They say April showers bring May flowers; well hopefully it won’t rain all month! There are plenty of things to see and do this month and I’ve included a sampling of shows, festivals and events happening around the city below. Have a great Good Friday and a happy Easter everyone!
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In Wonderland
Apr. 7–16
Don’t be late for the Mad Hatter’s tea party! Follow Alice through the rabbit hole and discover a world that’s ‘curiouser and curiouser.’ To close the Gateway Theatre’s 2021–2022 season, they will host the B.C. premiere of In Wonderland. In this imaginative and contemporary retelling of Lewis Carroll’s classic novels, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, three actors fantastically portray the story’s iconic characters, transforming right before your eyes. You will be swept away by theatre magic, as the stage spectacularly metamorphosizes into a stunning visual realm. Revisit these timeless stories in a newly imagined way and be guided through a journey of self-discovery, as Alice reflects upon questions like “Who am I?” and “Where do I really want to be?”
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Chilliwack Tulip Festival
Apr. 11–May 1
If you’re heading out to the east, why not check out the Tulip Festival in Chilliwack this month? Launched in 2006, the Chilliwack Tulip Festival is the first attraction of its kind in the Fraser Valley – and it’s still the largest in B.C., with millions of Tulip bulbs blooming each year! Guests can roam among more than 20 acres of 25-plus Tulip varieties and over 16 types of Double Daffodils!
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Emerge on Main feat. Sapphire Haze: Cindy Kao and Aysha Dulong
Apr. 12, 7 p.m.
Emerge on Main shines a spotlight on two fast-rising musicians, Cindy Kao (violin) and Aysha Dulong (electronics). Together they form the duo Sapphire Haze, and they’ve already blown Music on Main audiences away with their mesmerizing piece “Asphyxiation” at the 10th Modulus Festival. The duo blurs the distinction between acoustic and electronic sounds, and they encourage us to listen with more than just our ears. Please check out the Music on Main website for tickets and programme information.
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Easter at the Cannery
Apr. 15–18
Bring the family down to Richmond for the Georgia Cannery’s annual “Easter at the Cannery,” a fun-filled family friendly weekend featuring crafts, story time, games and of course, the annual Easter Salmon Scavenger Hunt, all happening inside the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site. Throughout the day, they’ll have activities suitable for kids ages 2 to 6 years old, including the Easter Salmon “Egg” hunt! Hunts start every 30 minutes, beginning at 11 a.m. and ending at 3:30 p.m. All Easter hunt participants will receive an Easter treat for their efforts!
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Bach’s Mass in B minor
Apr. 17, 3 p.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor is the German composer’s epic summation of a lifetime of creating music. Written the year before he died, it is a massive amalgamation of pieces Bach wrote throughout his lifetime. The Mass in B minor showcases Bach’s full range of musical expression – from misery and gloom to joyful exultations of hope and happiness. Music lovers around the globe widely consider Bach’s Mass in B minor to be one of the most extraordinary accomplishments of any composer from any era, and the jewel of the Baroque era in particular.
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National Canadian Film Day
Apr. 20
The Ninth Annual National Canadian Film Day (NCFD) will take place coast to coast to coast on Wednesday, Apr. 20. With fingers and toes crossed, Reel Canada has invited hundreds of screening partners across the country to once again host live in-person events wherever local public health guidelines permit. And for those who are not yet at ease out in public (or who just prefer the couch) there will be plenty of online and broadcast events as well. For this year’s programming Spotlight, they will highlight the explosion of remarkable cinema by Indigenous filmmakers working in Canada. The spotlight will reflect a broad spectrum of styles and genres including: dramas, comedies, documentaries, coming-of-age stories, horror and science fiction. NCFD activities will also include a live-streamed panel featuring high profile Indigenous film professionals, providing audiences with insight into this profusion of talent and storytelling, and what it takes to bring these stories to the screen.
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Verses Festival of Words
Apr. 21–30
Verses Festival of Words is at it again! The Vancouver Poetry House is bringing together a broad intersection of poetic artists, including spoken word and page poets, storytellers, singer-songwriters and improvisers, to celebrate the power of the spoken word. This year’s festival combines poetry with music inspired by a rich cross-section of genres, from hip hop to folk, experimental music to 80’s glam rock. Featured artists at the festival include Rudy Fransisco, Kimmortal, Desiree Dawson, Titilope Sonuga, Savage Family, Veda Hille and Joseph Dandurand.
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Path of Miracles
Apr. 22, 7:30 p.m.
Joby Talbot is a versatile British composer who has written music for a variety of purposes and in a wide range of styles. His Path of Miracles from 2005 is an exciting choral work that describes the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, the Camino de Santiago. The texts are in several languages and the musical style reaches in many directions, balancing somewhere between traditional and novel. This work is a magnificent live experience and will be held at St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church.
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A Minaret for the General’s Wife
Apr. 22–July 31
In A Minaret for the General’s Wife, being hosted by the Richmond Art Gallery, the minaret becomes a metaphor for that peculiar and potent feeling of being corporeally out of place, for structures built in locations where they seemingly don’t belong, and for objects brought out of context –
in other words; displacement, appropriation and extractivism. In his search to uncover the origins of the Kėdainiai Minaret, Turkish-Canadian artist Erdem Taşdelen takes up these tensions through an array of disparate and tangentially related materials, assembling miscellanea in a web of relational and spatial collage. The resulting installation comprises archival photos, documents, replicas of artifacts, audiovisual material, a curious selection of objects and a book of vignettes from undisclosed origins.
