behind. Based on true events, Dead People’s Things is a heartrending haunting that examines loneliness and the strange contradiction between belongings and belonging.
Runs until: Sunday May 5, 2019

Make It Vancouver
Where: PNE Forum
What: Over 200 makers of accessories, jewellery, clothing, art, home decor, food, baby/kid items, and lots of other beautifully crafted goods. There will be food trucks and a beer garden.
Runs until: Sunday April 21, 2019 

Dirty Jokes presented by Sam Tonning

Dirty Jokes presented by Sam Tonning
Where: Yuk Yuks
What: Tired of hearing jokes that won’t get you fired for telling them to your coworkers? Want a way to show off your depravity now that Lent’s over? Looking to make Good Friday bad? Well, this is the show for you! This show will feature dirty jokes. If that’s a problem for you, don’t come. 

Troupe CMS Players presents Mal and Cara
Where: PAL Studio Theatre
What: The story of a happily married couple, coasting through Vancouver life until 
one of them announces they want to make a radical career change.
Runs until: Saturday April 28, 2019

Tod Ness

Tod Ness
Where: Yuk Yuks
What: Growing up in a single parent home, poverty stricken, and living meal to meal is the exact opposite of Todd Ness’ upbringing. From the everyday struggles of living in suburbia, to the stress of constant support from family and friends, Todd has become an expert at inventing things to complain about. He has honed his comedic skills through years of being a class clown, disobeying teachers and training his upper body.

Lovelytheband

Lovelytheband
Where: Commodore Ballroom
What:Alt-pop band with guests Flora Cash and Jagwar Twin.

Vancouver Chamber Choir presents Music for a Very Good Friday: Bach/O’Regan/Vaughan Williams
Where: Orpheum Theatre
What: Jon Washburn draws all his soloists, choirs, alumni and orchestra together for a wonderful evening of music to celebrate the passage of his 48 years as leader of the Vancouver Chamber Choir.

Kevin Foxx & Levi McCachen
Where: The Comedy MIX
What: From the smash success of his funny and irreverent radio show, The Kevin Foxx Show, on Toronto’s hit radio station CFRB to nightly shows at comedy clubs and corporate stages, Kevin Foxx is simply one of the funniest and most versatile performers working in North America today. 
Runs until: Saturday April 20, 2019


Saturday April 20

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Delhi to Dublin

Delhi to Dublin
Where: Commodore Ballroom
What: A live-electronic, bhangra, hip-hop, world-pop, hybrid act whose concerts have been likened to “90 minutes of freebasing joy”. Famous for their energy onstage, the four member crew has played over 100 shows a year for the last decade. Connecting roots to the future, D2D features a heavy electronic backbone with live traditional Indian instruments (dhol, tabla), fiddle, and the stunning punjabi-english vocals of frontman Sanjay Seran.

Curators in Conversation: Diana Freundl and Gayatri Sinha

Curators in Conversation: Diana Freundl and Gayatri Sinha
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: A conversation between exhibition co-curators Diana Freundl, Associate Curator of Asian Art and Gayatri Sinha, Guest Curator. The talk is in junction with Moving Still: Performative Photography in India, a major exhibition of works by thirteen artists based in India whose photographic practices focus on constructing and reconstructing realities. 

Moein

Moein
Where: Orpheum Theatre
What: A prominent Iranian singer, Moein began his artistic career as a radio singer. He released several albums before Yeki Ra Doost Midaram in 1986, which was his first album to be widely noticed in Iran. In recent years, Moein has become widely acclaimed in Iran and he has played concerts throughout the globe. He is referred to as “javdan sedaye eshgh” which translates to “the prominent voice of love.”


Sunday April 21

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Easter at Fort Langley

Easter at Fort Langley
Where: Fort Langley National Historic Site of Canada
What: For the “hoppiest” little bunnies, join an egg scramble at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Children ages 5 and younger try to pick up as many foil eggs as they can before they’re gone. Bring your own basket and arrive at least 30 minutes in advance to allow time for parking and to pay site entry. For all ages, we’ll have blacksmithing, tours and a relaxed scavenger hunt. 

Taking Back Sunday

Taking Back Sunday
Where: Commodore Ballroom
What: Early 2000s emo rock. 
 


Ongoing

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TED 2019
Where: Vancouver Convention Centre East
What: The political and technological turmoil of the past few years has had unexpected consequences: it’s causing us to ask bigger, deeper, more challenging questions. Like … where is this heading? What really matters? Is there more I should be doing? For TED in 2019, we’re joining that search for deeper meaning. We’ll be exploring technologies that evoke wonder and tantalize with superhuman powers, mind-bending science that will drive the future as significantly as any politician, the design of cities and other powerful human systems that shape our lives.
Runs until: Friday April 19, 2019

Never the Last

Never the Last
Where:
Annex Theatre
What: The story follows the passionate relationship between Sophie Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté, one of the most innovative composers of early twentieth century Europe, and expressionist painter Walter Gramatté. The couple’s 10 years of marriage, marked by adventure, poverty, artistic strife, and tragedy, is captured in Eckhardt-Gramatté’s 10 rarely performed violin solos. Never the Last seamlessly blends classical violin performances, movement, and text to tell the heartbreaking story of two people in love, and the ever-increasing space between them. How do you say what is impossible to say? What if you run out of time?
Runs until: Saturday April 20, 2019

Act of Faith
Where:
Historic Theatre
What: What happens when everything we believe to be true about ourselves or those closest to us is challenged by new information? If you aren’t religious, can you believe in a miracle? Inspired by a true story, this new play explores the mystery of faith-based healing, and the consequences of life-changing transformation.
Runs until: Saturday April 20, 2019

Persuasion
Where: Metro Theatre
What: A performance adaptation of Jane Austen’s last novel. Persuasion features her most matured heroine, Anne Elliot. Anne gets a second chance at love with Navy now-Captain Frederick Wentworth when her family rent out their home to Captain Wentworth’s sister and her husband. Eight years after Anne was persuaded to end their engagement, they must navigate the complexities of their feelings and changing social positions.
Runs until: Saturday April 20, 2019

The Young King
Where:
Performance Works
What: A young goatherd finds out that he is heir to the throne and is dazzled by the riches and finery of his new life, only to discover that everything comes at a price. The classic Oscar Wilde story, The Young King, is a coming of age story that grapples with the ethics of beauty, leadership and compassion. The beautiful language of Oscar Wilde joins the intimate and magical world of internationally-acclaimed theatre company Slingsby (Adelaide, Australia), as the audience journeys to faraway lands replete with rich rewards and challenging choices. 
Runs until: Sunday April 21, 2019

Chester Fields 2019: Something In My Eye

Chester Fields 2019: Something In My Eye
Where:
Polygon Gallery
What: Each year, students are encouraged to create original works of art. For 2019, the theme “Something In My Eye”, was inspired by the current exhibition “a Handful of Dust”. This exhibition features the 31 teen finalists shortlisted from 200 submissions.
Runs until: Sunday April 21, 2019

VanDusen Eggciting Easter Hop
Where: VanDusen Botanical Garden
What: Enjoy an unforgettable Easter experience with your kids (0 to 5 years) at the VanDusen Eggciting Easter Hop. Kids can collect eggs near the maze area and receive a chocolate prize, and hop along to fun music on the great lawn. This outdoor event will take place rain or shine.
Runs until: Sunday April 21, 2019

Easter at the Aquarium

Easter at the Aquarium
Where: Vancouver Aquarium
What: Did you know that sharks lay eggs called mermaid’s purses? Or that some fish keep their eggs safe in a secret hiding spot? Or that octopuses decorate their den with hundreds of eggs strands? When it comes to animals, what seems weird and surprising to us is normal to them. Celebrate the quirky and curious facts about aquatic creatures and their eggs as you participate in the third annual Easter Scavenger Hunt at the Vancouver Aquarium, an Ocean Wise initiative – where weird is normal.
Runs until: Monday April 22, 2019

The Orchard (After Chekhov)
Where: Arts Club Theatre
What: It’s Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, but told through the lens of a Punjabi-Sikh family in the Okanagan Valley. With the bank calling and money low, will the Basrans be able to save their beloved orchard? Inspired by the playwright’s own childhood, this fresh adaptation confronts life, loss, and the Canadian immigrant experience with humour and beauty.
Runs until: Monday April 22, 2019

Resilience: Through Laughter

Resilience: Through Laughter
Where: Coastal Peoples Fine Arts Gallery
What: Corrine Hunt’s experience with adversity takes us on a personal path through her latest mixed-media exhibition. Resilience is one of the most important aspects in our lives, and laughter can often be an antidote – the art of coping – with life’s circumstances that challenge our very being. In facing these challenges, Corrine pushed through with grace, perseverance and strength to give new purpose and pleasure to her art form.
Runs until: Friday April 26, 2019

13th Annual Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival

13th Annual Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival
Where:
Various locations
What: The 13th annual Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival takes place at various iconic locations across Vancouver. Don’t forget your camera! There are picnics, bike rides, performances and more. 
Runs until: Saturday April 27, 2019

BC Blossom Photo Watch | Image Credit: Yayun Cao | Note: please be mindful of traffic when photographing the blossoms!

BC Blossom Photo Watch
Where:
Across British Columbia
What: Get your cameras ready during the Festival season because here come the blossoms! Share your best cherry blossom angles on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram with hashtags: #vancherryblossomfest and #TELUSPureFibre. Winning photo (with the photographer to receive an iPad and FujiFilm printer) will be selected on May 3rd, 2019.
Runs until: Saturday April 27, 2019 

In Search of Imagination: A Local Experience, by Jim Park


In Search of Imagination: A Local Experience, by Jim Park
Where:
Kimoto Gallery
What: The local landscape forms an important part of Jim Park’s practice. Park sees paint as a language; the memory of lived experience merges with the pictorial possibilities on the canvas. His paintings are records of this merging – memory, perception, and emotional experience made real.
Runs until: Saturday April 27, 2019

Jack and the Magic Bean

Jack and the Magic Bean
Where:
Presentation House Theatre
What: After successful runs at the Ottawa International Children’s Festival, The Coterie Theatre in Kansas City and Marionetas de la Esquina in Mexico City, our beloved new spin on the cherished classic returns to the Presentation House Theatre. From the award-winning creative team of Where the Wild Things Are, Baking Time and other quality shows for the very young. Show is recommended for families with kids aged 3 – 8.
Runs until:Sunday April 28, 2019

Cannery Farmer’s Market

Cannery Farmer’s Market
Where: Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site
What: Steveston’s winter food and artisan market features locally baked, grown, caught, and crafted products, seasonal events and activities for all ages, and performances by home-grown musicians and entertainers. Operated by the Gulf of Georgia Cannery Society, the market also features community organizations for special in-market events – new this year is a partnership with the Richmond Food Security Society, which will present a series of Food Skills Workshops on select Sundays, covering a variety of themes including Fish, Holiday Leftovers, Healthy Snacks, and more. 
Runs until:Sunday April 28, 2019

Hastings Park Farmers Market

Hastings Park Farmers Market
Where: Hastings Park
What: Find a weekly selection of locally grown fruit and veggies, farm fresh meat, eggs and dairy products, fresh baked sourdough bread and treats, craft beer, wine and spirits, artisanal prepared food, local crafts, hot coffee and food trucks.
Runs until: Sunday April 28, 2019 (Sundays)

Capture Photography Festival

Capture Photography Festival
Where:
Various locations
What: Presenting the most compelling lens-based art from local and international artists. Each April, photography and lens-based art is exhibited at dozens of galleries and other venues throughout Metro Vancouver as part of the Exhibition Program, alongside an extensive Public Art Program, a youth-oriented Learning Program, and an Events Program that spans tours, films, artist talks, and community events. Launched in 2013, the annual not-for-profit Capture Photography Festival is Western Canada’s largest lens-based art festival.
Runs until: Tuesday April 30, 2019 

Formulation of Time
Where:
Lipont Place
What: Photography by Phyllis Schwartz, Edward Peck, Desiree Patterson and Sand Wan. The theme of this free exhibition is the symbolic meaning of plants’ life cycles. The photographic artworks in the exhibition will be in the format of framed or aluminum plate-mounted chromogenic prints.
Runs until:  Tuesday April 30, 2019

Arts Club Theatre Company presents Bed & Breakfast
Where:
Granville Island Stage
What: When Brett inherits a family estate, he and his partner, Drew, move to a quiet little tourist town to set up a B&B. But will these big city boys face friction in their new community? With dozens of hilarious characters all portrayed by two actors, this theatrical production is a heartfelt comedy about “being out,” skeletons in the closet, and finding a place to call home.
Runs until: Saturday May 4, 2019

Chilliwack Tulip Festival

Chilliwack Tulip Festival
Where:
41310 Yale Rd, Chilliwack
What: Now in its 13th year, the Festival is poised to be the biggest and best yet. The first two weeks of the festival will feature 10 varieties of hyacinths and 17 varieties of daffodils, and include one-of-a-kind, handmade floral mosaics. From the second weekend forward, an awe-inspiring 30 varieties of tulips will be in bloom, totaling more than 6.5 million bulbs in all the colours of the rainbow, planted in extra wide rows for easy viewing and convenient photo opportunities. Overall, there are 20 acres of spring beauty to behold.
Runs until: Sunday May 5, 2019

Dead Peoples Things

Dead Peoples Things
Where: Studio 16
What: Poignant and darkly comedic, the play follows Phyllis, a Millennial, who inherits a house and all of its contents after her estranged hoarder aunt commits suicide. She then must work with neighbour Beatrice, a Baby Boomer who has been named executrix, to try and make some sense of the life and death of a woman she barely knew, through the things she left behind. Based on true events, Dead People’s Things is a heartrending haunting that examines loneliness and the strange contradiction between belongings and belonging.
Runs until: Sunday May 5, 2019

Alana Paterson

Alana Paterson
Where:
Polygon Gallery
What: Direct, authoritative and empowering, images of a Squamish Nation youth basketball team by photojournalist Alana Paterson give voice to an emerging generation of Indigenous women and reveals the sense of strength, perseverance, and passion. This exhibition is produced in collaboration with the Capture Photography Festival.
Runs until: Sunday May 12, 2019

French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850-1950

French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850-1950
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Sixty paintings and sculptures from the Brooklyn Museum’s renowned European permanent and long-term loan collections. Identifying France as the artistic centre of international modernism from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, these works—which are diverse in subject matter, style and scale—were created by leading artists of the period, intended both for private collections and public display.
Runs until: Monday May 20, 2019

Affinities: Canadian Artists and France

Affinities: Canadian Artists and France
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Looking at the significance that French art and culture has held for Canadian artists over the past 120 years, this exhibition of works from the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Collection focuses on influences of Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Surrealism on Canadian artists during the first half of the twentieth century.
Runs until: Monday May 20, 2019

Counternarratives: Paintings by Archibald Fairbairn

Counternarratives: Paintings by Archibald Fairbairn
Where: Bill Reid Gallery
What: The watercolour paintings of Archibald Fairbairn (1888 – 1979) document the beauty of totem poles and communities during the early 20th century. This exhibition juxtaposes an idealistic painter’s postcolonial gaze with critical discourse from contemporary Indigenous voices.
Runs until: Sunday June 2, 2019

Displacement

Displacement
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: This exhibition comprises internationally acclaimed Victoria-based artist Mowry Baden’s work from the late 1960s to the present. Baden is known for producing intricate, sometimes humorous sculptural works and installations that borrow from the fields of perceptual psychology, science and architecture, and often solicit the audience’s participation.
Runs until: Sunday June 9, 2019

Deanna Bowen: A Harlem Nocturne

Deanna Bowen: A Harlem Nocturne
Where:
Contemporary Art Gallery
What: Deanna Bowen’s artistic practice concerns itself with overlooked histories of Black experience, often connected to her own family in Canada and the US. Mining archives and forgotten documents, she makes use of a repertoire of artistic gestures to bring traces of a complex, deeply personal and often violent past into public visibility. Bowen’s solo exhibition A Harlem Nocturne comprises two separate trajectories of new research that follow the artist’s maternal lineage in Canada.
Runs until: Sunday June 16, 2019

The Late Show – Adult Only Improv Comedy
Where:
The Improv Centre
What: Are you a grown-up? If you are, join us! This show takes the furry hand-cuffs off our improvisers to present edgy, uncensored improv comedy. With the aid of audience suggestions, our quick-witted improvisers create scenarios that explore mature themes, content and language. You never know how far this show will go and the audience are willing accomplices.
Runs until: June 29, 2019 (Saturdays)

Wild Things: The Power of Nature in Our Lives

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: July 2019

Moving Still: Performative Photography from India

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

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

Rolande Souliere: Frequent Stopping IV and V

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

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

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

Vancouver TheatreSports presents: The Late Show
Where:
The Improv Centre
What: Are you a grown-up? If you are, join late Saturday nights for The Late Show – Adult Only Improv Comedy. This show takes the furry hand-cuffs off our improvisers to present edgy, uncensored improv comedy. With the aid of audience suggestions, our quick-witted improvisers create scenarios that explore mature themes, content and language. You never know how far this show will go and the audience are willing accomplices.
Runs until:  Fall 2019

How Far Do You Travel

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

What are you up to this weekend? Tell me and the rest of Vancouver in the comments.

 

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